I had met Secretary Chopra once before, at Brian Moran's "bloggers' day" in Richmond. Since then, I had heard that Chopra was considered a "rising star" in Virginia politics. Certainly, he's smart, having graduated from Johns Hopkins (BA, 1994) and Harvard University (MA, 1997). He's also highly articulate, personable, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable about his area of responsibility. So I was definitely looking forward to the meeting at New Media Strategies.
By the way, the session was videotaped, so hopefully it will be available on the Secretary of Technology's website soon. In the meantime, I scribbled down some notes about the session.
*Chopra talked about how his job had three main parts: managing the Virginia state government's information technology infrastructure; using technology to advance broader goals/innovation; and helping to foster technology-related economic development in Virginia. He noted that at least 1 out of 3 new jobs being created in Virginia are technology releated.
*He described how Virginia had partnered with Google in order to -- as Gov. Kaine said back in April 2007 -- "provide easy, quick and intuitive citizen access to every government resource." This initiative cost the taxpayers of Virginia nothing, while -- as Google described it -- "mak[ing] it easier to search for hard-to-find public information on state government websites."
*He discussed his efforts towards achieving "business one stop" shopping, where someone wanting to start a business in Virginia doesn't have to search through a bunch of different websites (if they even know which ones to look at), but can simply go to one place, say they want to start a business, and be led efficiently through the process.
*Chopra emphasized the importance of broadband penetration, particularly in Southside and southwestern Virginia. The goal is to promote a "tech economy," not just limited to Virginia but throughout what Chopra called the "Chesapeake Crescent" region.
*On another subject, Chopra stated that our education system is fundamentally broken, even though Virginia has one of the best in the country.
*Finally, Chopra commented that the blogosphere focuses mostly on politics, not enough on policy stuff ("not as sexy"). I'd love to understand more fully what point the Technology Secretary was making, and I invite him to come on Raising Kaine anytime to talk about this or anything else he thinks is important. Also, it would be very helpful if we received more (any?) updates as to what the Secretary of Technology's office (or any other Virginia government office, for that matter) is up to. Frankly, I don't believe that most people in the room Thursday had ever heard of the excellent initiatives Secretary Chopra talked about Thursday. I know I hadn't. Another suggestion would be to update the Secretary of Technology website, which currently has news -- as far as I can tell -- updated only through early March 2008.
Anyway, it was an interesting meeting. Thanks to New Media Strategies for hosting it and to Secretary Chopra for an informative presentation.