Rosie Lombardi

In 2008, British Columbia will be launching one of the first pilots of virtual identity cards in North America, which will tackle to specific areas: allowing government employees to log onto Wi-Fi networks, and authenticating citizens to government Web sites. Other governments are said to be watching this pilot project closely.

Technology that allows different government entities to share resources and information horizontally opens vast new possibilities to improve services - but also butts squarely against traditional vertical silos of accountability. Governance structures are now being stretched in new directions to foster but control innovation.

Installations of digital video are growing at eye-popping rates. In 2006, the world market for network video surveillance products increased by 41.9 per cent, according to IMS Research, with the public sector as an avid adopter. Amid privacy concerns, the TTC is among those looking to adopt video technology to enhance security across its fleet of trains, buses and streetcars.

Rickety public transit systems are a prime target for multi-jurisdictional pooling of IT investments to develop gleaming new networks. In Ontario, the One Fare project was launched in June to develop a common contactless payment card system, dubbed Presto.

Although the public sector has begun to absorb recent advances in technology, such as voice over IP and service-oriented architectures, the stage is being set for yet another revolution. Wireless mobile devices are beginning to free citizens and government workers from the chains to their desks, and promise far-ranging impacts on economies and geographies.

The Ontario government's IT infrastructure has changed dramatically over the past 10 years. Slated for implementation in April 2008, a new five-year strategy plan aims to pin down performance management with a set of solid metrics. Expect more standardized operating environments and more consolidation.

Much homework and hard footwork is needed to drive a compelling case for a SOA project. At SIMS (a shared information management services provider), the strategy is to start with a universal service that's required across all departments or agencies. A project like linking IDs, for example, aligns with the province's broader business objectives to improve services.

The federal government supports SOA development across the public sector and has posted two documents outlining SOA strategy and a series primer. Gary Doucet, executive director of architecture for the CIO branch of Treasury Board Secretariat, says the concepts of SOA and service orientation overlap.