You Are Here: Work Groups/Areas of Interest
The 11 operating work groups form the nucleus of the organization's high-quality program design and efficient execution. They are led by productive teams of New York government and IT corporate leaders and are able to respond quickly and qualitatively to the education, policy, and research needs of New York's IT community. Leadership of The NYS Forum's Work Groups are volunteers from government and corporate organizations and the process for becoming a co-chair is available at: http://www.nysforum.org/committees/Co-ChairSel6-22-09.pdf.
For information on recent work group accomplishments and initiatives of the current year view Forum Work Groups Initiatives and Accomplishments.
IT Corporate Roundtable
The Forum's IT Corporate Roundtable was created in October 2001 to provide a productive context for IT corporations and Forum membership to pursue proactive communications and initiatives targeted on improved mutual understandings and communications and, ultimately, more efficient state procedures, products and services better aligned with New York State needs.
Cloud Computing
The NYS Forum created the Cloud Computing Work Group as a key initiative of its MetroNY initiative launched in the Fall of 2009. The purpose of the Work Group is to provide government IT leadership with learning opportunities related to the technologies, policies, benefits, risks, risk mitigation and costs associated with cloud computing. This Work Group will use webcasting as a way to involve and benefit state and local government IT leadership statewide.
IT Accessibility
The Forum founded the IT (Information Technology) Accessibility work group to raise awareness of these issues with the technology community, to encourage the development of sensible policies to address these issues, and to provide the technical training necessary to implement the policies.
Business Continuity
The objective of the Business Continuity work group is to work in collaboration with state and local agencies and representatives of the IT Corporate Roundtable to develop education and training opportunities and tools that address business continuance planning needs of New York's state and local government entities.
Emerging Technologies
The objectives of the Emerging Technologies Work Group (ETC) are to provide an avenue for government and commercial organizations to exchange information related to new technologies and facilitate the introduction, evaluation and sponsorship of topics relating to new and emerging technologies for consideration by The NYS Forum members.
IT Greening
This work group was created to provide a focal point for NYS Forum initiatives addressed to Governor Spitzer's "15 by 15" statewide energy conservation program. The work group will be developing educational programs, highlighting best practices and planning key events all focused on (1) how overall information technology energy consumption can be reduced, (2) how IT can be a tool for more efficiently managing state resources and operations to achieve reductions in energy consumption, (3) what can be considered during the acquisition and procurement of energy efficient information technology hardware, and (4) how to manage the end-of-life phase of the information technology life-cycle in an environmentally preferable manner.
IT Skills Development
The objectives of the IT Skills Development Work Group include promoting the exchange of ideas, knowledge and experiences among State agencies with respect to the operation of information resources, supporting human resource development and assisting members with solving or avoiding operational problems.
IT Procurement
The NYS IT Procurement Improvement work group was created to review and suggest enhancements to the IT procurement process and provide timely education and training.
Project Management
The Forum's Standing Work Group on Project Management was created to support government entities and government project managers as they implement project management standards and practices, Project Management Offices (PMO'S), and project portfolio management (PPM) within their organizations.
Security
The objective of the Security work group is to work in collaboration with state and local agencies to develop education and training opportunities and tools that address cyber security issues.
Small/Medium/Local Government Agency
The Small/Medium Agency SIG was created to focus on addressing the unique problems and concerns that arise, in part, due to the small size of the IT staff and the restricted IT budgets typical to small agencies. It was also created to provide a focal point for policy makers to access small agency perspectives and realities that should be reflected in new policies, laws and regulations.
Webmasters' Guild
The Webmasters' Guild was created to provide a means for those individuals within state and local government that have responsibilities for their agencies Web Sites to share ideas, issues, problem solutions and to suggest and/or develop education opportunities to benefit web development professionals.