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Tech powers democracy in Virginia

Nelson Moe, Virginia’s chief information officer, has a lot of responsibilities, but he said at night he sleeps just fine. His job, he said, is to survey the landscape and realize that IT management is a long, measured process.

“What I look at from things I work on are making sure we set up a contractual framework that’s adaptable, both cloud and IT sourcing infrastructure, the processes and governance that allow agencies to adapt and seize the opportunities of technology at the pace of changes,” Moe said.

Virginia’s recent IT advancements include an “innovation center of excellence” and an eye toward the cloud. Whatever the state’s doing with IT, though, Nelson said he ultimately does it for one of America’s most treasured values: democracy.

“From a passion perspective, what really drives me, why I come to work is I realized at the end of the day, democracy … Democracy is realized and has specific impact and benefit when it gets down to the local level,” Moe explained. “And state government is the actual arm that provides those services. That’s what I find most engaging and the most driving need for me to come to work is to be a part of that.”

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