Shared technology tracks rats, mosquitoes and even criminals in Bermuda. It also keeps record of building maintenance and tax valuation and sharing crucial information with security services guarding the Island’s border entry points.

That at its simplest describes what the buzzword “interoperability” in government technology means at the most practical level.

The 8th Annual Microsoft West Indies Government Conference at Elbow Beach Hotel this week, the first to be jointly hosted with a country, has as its theme “Interoperability for a Connected Government”.

As high-ranking government officers directing e-commerce and internet direction from Bermuda to the Caribbean and Central America converged on the Island to share the latest innovations, they were also given cause to pause for thought by one of the oldest forms of mass communication — a strip of paper ripped from the Royal Gazette.

Microsoft’s Rick Marcet brandished the clipping at the start of the two-day conference. The “Today in History” item listed yesterday as the day in 1876 when Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone and the day in 1926 when the first trans-Atlantic radio-telephone conversation took place between New York and London.

“That relates to the conference theme of interoperability for connected Government — what a coincidence,” he told the gathering of chief information officers and chief technology officers.

Delegates met to listen to and speak with several world-leading experts on interoperability. Example of the benefits already evident include the new biometric e-passport project in the Bahamas, described as “a first for the western hemisphere, creating an integrated data base to connect immigration, police and ministry of foreign affairs allowing them to manage their borders”.

The new motor vehicle and driver’s licence solution in Trinidad and Tobago is allowing a sophisticated cross-ministry flow of work covering fraud management and analysis.

Premier Ewart Brown said the objective should not just be about creating an electronic version of government, but creating an efficient and effective public service.

“Our department of e-commerce not only helps ministries go online but assists them in applying the right technologies to improve their processes,” Dr. Brown said. “Many problems we face straddle departments and ministries. Officials from all these organisations need to share intelligence and insight.”

The Premier mentioned the inter-connectivity of various agencies involved in Bermuda’s border controls and a new initiative to map all the points where children come into contact with government through public service, education, medical or social service. By doing so Bermuda hopes not only to have a map of the many records generated but an insight into how to improve those interactions, processes and service.

“These examples highlight the need for information to flow horizontally across government, not just up and down the ministries. Technology can allow that,” he explained.

Microsoft’s public sector director for the Caribbean and Central America Rick Marcet said interoperability of information systems for citizens meant being able to access services at one-stop portals.

“For Government agencies it means integrating the data, applications and processes of various co-operating agencies and providing citizens with transparent, convenient and secure access to government resources.”

Telecommunication and E-Commerce Minister Neletha Butterfield gave a keynote address highlighting cross-ministry and cross-organisation networks employed on the Island such as the Geographic Information System (GIS).

Bermuda has been using this to produce computer-based maps to be used by civil servants, the public and businesses, including:

[bul] BermudaMaps.bm allowing the public to check addresses and locations and to find land valuation numbers.

[bul] BEHDS system allowing environmental health to map and control the occurrences of rats, mosquitoes and other pests.

[bul] GIS helps plan and manage maintenance of Government property, and administer and adjudicate planning applications. It is being deployed in the valuation of properties for tax purposes and Land Title registration.

[bul] The Bermuda Police Service uses an online map gazetteer to assist in crime prevention planning.

Ms Butterfield said: “All of these different GIS applications share a common platform and standards. While our digital maps are owned by the Government’s Survey Section, they are developed and managed by a cross-department committee. Its members are drawn from eight different departments.

“A core function of the GIS Committee is to promote inter-departmental co-ordination, a team working together to share insight, prevent duplication, maintain common standards and maximise the leverage of our technologies.

“The GIS initiative represents a good example of how we here in Bermuda are rising to meet the challenge of technology. Your deliberations over the coming days will likely cover many applications such as this, with insights from around the world.”

Technology conference