Emerging Tech Gains Ground as Pandemic Continues to Spread

Image: Shutterstock.com. Article by GT Editorial Staff / July/August 2020.

In the face of COVID-19, government agencies looked to drones, thermal sensing and other sometimes controversial tech to help track and trace the virus and maintain public health. Will a new-found open-mindedness last?

The onset of the novel coronavirus forced many who were reluctant to embrace technology into Internet-dependent remote work environments, virtual meetings and even to government websites in numbers never before seen. Chief information officers in state and local government that GT has interviewed over the past few months predict that the traditional way of working that tethered staff to physical buildings will never return. Maryland CIO Michael Leahy said in a virtual NASCIO panel in May that he’s seriously considering making the switch to telework permanent for all state IT personnel. So while the pandemic was most definitely unwelcome, it forced open some minds that had previously been closed to technology’s potential. […]

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