News & Updates
A Discussion with Hawai‘i’s First State Chief Data Officer
In 2022, Hawaiʻi joined the growing list of states with a Chief Data Officer (CDO) role, when Governor Ige signed Act 167 into law. Housed within the State of Hawaiʻi Office of Enterprise Technology Services, the CDO role “supports the the state’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) in overseeing a comprehensive state strategy to govern data capture, storage, maintenance, visualization, analysis, sharing, integration, and access that will drive transparency and customer satisfaction for the public.” Now six months in, we invited Hawaiʻi’s inaugural CDO, Rebecca Cai, to share insights about the role, the approach she envisions, and her experiences thus far.
The Chief Data Officer: An Opportunity For a New State Data Strategy
In Hawaiʻi, we now have the opportunity to appoint a Chief Data Officer (CDO) and data task force to create a strategic approach that leverages data to improve government efficiency, services, decision making, and policy. If set up well and leveraged appropriately, the CDO and data task force could have a significant impact on not only the effectiveness of our state government, but on all organizations that rely upon – or, are relied upon – by state government to serve the public interest at large.