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Indiana Launches Statewide Productivity System

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the lots-of-docs-about-corn dept.

TaylorJo writes "Lt. Governor of Indiana Kathy Davis today unveiled a new technology program designed to give all Hoosiers free access to a full suite of computer software tools. The SimIndiana software permits residents to access their personal files and applications from any computer at any time. The software can be downloaded on the SimIndiana site, but requires Windows, and registration on the site, to use it. The program also provides an email address and remote storage on SimIndiana servers."

6 of 285 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The first step... by dilettante · · Score: 4, Informative
    I think the population of Indiana would start a civil war before they'd submit to being required to use a computer by the government. I mean, these are people who've rejected daylight savings time.

    -Another Former Hoosier

  2. Re:Might Shut Down by Kid+Brother+of+St.+A · · Score: 3, Informative
    They said on the Indianapolis tv news this morning that the service was going to be provided free of charge for the first two years, and then if the state government keeps it, it would be paid for by taxpayer dollars. Here's a link to the story in the Indianapolis Star. Nice quote at the end by a Purdue prof:
    The $6 million cost -- about $1 per Hoosier -- is being footed by SimDesk Technologies, which also has brought the technology to users in Houston and Chicago. The Houston-based firm has several Indiana investors, Davis said, and is partnering with Hewlett-Packard NonStop servers to provide the service. The program will be offered free for two years, Davis said. After that, the state will decide whether to continue it. Kyle Lutes, associate professor of computer science at Purdue University, said he hadn't heard of SimDesk but expressed skepticism at the program. It seems like a good deal, he said, but the company may be using the "crack dealer method of marketing -- give it to 'em free until they're addicted." Plus, he said, many of its features already are available for free online.
  3. Re:The first step... by cynic10508 · · Score: 3, Informative

    these are people who've rejected daylight savings time.

    The real conflict aren't the pesky farmers kicking up a fit. The conflict is certain areas of Indiana want to remain on central time (i.e. Lake County and Evansville) while the rest wants to go on eastern time. So the problems they face is drawing the lines to make enough people happen to get the vote passed.

  4. Seen this Before by techsoldaten · · Score: 5, Informative

    I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but I have experience with this company and this product and my experience was that they are far from perfect.

    They came into my daughter's school about a year ago promising the same thing - free applications, email and file storage. And the software seemed really nice - there is a word processor, a spreadsheet, an email client, etc.

    But there were also major issues with how the software worked (or, in some cases, didn't work). People had problems installing the software, performance problems after it was installed (the sim software ran as a memory-resident application from that point forward, which was a huge problem for older machines), crashes, and no one seemed to know how to uninstall the software once it was on the machine. Emails were not getting through, people had trouble retrieving files they thought they had saved (or perhaps the files were not being saved at all).

    After a 6 month pilot project we scrapped the program due to complaints from parents. The group participating in the program were some technically savvy parents, most of whom are capable of dealing with routine issues like file management and email. I wonder what will happen when a whoel state comes online and trys to use this stuff.

    M

  5. SimHouston by akpoff · · Score: 3, Informative
    We have the same thing in the City of Houston (as mentioned in the article about SimDesk). The city took an interesting route for granting access -- you have to have a library card to get in. All the public library have terminals for easy access as well as the SimHouston site.

    Going the public library route is pretty smart -- a lot of people who can't afford computers were already going to the library for information so this gives them easy access to a personal workspace and productivity tools. It also has the possible added benefit of increasing library use and hence funding. That said, I don't use it and nobody I personally know use it. No doubt because we all have computers at home and the fact the city hasn't done a great job of promoting it.

    Oh yeah, did I mention not wanting to keep all my email, wordprocessing, spreadsheet and contact information on a government server? I like knowing my data is on a computer I control. Before I seriously consider signing-up for any roaming desktop product I want all my data kept in an encrypted data store that I alone have the key for. Requiring a search warrant to access my data is a good procedural requirement but like the lock on my front door I want a physical barrier to keep out the curious and opportunistic.

  6. Re:I'll pass, thanks. by radulovich · · Score: 3, Informative

    Many people who use SimDesk share your concern about the privacy of their information. In fact, that is often a key reason why they use SimDesk (and one of the reasons I chose to work at SimDesk).

    SimDesk takes a lot of pride in developing secure products. One example of that is shown in how we do our file encryption.

    By default, all of your files that sit on our World Wide Server are encrypted with 128-bit AES encryption. This encryption is quite a bit stronger than the old DES and Triple-DES used by many other products. Please see question 15 on this FAQ from NIST for more details about the strength of AES - http://csrc.nist.gov/CryptoToolkit/aes/aesfact.htm l
    .
    For the record, our customers have the option of replacing it with something stronger, or even their own algorithm if they prefer. AES is our default because it is a proven algorithm which has undergone quite a bit of testing by people much smarter than I. This is why AES has been certified by NIST to replace DES - http://cio.doe.gov/ITReform/ArchitectureStandards/ stds_activity/FIPS197.htm.

    Further, the files are actually encrypted on your computer before they are even sent over the internet. This has a nice benefit - your files are stored on the World Wide Server in that same encrypted form. This protects your privacy by making your sensitive information that much more resistant to hackers.

    I invite you to read the white paper I wrote about our security at http://www.simdesk.com/thought_leadership/white_pa pers/pdf/security.pdf . We are always striving to make our products more secure, and we would appreciate any comments or suggestions that you might have.

    ===============
    Mark Radulovich, CISSP, NSA/IAM
    Director of Strategic Analysis
    SimDesk Technologies, Inc.