The upcoming GMIS (Government Management Information Sciences) has teamed up with the University of North Carolina School of Government to offer UNC's CGCIO (Certified Government Chief Information Officers) program. It's an interesting approach to distance learning. Go to one conference, do distance learning for a year, go to the next conference, and receive the certification.Does it work? It works well enough that Shannon Tufts, the program's creator and leader, was recently named a "Top 25 Doer, Dreamer, and Driver" by Government Technology Magazine for her work on the program, among other achievements.

I like the CGCIO, in particular, because it seeks to plug what I think is a huge gap in IT education, particularly in government IT education. People who come up through the ranks in IT are typically very technical, and they make investments in technical training. Government is sometimes even worse, not investing in what can be perceived as "soft" or "optional" skill sets.

Leadership, project management, risk management, and governance don't get as much attention as they deserve either in IT in general, or government. This is where the CGCIO program fills in the cracks.

If you're interested in applying for the program, see UNC's web site.

Of course, GMIS 2010 will be a rollicking good time and a source of awesome, targeted, government IT information, if my experiences from last year's conference are any indicator. Topics this year besides the CGCIO program include Green IT, the challenges of dealing with personally-owned devices on a government network, and a keynote from Public Technology Institute's Alan Shark.

Hoping to see you there!