Aloha isn’t just a tradition in Hawaii—it’s the law.
Section 5-7.5 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes, the Aloha Spirit Law, obligates all citizens and government officials to conduct themselves in accordance with the spirit of aloha.
Aloha comes from two Hawaiian words: “alo,” which means sharing, and “ha,” which means the breath of life. “It’s the sharing of life,” Hawaii comptroller Russ K. Saito said.
One could argue that central to the concept of sharing life is the sharing of information. The spirit of aloha has even permeated the Internet in Hawaii.
“People think we’re all lying out on the beach,” Saito said. “But I think we’re second to none on e-government.”
They’re Number 1
In a report last year, Broadband, Cable and Direct Broadcast Satellite Across the U.S., Hawaii ranked first among the 50 states in broadband penetration.
Leichtman Research Group Inc. of Durham, N.H., published the report. Bruce Leichtman, company president, said he came up with the findings by dividing the Federal Communications Commission’s raw numbers on broadband use by the number of households in each state, as provided by the Postal Service.
“Fifty-two percent of folks in Hawaii are using broadband Internet,” said Dan Morrison, general manager of Hawaii Information Consortium of Honolulu, a subsidiary of NIC Inc. of Olathe, Kan. Morrison is responsible for all e-government development for the state and its counties.
“You can’t drive to Maui from Honolulu,” Morrison said. “The Internet is the best way to connect. We recognized this from the early days.”
Geography plays an important role in Hawaiian government, perhaps more so than any other state’s. “Hawaii is the most isolated set of islands in the world,” Saito said.
A submarine fiber links the islands.
Hawaii’s isolation has been both a hindrance and a boon to technology. “When you’re this isolated, you tend to become more self-reliant,” he said.
For example, the state is building a disaster recovery site on Maui. The division thought about working with a disaster recovery company such as SunGard of Wayne, Pa. “We’re isolated in the middle of the ocean,” said Les Nakamura, chief of the Information and Communications Services Division. “Logistics were a tremendous handicap. Now we’re looking at doing something in-house. We’re going to use our island isolation as a security benefit.”
Although Hawaii has embraced the Internet with the true spirit of “ohana,” or family, it has been a bit wary of wireless technology.
Digg
De.licio.us
Slashdot
Technorati
