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China Information Technology Inc. Announces New Contract Wins – PR Newswire (press release)

Monday, March 28th, 2011

You are already following CNIT

SHENZHEN, China, March 28, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/ — China Information Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: CNIT), a leading total solutions provider of geographic information systems (GIS), digital public security technology (DPST) and digital hospital information systems (DHIS) in China, today announces contract wins worth US$3.3 million to provide its core DPST and GIS solutions.

The contracts secured include agreements to:

supply Police-use GIS and PDA equipment for the Shenzhen City Traffic Police Mobile Law-enforcement System. The Company’s technology will enable highly efficient allocation and management of traffic police resources, while the PDA handsets held by police officers on the ground will enhance faster processing of traffic concerns. The System is a main component of the city’s intelligent traffic solution and a critical tool in relieving Shenzhen’s challenging traffic problems;
install Police-use GIS platform in Jiaozuo and Hebi City of Henan Province under China’s National PGIS Standardization Project; and
build a First Responder Coordination System for Anxi City of Fujian Province. The System will facilitate centralized reporting, command and execution capabilities, and will integrate fire, traffic and general police response systems into one consolidated platform, enabling rapid response to emergencies.

“We continue to see strong demand for our core services and products in mission-critical projects across the country in 2011,” said Mr. Jiang Huai Lin, Chairman and CEO of the Company. “We are securing new and follow-on contracts due to our brand’s reputation, and the increasing recognition of our technology and information systems as standard-setters in the industries to which we provide our services. Our solid fundamentals and well-established growth strategy put us in a favorable position to capture opportunities resulting from China’s growing demand for GIS, DHIS, and IT for public safety. As such, we reaffirm our guidance for 2011, with projected revenue in the range from $165 million to $187 million, and adjusted net income in the range from $42 million to $45 million. We will continue to execute on our business plans throughout the year.”

About China Information Technology, Inc.

China Information Technology, Inc., through its subsidiaries and other consolidated entities, specializes in geographic information systems (GIS), digital public security technology (DPST) and digital hospital information systems (DHIS), with the goal of being the largest GIS software provider in China. Headquartered in Shenzhen, China, the Company’s integrated solutions include specialized software, hardware, systems integration, and related services to help its customers improve efficiency in information management. To learn more about the Company, please visit its corporate website at http://www.chinacnit.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release may contain certain “forward-looking statements” relating to the business of China Information Security Technology, Inc., and its subsidiary companies. All statements, other than statements of historical fact included herein are “forward-looking statements” including: the significance of the contract wins to the Company’s business and the Company’s ability to successfully fulfill its obligations under the contracts; the general ability of the Company to achieve its commercial objectives; the Company’s growth prospects, the business strategy, plans and objectives of the Company and its subsidiaries; and any other statements of non-historical information. These forward-looking statements are often identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “believes,” “expects” or similar expressions, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, they do involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties, and these expectations may prove to be incorrect. Investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company’s actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including those discussed in the Company’s periodic reports that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on its website (http://www.sec.gov). All forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these factors. Other than as required under the securities laws, the Company does not assume a duty to update these forward-looking statements.

SOURCE China Information Technology, Inc.

China Information Technology Inc. Announces New Contract Wins – PR Newswire (press release)

Monday, March 28th, 2011

You are already following CNIT

The contracts secured include agreements to:

About China Information Technology, Inc.

Safe Harbor Statement

SOURCE China Information Technology, Inc.

Smart grid information technology: IBM launches cloud-based smart metering – Smart Grid News

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

Quick Take:Though many U.S. utilities remain indifferent or outright hostile, technology companies large and small continue to promote the cloud as the best way to host next-generation data processing. IBM is the latest with today’s announcement of a program that will ultimately host 50 million smart meters in the UK.

That’s a lot of smart meters, considering that only a few U.S. utilities even approach 5 million. Once up and running, this partnership with Cable&Wireless Worldwide should go a long way to proving that cloud-based computing is a safe option. – Jesse Berst

IBM and Cable&Wireless Worldwide are collaborating to develop a new intelligent communications and data solution, UK Smart Energy Cloud, to support the UK’s smart meter implementation program, which is expected to roll out more than 50 million meters throughout the country.

The point of the UK Smart Energy Cloud is to give a complete overview of energy use in the country and make smart grid implementation easier. IBM’s smart grid experience and its proven enabling software and middleware will be supported by C&W Worldwide’s extensive and secure next-generation network and communications capabilities. And as more meters and functionality come into play, the UK Smart Energy Cloud will be able to grow too, without replacing or significantly modifying it. The solution is expected to provide for more accurate billing, greater smart grid functionality and other benefits.

There’s plenty of incentive for the cloud initiative: One in four UK power plants will close by the end of the decade and its gas production is expected to drop by half, while electricity demand is anticipated to increase by over 50% by 2050. And, the government plans to cut emissions by 80% in the same time frame. Smart meters and the smart grid are major steps to a new energy future for the country, one that IBM says could improve the way energy is distributed and consumed.

“With this collaboration, we can provide the UK with a flexible, intelligent solution based on proven technology. We can support the national Smart Meter Implementation Programme and help communities become smarter, more connected and in turn, more sustainable,” said Laurence Carpanini, director of smart meters and smart grids for the UK and Ireland.

Health information technology ‘control tower’ could improve earthquake response

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

ScienceDaily (Mar. 21, 2011) — A new study published by researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College and the University of California, Davis, foresees improvements in patient outcomes after a major earthquake through more effective use of information technology. A control tower-style telemedicine hub to manage electronic traffic between first responders and remote medical experts could boost the likelihood that critically injured victims will get timely care and survive, according to the team’s computer simulation model.

“Since its introduction in the 1970s, telemedicine — the electronic linkage of health care providers and recipients — has held promise for improved disaster response outcomes. As information technology becomes pervasive, we want to ensure that systems are in place to fully realize its potential for helping patients — particularly for emergency response,” says study senior author Dr. Nathaniel Hupert, associate professor of public health and medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and co-director of the Cornell Institute for Disease and Disaster Preparedness.

The team’s results, published in the Journal of Medical Systems, show that introducing telemedicine linkages between remote specialists and immediate responders in the aftermath of a widespread disaster like an earthquake could decrease both patient waiting times and hospitalization rates at nearby hospitals, while increasing the likelihood that patients with life-threatening injuries receive appropriate care — as compared with standard emergency department-based triage and treatment.

These findings demonstrate the power of interdisciplinary approaches to complex issues at the border between medicine, public health and logistics, says study lead author Dr. Wei Xiong, assistant professor of public health at Weill Cornell Medical College. “We applied engineering methods more commonly used to analyze queuing systems like telephone call centers and road traffic planning to look at how to effectively manage this new type of emergency medical care.”

“We know that when disasters strike, local hospitals, clinics and medical personnel can be completely overwhelmed,” says co-author Dr. Aaron Bair, associate professor of emergency medicine and interim director of the UC Davis Center for Health and Technology. “We focused on testing how telemedicine can expedite response, enabling help to get to where it is needed in a relatively short timeframe. Our results show telemedicine improves emergency care at the disaster site — providing care for more patients sooner, reducing waiting times for treatment and permitting more efficient use of scarce medical resources.”

According to the study’s principal investigator, Dr. Christian Sandrock, an assistant professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at UC Davis School of Medicine and a county public health officer in Northern California, high-speed telecommunications links would offer critical benefits for emergency teams when they are responding to a disaster. “We think telemedicine can reduce mortality rates following a disaster by bolstering medical triage capabilities of emergency care providers.” He adds, “By helping disaster victims avoid the time it takes to be transported to a designated area for treatment, telemedicine can enable medical teams to actually spend more time caring for patients, so you save lives.”

Telemedicine technology is already being tested in the emergency medicine setting. One system of “medical kiosks” in Australia makes use of webcam-equipped laptops, satellite terminals and telemedicine equipment — including ECG monitors and blood pressure equipment — to allow physicians to remotely assess patients and give medical advice. The current study focuses on how to manage the multiple data streams resulting from use of such technology in the setting of a mass-casualty disaster like an earthquake.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by New York- Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center/Weill Cornell Medical College.

Journal Reference:

Wei Xiong, Aaron Bair, Christian Sandrock, Sophia Wang, Javeed Siddiqui, Nathaniel Hupert. Implementing Telemedicine in Medical Emergency Response: Concept of Operation for a Regional Telemedicine Hub. Journal of Medical Systems, 2010; DOI: 10.1007/s10916-010-9626-5

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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New technology makes government information more useful – San Jose Mercury News

Monday, March 21st, 2011

Governments have learned a cheap new way to improve people’s lives. Here is the basic recipe: Take data that you and I have already paid for a government agency to collect, and post it online in a way that computer programmers can easily use it. Then wait a few months. Voila! The private sector gets busy, creating websites and smartphone apps that reformat the information in ways that are helpful to consumers, workers and companies.

Not surprisingly, San Francisco, with its proximity to Silicon Valley, has been a pioneer in these efforts. For some years, Bay Area transit systems had been tracking the locations of their trains and buses via onboard GPS. Then someone got the bright idea to post that information in real time. Thus the delightful app Routesy was born. Install it on a smartphone, and the app can tell you that your bus is stuck in traffic and will be 10 minutes late — or it can help you realize that you are standing on the wrong street, dummy. It gives consumers a great new way to find out when and where the bus is coming, and all at minimal government expense.

Another example involves weather data produced by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. The forecasts you find on the Weather Channel, or on the evening news or online, use the agency’s information. Again, the government produces and releases raw data, and the private sector transforms it into something useful for the public.

Several other

departments in the Obama administration are looking to expand the use of such techniques. On Data.gov, you will find huge amounts of downloadable data that had heretofore been inaccessible. As a sign of the importance that President Barack Obama has attached to this approach, he put it on the government’s agenda on Jan. 21, 2009, his second day in office. (Disclosure: My book, “Nudge,” published in 2008, advocated this broad idea; Cass R. Sunstein, co-author of the book, is now administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.)

Now the administration is pushing to use this concept as a tool for regulation, and as a method of avoiding more heavy-handed rule-making. The idea is that making things more transparent can immediately turn consumers into better shoppers and make markets work better. One might think such an initiative would receive nearly universal support — after all, who could be against openness and transparency? But it turns out that some people are.

The Department of Transportation is considering a new rule requiring airlines to make all of their prices public and immediately available online. The postings would include both ticket prices and the fees for “extras” like baggage, movies, food and beverages. The data would then be accessible to travel websites, and thus to all shoppers.

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Technology rapidly changing the way citizens access public information

Saturday, March 19th, 2011

HICKORY –

Terry Bledsoe’s grin widens and his eyes get a little brighter when he talks about how fast technology is changing and how exciting it is to be part of it.

He also rattles off a list social media sites that allows the county to get information out to its residents.

Bledsoe is the chief information officer for Catawba County. He’s the guy that oversees all the technology and social media sites for the county.

With the advances in cell phone technology and other devices, how people are getting their information has changed. The newest cell phones and devices such as tablet computers allow people to get massive amounts of information at their fingertips.

And local governments are trying to keep up.

While Catawba County was one of the first in the state to have a website and one of the first to have a Facebook page, the county isn’t alone.

Even the town of Catawba, which boasts around 600 residents, is using as many different formats to get information out to the public. Some local governments are also looking at the latest technology as a way to cut costs.

As part of Sunshine Week, the Hickory Daily Record looked at how technology and social media have affected public access to local governments. The goal of Sunshine Week is to increase access to governmental records and proceedings.

Dissemination of information

Catawba County uses social media sites Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and Foresquare. The county uses Twitter to get out information on things such as wrecks or weather-related notices and its Facebook page has around 2,283 people who “like” the page, Bledsoe said.

The county started its website in 1997, said Dave Hardin, public information officer for the county. Counties, cities and towns put meeting agendas, budgets, ordinances and permits on their websites. Catawba County residents can even pay their property taxes from the county’s website.

But through its social media sites, the county has been able to reach more people without duplicating its efforts and without increasing its staff, Hardin said.

A website and the social media sites give the county the ability to reach all demographics, Bledsoe said. He said the information the county puts out is hitting populations that it might not otherwise be able to reach.

While some may still prefer paper agendas or agenda packets for meetings, Hardin said they recognize the generations coming along expect to get its information in electronic form.

“If we don’t use social media, we’re missing a larger piece of the pie,” Hardin said.

Local cities such as Hickory, Newton and Conover also have Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages.

Matt Lail, a spokesman for the North Carolina League of Municipalities, said more and more cities and towns are using social media sites to post meeting notices, fast-breaking news, permit application deadlines and road conditions.

Lail said there is a computer program that sends information posted on a city’s or town’s website to its social media sites and posts the same information there. It saves time and money, he said.

Lail said sometimes government is slow to pick up new technology but local governments have seemed to really embrace social media.

Even the smallest towns in the area are getting in on the act.

The town of Catawba is trying to use all the methods available.

Catawba Town Manager Brian Barnett said he has started putting agendas in video form and posting them on the town’s website. The first video is of only Barnett’s voice, along with some text, telling people what is on the town council’s upcoming meeting agenda.

Barnett said he figures it might be easier for someone to listen to what’s on an agenda than to have to read it.

“It’s just another way for us to engage our citizens,” Barnett said about the video. He plans to put future agendas in video format.

Barnett said he would like to put the town’s budget on video.

“I kind of convinced the council that we shouldn’t let our size prevent us from using the technology that’s out there,” Barnett said.

The town also has a Facebook and Twitter account. Barnett said the town is looking at getting a YouTube page as well.

“It’s like I told the council, there’s no reason we can’t utilize technology just because we’re small,” Barnett said. “That’s no excuse.”

While it’s cheaper for local governments to get agendas to its residents in an electronic format, paper agendas are available for those who want one.

New wave of technology

Traditionally, city and town councils and county commissioners have received thick meeting agenda packets that include supplemental information about issues on which they’re expected to decide. Budgets are even thicker.

New technology has helped cut down on some of the paper copies. Hardin said two years ago the county was putting together 28 paper agenda packets. Now, it’s down to eight, he said.

And some local governments could cut the number even further. The county and the city of Newton are both looking into the possibility of buying electronic tablets such as an iPad.

Newton staff made a presentation to the city council recently about paper verses tablets. According to a cost analysis, the city spends $4,273.60 on average a year on paper agendas and packets. Newton holds about 20 meetings a year. The cost includes printing, binding, staff time and delivery, according to information from the city.

The cost of an Apple iPad with built-in Wi-Fi is around $500, the information says. Newton has seven city council members.

Newton Town Manager Todd Clark said staff made the presentation but the council didn’t respond.

The county is testing tablets now, Bledsoe said. He said he’s been asked to make a presentation about tablets to commissioners.

The county also has done a preliminary cost analysis on what it spends on paper agendas, agenda packets and audits, binding, postage and labor. The cost is estimated at $5,757 a year.

Bledsoe said it would take a year for the county to see a cost savings to convert from paper to tablets. Hardin said the county won’t make the transition unless a clear cost savings can be realized.

Bledsoe has a tablet, and he carries it with him everywhere. He said it’s much more convenient than a bulky paper notebook, and he said security is much better than paper copies of a document. He said if a paper document falls out of a notebook, for instance, and is lost, someone else has access to that information. He said if someone were to lose an electronic tablet they could make one phone call to his department and all the information on that tablet could be wiped out.

Todd McGee, spokesman for the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners, said he thinks there’s a trend in the state of counties moving away from using paper to getting commissioners laptops to call up agendas and associated information. While he didn’t have any numbers on how many are doing it, he said he hears from counties who say, “We’re doing this or we’re doing that,” when it comes to using technology. He said while going from paper to electronics might not save a whole lot of money for counties, it can save on things such as staff time, as well as saving on natural resources.

While local governments move more away from paper, it doesn’t mean they’re ready to abandon the method that has served them and the public well for all these years.

Hardin said he’s keeping his feet planted in both the old and the new. The county still does traditional news releases, paper agendas and its information talk telephone line.

But no matter how the information is presented, if a person doesn’t read it or notice it, local governments still aren’t reaching that person, Hardin said. It’s up to the individual to access the information that’s out there.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Daily news portal

Posts Tagged ‘Information’

China Information Technology Inc. Announces New Contract Wins – PR Newswire (press release)

China Information Technology Inc. Announces New Contract Wins – PR Newswire (press release)

Smart grid information technology: IBM launches cloud-based smart metering – Smart Grid News

Health information technology ‘control tower’ could improve earthquake response

New technology makes government information more useful – San Jose Mercury News

Technology rapidly changing the way citizens access public information

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