Mission
The mission of the Information Services Department (ISD) is to connect employees within the County government and to connect residents to their government. The department strives to promote the effectiveness and efficiency of government and build stronger connections through reliable and secure infrastructure and applications, responsive service delivery, and greater transparency of information.
Our Community
San Mateo County is overall one of the wealthiest counties in the state, with high wages, relatively low unemployment, and premium real estate prices. Being in the heart of Silicon Valley, the culture of our community is infused by technology. Despite this, however, ours is a very diverse county – even though we have some of the wealthiest zip codes in the country, we also have very poor areas and many underserved communities. San Mateo County has both a highly-technical population that just expects to be connected everywhere and an underserved population that just needs to be connected. ISD’s mission to connect its government and community is an essential prerequisite to providing more and better critical services to our residents.
Technology Trends
We are living in an exciting time for information technology – it is an ever-changing landscape to which we need to continually adapt. Many of these trends include migration to cloud-based technologies, the growing “Internet of Things” as more and more devices can be connected, the primacy of mobile access, new social applications and media, the growing need to be able to analyze “big data,” and of course the growing security challenges – particularly for a public-sector entity – from all of these accelerating connections, data, and applications.
Our Focus
ISD builds these connections in three major ways – through infrastructure, services, and data.
Strong connections require a reliable and robust infrastructure, including robust and reliable computer networks, secure data centers, a reliable public safety radio infrastructure, and even publicly available WiFi access to the Internet.
As government is funded by taxpayer dollars, almost all information regarding government activities is available to the public and should be easily accessible. ISD believes that better data leads to better engagement by citizens as well as better decisions by policymakers. A central component of this effort is the County’s Open Data portal, which allows citizens to see performance metrics for all activities of the County government as well as consolidate other available data around the County.
All of the above cannot be delivered without expert and responsive services. ISD is responsible for supporting and keep current county-wide applications and infrastructure.
Supporting the County’s Mission
Based on the combination of:
- The needs of our residents, particularly in a region as interesting and diverse as ours;
- The role of the government to provide services to further the public good; and
- Technology trends and issues in the modern age;
it is imperative that government continually improve by better engaging with its residents, providing services more effectively and efficiently, and by empowering the public to better understand, use, and share information. ISD builds these connections – both within the County government as well as between the County and its residents – to help promote San Mateo County’s Shared Vision 2025 of a healthy and safe, prosperous, livable, environmentally conscious, and collaborative community.
Contact Us
ISD Reception:
(650) 363-4548
Reception Hours:
Monday - Friday: 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (holidays excepted)