The cord Gerald Cunningham stretched above his head was 11.8 inches long. That’s the distance light travels in one billionth of a second – a nanosecond, Cunningham explained. An apt symbol for the speed of change that information technology and the Internet have brought to society.

Cunningham, a regional manager for Dell Computers, was the lead speaker in a morning filled with speakers who briefed the 50 invited county officials participating in NACo’s Information Technology Policy Summit, Nov. 12-13 in Cook County, Ill.