Nextgov/FCW - Authors - Brian Kalish

DOT Video Drives Home the Toll of Distracted Driving

Brian Kalish — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 11:53:49 -0500

The Transportation Department this week released its latest video aimed at putting an end to the "tragic consequences of texting and cell phone use while driving."

The video is the eighth in DOT's "Faces of Distracted Driving" series, which was launched in October 2010 to dramatize the often deadly consequences of texting or talking on a cell phone while driving. In 2009, nearly 5,500 Americans died and 500,000 were injured in accidents involving a driver distracted by texting, talking or other such activities. The numbers are not statistics, but rather parents who lost children and children who lost parents, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in January .

In the new video released Tuesday, Miss South Dakota Loren Vaillancourt talks about losing her then 21-year-old brother Kelson in May 2009. In the accident, Kelson was riding with a co-worker to a job site. The co-worker was distracted, failed to yield at a stop sign and drove into oncoming traffic, where his vehicle was struck by a tractor-trailer. Kelson died the following day.

"I applaud Loren for the work she is doing to raise awareness about the deadly cost of distracted driving," LaHood said. "I hope that everyone who hears Loren speak about the tragic loss of her brother Kelson will remember to keep their eyes on the road and their hands on the wheel."

LaHood has been on a self-proclaimed "rampage" to discourage distracted driving for nearly two years.

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At the 'Bleeding Edge' of Public Safety

Brian Kalish — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 15:42:03 -0500

The need for public safety agencies to have interoperable radios is well-documented. In January the Federal Communications Commission unanimously approved an order that would establish interoperability standards for a nationwide public safety communications network.

First responders rely heavily on scarce and shrinking VHF spectrum as well as complex radios, said John Santo, executive director of Customs and Border Protection's wireless systems program office. One of the biggest challenges, he said, is that his agents cannot see what they are responding to.

New technologies necessary for interoperable systems are sometimes called "bleeding edge," since there is a risk in using them. But for public safety, that includes real blood, because first responders usually respond to life-threatening situations, said John Powell, interoperability chair of the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council, during an all-day FCC forum on Friday that addressed various interoperability issues.

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Some tax preparers continue to resist the IRS e-filing system

Brian Kalish — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0500

As the Internal Revenue Service pushes taxpayers to file more returns electronically, tax preparers continue to face challenges with the e-filing system, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

The 1998 IRS Restructuring and Reform Act required that 80 percent of tax returns be filed electronically by 2007, but the IRS missed that target. The agency then began modernizing its legacy e-filing system in 2004 and the deadline was extended until 2012. This year, preparers who expect to file more than 100 individual, trust or estate returns must do so electronically; in 2012, the e-file mandate will apply to all paid preparers who file 11 or more returns.

Electronic filing is a critical component of modernizing the IRS, GAO said. The report, released Monday, was prepared at the request of Sens. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.

"IRS has made significant progress increasing e-filing rates," the report said. "But it still has a way to go until it reaches its 80 percent goal." In 2010, 71 percent of all tax returns were filed electronically, according to a January GAO report.

Although the IRS has taken several steps to implement the e-file mandate, including communicating the details and publishing the proposed regulations, professional preparers raised concerns regarding the timing, wrote auditor James R. White, director of tax issues at GAO.

Preparers were required by Jan. 1 to obtain preparer tax identification numbers, which allows the IRS to identify individuals responsible for filing returns, and ensure they are compliant with the law. Firms that employ the preparers are required to have a separate electronic filing identification number.

Tracking multiple ID numbers might raise administrative costs for the IRS. GAO recommended agency officials determine if it would be practical and cost-effective to use preparer's identification numbers as the authorizing number for e-filing.

Preparers can request hardship waivers for the e-file requirement by submitting Form 8944, but GAO recommended the IRS add a sentence to the form explaining the benefits of electronic filing.

In response to the report, IRS Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement Steven T. Miller agreed with GAO's recommendations.

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GSA strives to be 'green proving ground' for net-zero energy use

Brian Kalish — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0500

With all new government buildings required to be net-zero -- or to produce as much energy as they consume -- by 2030, the General Services Administration has begun converting some existing facilities to attain net-zero usage in an effort to learn what works and what does not. It aims to emerge as a "green proving ground" for other agencies and the private sector, a senior GSA official told Nextgov.

President Obama signed Executive Order 13514 in October 2009 setting sustainability goals for federal agencies and requiring them to submit a greenhouse pollution reduction target by 2020. The order reminded agencies of the existing requirement that buildings be designed to achieve net-zero energy use by 2030, and mandated all new building projects that enter the planning phase after 2020 be designed to meet that standard as well.

The new norm in the future will be net-zero, and GSA is starting down that path, said Steve Leeds, the agency's senior sustainability officer. GSA has announced plans to convert two existing buildings to net-zero status. One is the Wayne Aspinall Federal Building and Courthouse in Grand Junction, Colo., which will become the nation's first net-zero historic building when renovations are complete in 2013.The second is the San Ysidro Land Port of Entry in California, the nation's busiest border crossing, which will be net-zero by 2014. When those two federal buildings are complete, they will bring to eight the number of net-zero buildings nationwide both private and public, Leeds said.

GSA is uniquely positioned to undertake these projects and lead by example, Leeds said. "We are testing out technologies that will allow us to show the private sector how things work," he added. "We're in every state and therefore we're in every weather condition that could exist."

Because of the agency's size, failure at an individual building is considered acceptable. "Our denominator is large," Leeds said. "If we try something and it doesn't work, we absorb the risk so that other federal agencies take a look at what we're doing and learn from that."

In fact, the agency expects to fail sometimes. "Whenever you innovate, you take risk and when you take risk you fail from time to time," he said. "They key is to fail fast, fail forward and fail futility so you learn your lessons, don't re-create that, learn from it and move on. . . . That's what this is all about."

After the courthouse and port of entry projects, there will be future federal net-zero renovation plans, though the exact number is unclear. "We're constantly evaluating additional opportunities," Leeds said. "Think of that as a living lab. . . . It's, how do we get to where we need to be? You always have to start and move on."

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DHS extends Real ID compliance date to January 2013

Brian Kalish — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The Homeland Security Department on Monday extended until 2013 the deadline for states to comply with costly and controversial new requirements for drivers' licenses.

In 2005, Congress passed the Real ID Act, which prohibits federal agencies from accepting for official purposes drivers' licenses that fail to meet enhanced security features. Initially the requirement was to go into effect May 11, 2008, and was later extended to May 11, 2011. DHS, in a notice in Monday's Federal Register, further extended the deadline to Jan. 15, 2013.

DHS said in the notice that the date was extended for a number of reasons, including state budget cuts resulting from the economic downturn and the possibility that Congress might modify some requirements of Real ID.

"As a result of these factors, and because of the significant progress many states are making toward achieving full compliance, DHS believes that a change of the full compliance deadline from May 11, 2011, to Jan. 15, 2013, is warranted," the notice said. "This change will give states more time to ensure that the documents they issue meet the security requirements of the Real ID Act."

Sen. Partrick Leahy, D-Vt., applauded the move and said the law has "saddled the states with enormous costs and burdened citizens with the prospect of what effectively would be a national identification card."

"When so many states are struggling with extremely difficult budget choices, the last thing they need is to think about how to pay for this unfunded federal mandate," Leahy said in a statement. "I expect that the delay announced by [Homeland Security] Secretary [Janet] Napolitano will come as welcome news to many governors, legislatures and citizens."

Rep. Peter King , R-N.Y., blasted the delay as unnecessary and pointed to the arrest of a terrorism suspect in Texas last month as proof that DHS "needs to dedicate time and resources to working with states to be compliant with the law."

"It is unacceptable that the Obama Administration has done everything possible to delay and scale back the implementation of real ID," King said in a statement.

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CBP: Trolling eBay for Communications Parts

Brian Kalish — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 17:27:38 -0500

The need for public safety agencies to have interoperable radios is well-documented. But for Customs and Border Protection, their legacy communications infrastructure is so antiquated that in some cases they are buying parts through the online auction site eBay.

That's according to John Santo, executive director of the CBP's wireless systems program office, part of the Homeland Security Department. Santo was discussing interoperability at a forum sponsored by the Federal Communications Commission Friday.

Nonetheless, he said having been in law enforcement for more than 30 years, he is "really encouraged by the momentum that's growing around" have interoperability standards.

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ICE Tackles Internet Piracy in Texas

Brian Kalish — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 15:33:18 -0500

The feds are getting tough with online crime. On Thursday, agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested one Texan for pirating broadcasts of live sporting events and announced the sentencing of another in a software piracy conspiracy.

Bryan McCarthy, 32, of Deer Park, Texas, allegedly operated channelsurfing.net, which he used to streamline live, copyrighted sporting events over the Internet. The site was seized by federal authorities on Feb. 1. According to the criminal complaint the site was an online portal for pirated sports events from the National Football League, National Basketball Association, and National Hockey League, among others. The website also contained links to various live television channels.

McCarthy, who has been charged with one count of criminal infringement of a copyright, made $90,000 in profits from online merchants advertising on the site, according to an ICE press release. The site had 1.3 million hits since being shut down. If convicted, McCarthy faces a maximum of five years in prison.

"Brian McCarthy allegedly sought to profit by intercepting and then streaming live sporting events, hiding behind the anonymity of the internet to make a quick buck through what is little more than high-tech thievery," said Preet Bhara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, in a prepared statement. "This arrest sends a clear message that this office, working with its partners at HSI, will vigorously protect valuable intellectual property rights through arrests and domain name seizures."

Also Thursday, David Fein, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, said 46-year-old Michael Uszakow, who went by the alias "iced," was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay a fine of $2,000 for his involvement in an underground online community that used the Internet to engage in large-scale distribution of copyrighted software, video games, movies, music files and other protected material.

Participants in the "warez scene" worked as "crackers" to break the digital copyright protections of material while others distributed the software to file storage sites on the Internet. According to Fein, Uszakow uploaded and downloaded thousands of files from the warez server known as Nite Ranger Hideout.

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An app for that? iPads can replace paper maps in the cockpit, FAA says

Brian Kalish — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The Federal Aviation Administration has approved Apple's iPad as an alternative to paper aeronautical charts for all phases of a flight.

Electronic flight materials are nothing new, according to FAA, but this is the first time iPad technology has been approved as a substitute for paper maps, including flight plans and airport diagrams, such as runways and taxiways.

FAA-approved iPad applications were developed by Englewood, Colo.-based Jeppesen, and are being used by Executive Jet Management, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NetJets, which provides worldwide charter and aircraft management services.

The iPad and the apps underwent testing on more than 250 flights with 55 pilots on 10 different aircraft models and had to be approved by FAA. An integrated dimming capability to support night or low-light flying was added during testing.

"This serves as a model for how the FAA can be engaged in working through a challenge and defining a solution that moves the industry forward safely and effectively," Jeppesen's Chief Executive Officer Mark Van Tine said in a prepared statement that praised the "exceptional collaboration" between the two companies and FAA.

Testing included rapid decompression and noninterference with other flight systems. In the event of a device failure, operators have backup systems, Jeff Buhl, Jeppesen senior manager for enterprise solutions, said in an e-mail.

Should one device fail, the co-pilot would have an iPad as well, FAA spokesman Les Dorr said. The devices are required to be able to draw power from the aircraft, so the iPad's power would not run out during a long flight.

When asked if iPads, which can be loaded with numerous games and applications, could be a potential distraction for pilots, Dorr reiterated FAA rules that pilots are not supposed to be using the devices for activities unrelated to flight. In October 2009, a Northwest Airlines jet overshot Minneapolis's airport by 150 miles and the pilots told investigators they were distracted by using airline software on their laptops.

Jeppesen said iPad is more cost-efficient and smaller than other electronic flight material bundles. An iPad costs $499, and the most basic application and service packages start at $76 a year, while comparable flight bags, including a laptop or other electronic device, could cost upwards of $20,000 per device, Buhl said.

The company expects other carriers to use the iPad rather than paper maps and other electronics. A select group of Alaska Airlines pilots are testing iPads, according to the company and FAA. The airline has not decided to use the technology yet and declined further comment, pending initial results.

Jeppesen photo

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GSA to stop funding D.C.-area private telework centers

Brian Kalish — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The General Services Administration will discontinue funding for 13 private telework centers in the Washington area at the end of March. About 300 federal employees work at the facilities.

Contracts for the telework centers expired Sept. 30, 2010, and GSA had been working with the center's owners to determine if they would close, or continue to operate under a private sector model. A final decision on the centers' future was due Feb. 28.

According to GSA spokeswoman MaryAnne Beatty, the number of employees working at the centers represented less than 1 percent of the Washington-area federal workforce. The government spent about $3 million annually to operate the centers -- about $10,000 a year per user. Affected employees were notified in December of potential closures.

GSA said in an e-mailed statement that telework is less about where work gets done and more about how it gets done. "Advancements in technology, connectivity and culture have expanded the choices for telework beyond that of home, telework center, or office to include virtually any place at any time," the statement said.

In October 2010, Administrator Martha Johnson announced that GSA was building virtual meeting centers across the country, including five in the Washington area. The high-tech centers, which are expected to be operational in mid-2011, were intended to have people "move off airplanes and on to tele presence," she said at the time.

The telework centers that will close March 31 include Bowie, Laurel Lake and Prince Frederick in Maryland; Fredericksburg and Winchester in Virginia; and Kearneysville in West Virginia.

The centers that will remain open but without GSA funding include Manassas, Fairfax, Stafford and Woodbridge in Virginia; and Hagerstown, Frederick and Waldorf in Maryland.

The College of Southern Maryland operates three of the centers that will close. "The college is extremely disappointed as we have had a longtime association, since 1993, of partnering with GSA to provide this valuable service and convenience to our residents and telecommuting members of our community," CSM President Bradley Gottfried said in a prepared statement.

George Mason University, despite the end of federal funding, will keep its telecommuting facilities open and actually expand the program to operate nine centers across Northern Virginia. The university believes there is a demand for flexible locations among employees for whom working from home is not a great fit, said Keith Segerson, managing director of the Mason Enterprise Center, which runs the facilities. For example, one federal worker told Segerson his wife runs a day care from home, so he cannot work there. Also, the facilities can more easily accommodate work teams than most home offices, he said.

The university will add new features, such as workstations and private offices, Segerson said.

Because the university is a state agency, the space is leased out at a price for the university to break even, not make a profit. Beginning April 1, the daily rate for a federal flex office center client is $59 per day, with lower prices for extended group usage, according to a memo provided to Nextgov.

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NASA hosts 'Tweetups' to spread the word about its missions

Brian Kalish — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0500

As the space shuttle program winds down, NASA is turning to users of the social networking site Twitter to help document the last launches and to spread the word about the agency's future endeavors.

Tweetups, as they are known, bring together 15 to 150 Twitter users for a behind-the-scenes experience at NASA facilities nationwide. The two-hour to two-day events give attendees personal access to scientists, engineers, astronauts and managers. In turn, the attendees share their observations with followers, who could number in the millions. To date, NASA has hosted 15 Tweetups at six locations ranging from New York to California.

The program has "been wildly successful," said Stephanie Schierholz, NASA's social media manager. "It [gives attendees] an opportunity to interact with their space agency. . . . It's been a great way for us to engage" the public.

During the initial October 2010 launch window for the space shuttle Discovery, for instance, NASA hosted 150 Tweeters at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Their Tweets reached close to 2 million people, according to the agency.

"NASA can't accommodate hundreds of thousands at a launch," Schierholz said. "We can accommodate 150, [and] if they share with their network, it's more interesting to follow a friend, than to follow the [official] @NASA account," which has about 850,000 followers.

Prospective Tweeters register online and are selected randomly. They must pay their own way to the events and cover their own lodging and meal expenses.

Schierholz said NASA has been surprised by the high worldwide interest in the Tweetups. A man from Spain flew in to Washington in July 2009 for a two-hour event with the crew from STS-125, a mission to service the Hubble telescope. "That knocked my socks off," she said. "I had no idea people were that interested. It was a very cool surprise."

The invitation to Tweet from the Discovery shuttle launch attracted 2,700 registrants, and the150 people selected came from 35 states and six countries. A girl from the United Kingdom stayed in the United States until the actual launch, which was postponed until Feb. 24 for technical reasons; attendees from Australia and the Philippines flew back to the United States. The Australian attendee told Schierholz that she spent nearly $20,000.

As the space shuttle program winds down, attending the Discovery launch window was a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," said Chris Golden, co-founder of myImpact.org, a nonprofit organization using social media to advance volunteerism. Golden said he learned not only about Discovery's mission, but also the future of space exploration beyond the space shuttle and station program. The last shuttle lunch is scheduled for late June.

"The partnership between NASA and Twitter really is a perfect culmination of the history of the space shuttle program," said Golden, who shared his Tweets with 1,900 followers. "By inviting a group of Tweeters to watch the launch, we were able to essentially become reporters . . . and broadcast it out in real time."

"It had a tremendous catalytic effect, and it was purely authentic," he added. "The space program has always captured the attention and idealism of the American people. What better way to send it off than with ordinary Americans covering it and engaging in a conversation about it?"

Registration is open until March 3 for the next Tweetup: On March 16, Doug Wheelock, who was the first astronaut to check in from space on social media site Foursquare, will host an event in Washington with the agency's social media team. Those interested can register here.

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White House Boots @PressSec Back Up

Brian Kalish — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:07:33 -0500

On Monday Morning, new White House Press Secretary Jay Carney picked up where his predecessor Robert Gibbs left off and starting tweeting using the @PressSec account.

His first tweet continued a program, started by Gibbs, of taking questions from other Twitter users: "Ok, let's turn this machine back on. Jay Carney here, send your Qs my way and I'll answer a few soon," he tweeted.

The first question Carney answered was about his intended use of social media. He said he intends to use Twitter often to both answer questions and let people know what the White House is doing.

The account, which has nearly 154,000 followers, had been idle since Jan. 28. Gibbs' last day was Feb. 11.

In an accidental goof leading up to Carney taking over, White House Communications Director Daniel Pfeiffer initially alerted people on his Twitter account to send questions to @pressec, missing an s. Despite quickly correcting the tweet (he blamed the error on typing too fast on an iPad) numerous questions were sent to the wrong account, which is blank and not linked to the White House.

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Agencies must report plans for reducing paperwork burden on small businesses

Brian Kalish — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The Office of Management and Budget last week ordered federal agencies to reduce the paperwork burden and reporting requirements for small businesses.

The White House estimates the public spent 9.8 billion hours responding to federal reporting requirements in 2009, 85 million hours more than in 2008 and 2.9 billion hours more than in 1995, when Congress passed the Paperwork Reduction Act, which sought to reduce the burden on the public.

Some agencies already have made substantial progress. For example, the Securities and Exchange Commission took steps to trim reporting requirements 27 percent from 2008 to 2009; the Social Security Administration produced a 13 percent decrease, OMB said.

"Although these developments are encouraging, more should be done," OMB's Cass Sunstein, administrator for information and regulatory affairs, wrote in the directive to agency chief information officers. "To that end, this memorandum asks agencies to produce one or more burden reduction initiatives that promise to produce significant progress in the next year." CIOs must respond by April 22.

The request is part of OMB's annual call for agencies to outline progress made on paperwork reduction initiatives. This year, the White House asked agencies to give priority to initiatives that provide relief to small businesses or recipients of federal benefits. "Because of economics of scale, a collection may be proportionally more burdensome for a small entity than a large one," the memo said.

OMB spokeswoman Meg Reilly said the emphasis on small businesses is consistent with a Jan. 18 presidential memorandum andexecutive order on regulatory flexibility, small business and job creation. The OMB memo "supplements and builds upon these efforts to reduce burdens on small businesses and the American public," she wrote in an e-mail.

To help reduce the burden on small businesses, OMB suggested agencies use electronic forms, reduce the frequency of collecting information, and share and reuse existing data.

"We expect agencies to develop their own unique burden reduction initiatives, in addition to those that fit into the categories we requested," Reilly said.

While the effort should help cut paperwork, she said, "over 40 percent of the increase in burden from 2000 to 2009 can be attributed to new congressional statutes."

Rick Melberth, director of regulatory policy for the government accountability group OMB Watch, applauded the suggestions. "In terms of burden on small business, it means that there may be some time savings in not filling in [the same] information [many times]," he said. "You fill it in one time; the agency has it, so it saves time there."

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Former colleagues laud new White House deputy CTO for innovation

Brian Kalish — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

People who have worked with Chris Vein, the new deputy chief technology officer for government innovation, say he is an innovator well-suited for the position.

Most recently Vein was chief information officer and executive director of the technology department for the City and County of San Francisco, the 12th largest city in the country. He was the brains behind DataSF, a clearinghouse for sharing city data with the public, which is similar to Data.gov at the federal level.

Colleagues believe he will help the White House implement its lofty open government goals. The day after taking the oath of office, President Obama called for agencies to institutionalize public participation in policymaking and collaboration with outside organizations.

"[Vein] thinks outside the box and doesn't let the typical government kind of restrictions or lack of resources, such as funding" get in the way, said Ron Vinson, who was hired by Vein to serve as director of media for San Francisco's technology department. "He thinks of innovative ways to do more with less."

Vinson said his former boss leads by example. When city officials slashed budgets and moved to shared printers, Vein was the first to get rid of his personal printer; when they discontinued benefits that paid for employees' cell phones, Vein was the first to turn his in, Vinson said.

Vein worked in the White House from 1987 to 1993 as a financial officer and director of administrative and financial services, according to his LinkedIn page. "I think he's very prudent [dealing with] finance," Vinson said. "He does have a financial background, which is a very big plus when it comes to trying to sell IT initiatives."

Andrew Hoppin, chief information officer of the New York State Senate, said Vein has a vision for how governments can help each other.

"He's actually been there in the trenches at a local level implementating [projects] in a tough environment with falling budgets and public employee union problems," Hoppin said. "The fact that he experienced that and [was] able to overcome it and deliver innovation in San Francisco," will help him in his new role.

Vein will replace Beth Noveck, a lawyer and academic who stepped down as deputy CTO in early January to teach at New York Law School. Hoppin, who with Vein serves on the board of Civic Commons, an advocacy group that facilitates IT infrastructure sharing among state and local governments, said Vein is a next great step after Noveck, who has an academic background and crafted many of the open government policies.

There are two phases for open government initiatives, Hoppin said: "One is conceiving and creating policy, the next step is executing . . . I think we're in an execution phase."

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HHS Wants to Be a 'Data Sugar Daddy'

Brian Kalish — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 15:40:03 -0500

The State Department's Office of eDiplomacy hosted a conference Friday that sought to connect technology innovators with those interested in "diplomacy and development to enable 21st century statecraft." More than 300 people from federal agencies and the private sector attended Tech@State, held at the agency's Harry S. Truman Building in Washington. The focus was on open source software.

A few noteworthy items from the conference:

Chief Technology Officer of the United States Aneesh Chopra said all federal agencies now have Congressional authority to pursue prize-based challenges, such as those for developing new applications. "No general counsel can stand in the way of our movement [on] this philosophy," he said.

The White House is considering imposing some type of consistency standard for .gov websites, said White House New Media Director Macon Phillips. The administration wants to interject a little more rhyme and reason to the sites, Phillips said.

State will continue to consider open source technology where it makes the most sense, said Chief Information Officer Susan Swart. Specifically, the agency will look at internal applications that can be hosted using open-source software, she said.

Next week, the Health and Human Services Department will launch a HealthData.gov community on the U.S.'s open data site data.gov. It will be a one-stop resource for health data innovation, said Chief Technology Officer Todd Park. Part of the site will serve as a virtual apps expo, where Park expects people to find problems with the data the agency puts out, as HHS simply does not have enough manpower to check all of it.

Perhaps the best quote of the day came from Park, who said HHS wants to provide developers with the raw data and let them take the lead in creating the software and tools to use it. The agency wants to be a "data sugar daddy," he said to laughter.

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GAO Joins Flickr

Brian Kalish — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 15:51:43 -0500

Looking for the latest images from Government Accountability Office reports? Well, now you can find them on the photo-sharing site Flickr.

On Thursday, the agency announced that it joined the White House and NASA on the site. GAO's page features 36 images that can be viewed and downloaded. All are taken from GAO reports, including "causes and rate of rail accidents, 2000-2009" and "top 20 U.S. seaports by number of foreign seafarer arrivals, fiscal year 2009."

"GAO continues to seek out new, innovative ways to convey our findings," said Gene L. Dodaro, U.S. comptroller general and head of the GAO. "The images in our reports help tell the story of government accountability by making complex concepts and data more understandable. Our Flickr page will allow us to highlight selected images and share them more easily with Congress and the public."

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State Department hits send on new Arabic Twitter site

Brian Kalish — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The State Department launched a new Twitter feed late Tuesday, USA in Arabic, in which nearly all Tweets are sent in Arabic.

The department was already a big Twitter user. It has an official page with about 60,000 followers. State's main spokesman, P.J. Crowley, has more than 18,000 followers on his page and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's senior adviser for innovation, Alec Ross, has some 325,000 followers on his site.

The new Arabic language feed @USAbilAraby by Thursday had about 700 followers, and was quickly growing in popularity. Its first Tweet referenced the fact that the recent uprisings in Egypt were organized in part through social media. "There is a huge vibrant conversation [happening] in the Arab world," said State spokeswoman Tanya Powell. "We want to make sure we are participating in that conversation."

By both listening and communicating, the department believes Tweeting in Arabic is a useful and effective way to share U.S. policy positions, Powell said, declining further comment.

State also is re-Tweeting messages from the site in English on its main feed. For example, a message posted on the Arabic page on Thursday afternoon was present on the department's main site 15 minutes after the initial post: "RT @USAbilAraby President Obama to youth and all Egyptians: America will do everything to support orderly, genuine transition to democracy."

Other messages have included several similar to the main State Twitter site, which received mixed reviews last month because of what some perceived as its lack of hard policy stands. Some Tweets on the new site relayed policy statements, such as Obama saying, "There is no room to return to the previous situation," in Egypt, according to Google Translator. Other Tweets were informational, such as a notice that Clinton would appear on al Jazeera TV.

Erik Nisbet, an assistant professor specializing in comparative political communications at Ohio State University in Columbus, said he is surprised State did not have an Arabic feed sooner. It reaches a certain demographic, practically all younger Arabs, he said, who also tend to be the most politically active.

Most in the Middle East do not read or speak English well, Nisbet said, and Internet penetration is not high. About a fourth of the population in the Arab states are Internet users, according to the International Telecommunication Union, a Geneva-based United Nations agency for information and communication technology issues.

Yet Nisbet warned that some Middle Easterners might not trust the information presented because it still comes from a governmental source and "the U.S. government lacks a lot of credibility in the region."

"It's not going to fundamentally change anything," he said, but acting with the idea of public diplomacy, it will help the United States -- which already maintains an Arabic television station, al Hurra, and radio station, Radio Sawa -- to get its message out.

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Morse Code vs. Texting: Which is Faster?

Brian Kalish — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:36:00 -0500

Morse code has been around for nearly 170 years, texting for only about two decades. When you have two long-term Morse code users compete against two teenagers to send the same message, who is faster on the draw?

Jay Leno found out on his show in 2007. Watch the clip here.

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GSA unveils plans for the first net-zero-energy historic building

Brian Kalish — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The General Services Administration unveiled plans this month to turn a nearly 100-year-old building into the country's first net-zero-energy-usage historic building.

The $15 million reconstruction and restoration of the Wayne Aspinall Federal Building and Courthouse, built in 1918 in Grand Junction, Colo., about 250 miles west of Denver, is designed so the building will produce as much energy as it consumes, making it the first on the National Register of Historic Places to do so.

GSA also intends to have the building certified LEED Platinum, the highest level. The LEED program of the U.S. Green Building Council encourages and accelerates global adoption of environmentally sustainable building and development practices.

In May 2010, GSA Administrator Martha Johnson said the agency "has to embrace a zero environmental footprint goal. We should set our sights on eliminating the impact of the federal government on our natural environment."

Under the plans unveiled on Feb. 4, GSA will install a geothermal heating and cooling system that uses the ground's warmth or cold to control building temperature and solar panels, which are expected to generate power for the entire building. Any excess power will be exported to Grand Junction's electrical grid.

Other features include new windows and LED lighting that will adjust brightness levels based on how much daylight penetrates the building, which, besides a courthouse, is home to units of the Labor Department, Social Security Administration, Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Marshals Service and other federal agencies.

This project is a model of what you can do, said Michael Owens, GSA's Rocky Mountain region recovery executive. "Is it possible to take a historic courthouse and make it net-zero," he said. "We're learning the whole possibilities -- dare to dream."

Despite his excitement over the project, Owens expressed some nervousness about fully accomplishing the goals of the project, which is expected to be finished in January 2013.

Yet Owens said he is confident GSA can deliver on its goals using technology, which figured heavily in the design. "As technology advances, your [solar] panels get more and more efficient all the time . . .. Everybody is turning out a better panel," he added.

GSA, which sees this project as one of many to come, said it has the resources to show what is possible in both the public and private sector. "GSA is uniquely positioned to drive innovation in the real estate market," said

Sally Mayberry, GSA public affairs director for the Rocky Mountain region. "[And we're] large enough that we can afford to take calculated risks."

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Technology complicates White House communications

Brian Kalish — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 11:01:30 -0500

When Dee Dee Myers became President Clinton's press secretary in 1993, there were 50 websites worldwide. By the time Dana Perino left her job as press secretary for President Bush in 2009, there were over 20 billion websites worldwide, said Frank Sesno, director of George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs. Sesno moderated a panel discussion with four former press secretaries sponsored by the university Monday evening.

The panel took place as President Obama's current press secretary, Robert Gibbs, wraps up his term. His last day is Friday when Jay Carney will take over the office.

Thanks to the Internet, people all over the country now have a say in what's happening, said Perino. The Wyoming native noted that while her grandfather can't get the New York Times delivered to his ranch, he can stay informed.

Yet, all this connectivity presents a challenge for the White House. For example, when a plane crashed in Long Island, N.Y., two months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Ari Fleischer, President Bush's press secretary from 2001 to 2003 took nearly five hours to brief the press, making sure to get all the facts correct.

"I made enemies in the press [that day]," he said, noting that the continuous news cycle amplified speculation over the cause of the crash at a time when terrorism was foremost in many peoples' minds -- without any word from the White House.

Perino admitted that she resisted social media at first, but now she has nearly 30,000 followers on her Twitter page. By comparison, Gibbs on his official page has just under 147,000 followers.

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FEMA will use social media through all stages of a disaster

Brian Kalish — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Nicholas Kamm/Newscom

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is set up to use Twitter at all stages of a disaster, before the event strikes, during the event and after, Administrator Craig Fugate tells Nextgov .

The agency maintains a Twitter page with just under 30,000 followers, and the administrator himself has a personal page, CraigatFEMA , with almost 6,600 followers.

Before a forecast storm hits, today's FEMA can monitor local weather reports and Tweets to advise the public in the affected area. On Tuesday, for example, the agency issued a message about a winter storm likely to hit Oklahoma, New Mexico and North Texas through Wednesday. The agency instructed its followers to be sure to follow the affected state's emergency management offices: "Another #winterstorm for OK, north TX & New Mexico tonight/tmrw. Prepare at http://go.usa.gov/akw & follow @okem @txdps @NMDHSEM."

Fugate said his agency is careful to rely only on official information, such as forecasts from the National Weather Service and links from official emergency management agencies. "It's really important I don't try to pose as a weather service," he said.

The agency also uses social media to anticipate what a state might need to prepare for a predicted disaster. For example, as Hurricane Earl moved up the East Coast in September 2010, Fugate could see by monitoring Twitter that tourists on North Carolina's Outer Banks were evacuating, but many long-term residents were adamant about staying put. That gave the agency a heads-up that there would be people left on the barrier islands, and search and rescue plans were readied.

During an event, FEMA looks for what people are saying on Twitter by tracking the service's hash tags, which an eventual consensus of users assigns to mark a given event. During the major snow and ice storm that moved across the United States in early February, the most commonly used hash tag was #snomg.

During that storm FEMA was able to monitor what was happening on the ground by using HootSuite, a Twitter-adaptable program that displays all Tweets using the given hash tag. Hence FEMA could tell that Oklahoma was getting hit by ice and Chicago residents thought the storm had missed them, until they started Tweeting that it quickly got worse, Fugate said.

Another example he cites occurred with Tropical Cyclone Wilma, which hit American Samoa at the end of January. A unnamed man Tweeted Fugate and started giving him local conditions, using #wilma as a hash tag. "When the storm came ashore, he starts describing things that were happening," Fugate said. "But about midway, when [the storm] reach[ed] peak conditions, he starts Tweeting [NFL] scores." That assured Fugate that critical systems such as electricity were working.

After an event, FEMA will typically re-Tweet information from other government agencies and, using a tool developed by the General Services Administration that shortens .gov Web addresses, the agency can track how many hits each link draws. After the snowstorm, FEMA linked back to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: "Very useful in case your power goes out & you have a generator - carbon monoxide safety tips f/ @CDCgov http://go.usa.gov/YEa #snomg." That link was accessed 1,400 times, Fugate said.

There is much re-Tweeting of what FEMA and Fugate post, he said, and that gets the message out there.

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GPO Joins Facebook

Brian Kalish — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:50:03 -0500

You can now become a fan of the Government Printing Office on Facebook.

On Friday, the federal government's printer launched a Facebook page "in an effort to continue to use social media as way of increasing transparency and engage with the public on the workings of [GPO]," the agency said in a news release.

Spokesman Gary Somerset said GPO recognizes that social media is how the world is increasingly communicating. "We already have YouTube and Twitter accounts and Facebook is another extension of the social media circle," he wrote in an e-mail. "These efforts complement GPO's longstanding use of digital systems to inform the public."

GPO plans to post announcements, press releases, agency job listings, photos and videos on its Facebook page. As of Monday afternoon, the agency had nearly 200 followers, with numbers rapidly increasing.

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NOAA Seeks a New Supercomputer

Brian Kalish — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 18:06:08 -0500

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is in the market for a new supercomputer to replace one in Camp Springs, Md., when NOAA's contract expires Sept. 30.

In a solicitation posted on Fed Biz Opps, the Commerce Department agency said the existing system was last upgraded in 2008.

The existing system eventually will be prone to failures and lack sufficient data capacity, said NOAA Chief Information Officer Joe Klimavicz. Historically, the agency must triple processing power every three years.

NOAA expects to award a five-year base contract, with a three-year option period, in October.The transition to the new system will take about a year, Klimavicz said.

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FAA teams up with JetBlue to advance NextGen

Brian Kalish — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The Federal Aviation Administration and JetBlue Airways are partnering in FAA's massive program to upgrade the nation's air traffic control system. JetBlue will equip up to 35 of its planes with advanced navigation equipment and, if the trial run is successful, could expand the technology to its entire fleet.

FAA will pay $4.2 million to equip up to 35 JetBlue Airbus A320s with Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast avionics during the next two years, according to an agreement announced on Thursday. JetBlue has a total of 114 A320s and 43 smaller Embraer E190s. With the updated equipment, the jets will be able to fly in two more-direct routes off the East Coast even if radar coverage is unavailable.

ADS-B is a critical component of the Next-Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) airspace modernization program, an ambitious plan to replace the nation's aging radar-based air traffic control system with a network of satellites. With ADS-B, both pilots and controllers will see radarlike displays with traffic data from satellites and displays that update themselves in real time and don't degrade with distance or terrain, as radar does, according to an agency fact sheet.

JetBlue also will invest an undisclosed amount of money to install the equipment, train its crews in the system and absorb the costs of downtime while it is being installed. The low-cost airline expects in the future to be able to fly additional direct routes from its New York hub and from Boston. It is the largest carrier in both those heavily congested airspaces.

In the past, commercial air carriers hesitated to invest in NextGen, said Victoria Cox, FAA's senior vice president for NextGen in November 2010, because of a high upfront cost and inherent benefits that "don't go directly into [their] bottom line."

For example, when an airline invests in sleeper beds for first-class cabins, the plane must be taken out of service for a few days for retrofitting, but the cost is quickly recouped through higher ticket prices. Passengers, Cox said, will typically not pay more just because they're told the aircraft is equipped with better navigation technology.

FAA plans to have the infrastructure for NextGen completed by 2013 nationwide. By 2020, any airline that wants to fly in controlled airspace in the United States must have ADS-B avionics.

JetBlue believes in the business case for installing the equipment, said Rob Land, the airline's senior vice president of government relations and associate general counsel. Using the newer equipment, the airline expects to save time and money on trips by adding more direct routes and cutting fuel consumption.

The agreement also will allow JetBlue to fly a new route to the Caribbean and could lead to the development of two new, shorter ADS-B-only routes to the Caribbean from Boston, New York and Washington.

Once equipped, the planes will be able to use routes that are available uniquely to them, reducing passenger waiting time in the air and on the tarmac. In the long run, this might allow the airline to add flights to its schedule, as less passenger waiting time allows for higher utilization, Land said. The airline hopes to be able to make the case that "this is a very snazzy investment both for the carriers and the government," he said.

On the flights using the new technology, FAA will collect data and conduct real-time operational evaluations. "We believe the investment will not only be successful . . . but will spur us and other carriers to invest more," Land said.

FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said in remarks at Reagan Washington National Airport Thursday that the partnership will "give us a glimpse into the future right now."

"Companies that are equipping today with NextGen are going to reap the benefits of the transformation of our airspace system sooner rather than later," he added. "They'll see greater efficiency, fuel savings and more on-time arrivals as we continue to increase the availability of NextGen procedures."

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White House e-Mail Goes Down

Brian Kalish — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 15:16:08 -0500

The White House and Office of Management and Budget's unclassified e-mail systems went down shortly before 8 a.m. Thursday and as of 1 p.m. were still down.

White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer tweeted that Verizon is working to solve the issue.

The White House normally sends out numerous daily e-mails to the media, such as travel pool reports for the president's trip to State College, Pa., today. Pfeiffer said in his tweet that paper copies are available in the White House's press office.

The Washington Post reported that in addition to e-mail problems, some officials experienced trouble using printers as well.

There was no mention of the outages on the White House's official Twitter feed.

By mid-afternoon, service was restored and e-mails began moving again. Just after 4 p.m., Nextgov received an e-mail about the prayer breakfast Obama attended this morning.

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Social media tends to be a one-way communication for FEMA

Brian Kalish — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The Federal Emergency Management Agency used social media tools to inform the public as a major winter storm moved across the country this week, but experts said the agency should make it a two-way street and listen to what the public is saying as well.

On its Twitter page, FEMA has been Tweeting updates about storm preparedness and its effects to more than 29,200 followers. The Tweets are informative, such as linking to new data about the storm on the agency's website, as well as service-oriented: "If you'll be removing snow/ice in the next few days, take frequent breaks: Cold temps & exertion can cause a heart attack #blizzard." The agency also posted daily blizzard updates on Facebook for its nearly 26,000 fans.

"Under Administrator [Craig] Fugate's leadership and direction, we have continued a robust effort to use social media channels [in] our communications toolbox to engage the public, our many partners and stakeholders, and keep them informed of our work," said FEMA spokeswoman Rachel Rascuen in an e-mail.

For example, Fugate maintains his own Twitter feed, Craig@FEMA, where updates to his nearly 6,500 followers have included: "The #blizzard hit, now what? Don't forget those fire hydrants as you dig out & check on your neighbors. www.ready.gov www.listo.gov #snomg."

Fugate said in a Jan. 14 blog post there was "no question [social media] tools have already changed the field of emergency management -- and will continue to do so. As emergency managers, we will have to be flexible and agile and quickly adopt as new technologies and communications tools emerge."

The tools are one way to get the message out about disasters, said George Haddow, who served as deputy chief of staff at FEMA under James Lee Witt, FEMA administrator during the Clinton administration.

FEMA is using the tools and that's "very encouraging," said Haddow, who is now a principal at Bullock and Haddow LLC, an emergency preparedness consultancy. "They are making a commitment in getting information to people and not just stakeholders."

But Haddow said the agency also should capture and relay the kind of practical information people really need in a crisis, such as which Chicago shelters accept dogs, or which gas stations have fuel -- common questions during evacuations.

"It's a two-way street," he said. "I think they're doing a pretty good job of getting information out to the public, and I think they're still in building form, [determining] how to get information from the public and[disseminate it] through the same circuits."

By using social media, FEMA also is able to get out the message it wants, said Connie White, an assistant professor at the Institute of Emergency Preparedness at Jacksonville State University in Alabama.

"The beauty of social media is that the information doesn't get translated in the process," she said. "This is different from word of mouth, where the meaning can change from one person to the next."

But White also agreed FEMA should make better use of software to track updates from the ground. By using Twitter with a [GPS locator] device, people can report when they encounter serious conditions, she said, and FEMA could provide real-time situational awareness .

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