Author Archive

Allan Holmes

Digital Government

Comcast Promised Poor Americans Cheap Internet, But Most of Them Didn’t Get It

Of the 7.2 million low-income people in Comcast’s service area, only 2.6 million are eligible for Internet Essentials.

Cybersecurity

Did You Get the Memo?

Part of the government's push to tighten cybersecurity is to educate the public and to increase awareness - like federal agencies did to boost the use of seat belts and the "Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires" campaign.

Digital Government

Federal Pension Insights

Government Executive's Editor-in-Chief Tom Shoop helped bring some facts to the debate over the generosity and funding of government employee pension plans when he appeared on the Diane Rehm Show on National Public Radio on Thursday.

Digital Government

Dick Tracy Inspired

The Army continues to push into the <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_Rogers>Buck Rogers</a> Age.

Digital Government

Reading NASA Case Tea Leaves

Digital Government

Guns Mean Butter

John Feffer, co-director of <a href=www.fpif.org>Foreign Policy In Focus</a> at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote a <a href=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-feffer/take-this-job-andtransfor_b_751303.html>blog post</a> for <em>The Huffington Post</em> on Tuesday musing about this weekend's gathering in Washington of "tens of thousands of people . . . to push the government on the jobs issue."

Digital Government

Finding Uses for the Mundane

Improving health care outcomes depends on a lot of things, including expanding the use of telemedicine, which will make it easier for patients in remote areas to see a primary care physician or a specialist. The downside is the required equipment can be costly. But that could change if technologists come up with innovative ways to use every-day computer equipment, say, like webcams.

Cybersecurity

Canada's Cyber Strategy Vague, Too

Canada released its <a href=http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/prg/em/cbr/_fl/ccss-scc-eng.pdf>Cybersecurity Strategy</a> plan this month, calling the protection of government and corporate computer systems "a daunting challenge."

Digital Government

Cut Benefits, See Retirement Go Up

For years, government officials have predicted a wave of federal retirements, but it has yet to materialize. New Jersey may have found a way to make it a reality.

Ideas

Why Legacy? It Works

NASA has taken some hits for having decades-old computer technology running the shuttle program and the International Space station. For example, the space agency uses some technology that the moon programs relied on in the 1960s and the space station uses processors more than two decades old. Sounds like a typical government operation? Well, no, when you have scientists explain it.

Digital Government

Texting to Fight Counterfeit Drugs

Cybersecurity

Israel Targets Iran with Stuxnet Worm?

The Stuxnet computer worm - described as possibly the most dangerous malware because it can target and control specified industrial machinery - is thought to have been created in Israel to specifically target a nuclear power plant in Iran, reports the Guardian in London.

Digital Government

Rather Pay Than Install EHR

A lot of work went into the development of <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20100713_8741.php>meaningful use standards</a> -- those requirements that an electronic health record system has to do to be considered a bona fide electronic health record system.

Digital Government

What's the IT Cost of Legislation?

When Congress passes legislation, it rarely thinks about how much work is involved in putting a new policy into place. And that includes information technology work.

Digital Government

Stimulus Boosts EHR Sales

The 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) Act seemed to have given sales of electronic health records systems a pop.

Digital Government

Time to Get App Savvy

The apps culture is here, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Cybersecurity

More on Cyberwar

The debate about what constitutes a cyberwar still rages on. The latest installment comes from a conference put on by cybersecurity vendor ArcSight in National Harbor, Md., where Eneken Tikk, head of the legal and policy branch of the Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn, Estonia, discussed the 2007 attacks on that country's networks.

Cybersecurity

Canada to U.S.: Step Up

Canada's privacy commissioner took a swipe at her U.S. counterparts on Monday.

Digital Government

Even When It's Good, It Isn't

Agencies may find it difficult to attract information technology workers now, but could the government lose even those that it has convinced to join the workforce when the economy improves?

Digital Government

It's Hatch Act Season