FCW Insider: Oct. 8

The Department of Veterans Affairs is embracing video gaming as a form of therapy. VA is offering veterans with limited mobility access to specially modified gaming gear through a partnership with Microsoft. Lauren C. Williams has more.

After a protest, the General Services Administration and the Defense Information Systems Agency are planning to take another look at their $7.6 billion email and business software cloud award. Nick Wakeman reports.

Then National Institute of Standards and Technology is looking for new methods for secure connected devices in the U.S. energy industrial sector. Derek B. Johnson takes a look at this new effort to help secure the sprawling Internet of Things ecosystem.

NASA's big contract vehicle Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement is lowering fees. Mark Rockwell has the story.

Quick Hits

*** The Department of Agriculture is using Microsoft smart agriculture technology in an experiment at a farm facility in Beltsville, Md. The system, dubbed FarmBeats, uses sensors to monitor soil temperature, acidity, moisture levels and other environmental data. The sensors transmit the data using "white space" frequency between licenses TV broadcasting channels. The experiment is a pilot that USDA plans to take national to 200 farms.

*** Plans to merge the Office of Personnel Management into the General Services Administration are being actively blocked in the House of Representatives and are not finding much support in the Republican-controlled Senate. A recently released Appropriations Committee report punts the matter to authorizing committees, noting that if "legislation be enacted that transfers these functions to GSA, the Committee stands ready to provide sufficient resources to GSA to facilitate an orderly transition."