Digital Government
The Year of the Earmark Restraint?
The final version of the 2010 Defense appropriations bill debated in the Senate on Friday contains a mere 1,720 earmarks worth $4.2 billion. The number is down 17 percent and the value dropped 14 percent from the fiscal 2009 bill, the green eyeshade folks at Taxpayers for Common Sense <a href=http://www.taxpayer.net/resources.php?category=&type=Project&proj_id=2696&action=Headlines%20By%20TCS>reported</a>.
Digital Government
It's Good to be IT Now
The Daily Beast's Clark Merrefield <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-12-02/cutting-edge-jobs/?cid=hp:beastoriginalsL3#">highlights the top 10 information technology jobs</a> that will be the most in-demand through 2016. Despite the grim outlook for jobs in the recovering economy, Merrefield notes, IT jobs remain the silver lining, with the number of openings and wages up for cutting-edge jobs like network architects, system software designers and data engineers.
Digital Government
Verizon lab to demo the greener side of telecom
Verizon Business opens a lab to show feds how optical local-area networks can help make buildings greener by reducing the energy needs of their networks.
Digital Government
iPhone: Enterprise-worthy, perhaps, but secure enough for feds?
The latest iPhone operating system is more secure, but doubts linger about whether it can rival the BlackBerry for government-level real security.
Digital Government
Senators introduce bills to boost acquisition workforce roles, training
Legislation would create a three-year graduate program in federal procurement and increase the visibility of the Federal Acquisition Institute.
Digital Government
Saying security can come later, panel pushes for more information sharing
Benefits of exchanging sensitive information among governments to fight terrorism far outweighs risks of not securing messages, a presidential task force argues.
Digital Government
SkyGrabber How To
The Wall Street Journal <a href=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126102247889095011.html>reported</a> on Thursday that the bad guys in Afghanistan and Iraq have cleverly figured out how to use a $29.95 software package called SkyGrabber to intercept video feeds from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Digital Government
Hands on with Army Go Mobile gear
The real potential of the Go Mobile program is in providing military personnel access to their AKO/DKO accounts wirelessly. The days of luggable laptops might be over soon, replaced in this case with smart phones that pack almost as much computing power.
Digital Government
Improving IT Leaders
On Monday, Wired Workplace <a href="http://wiredworkplace.nextgov.com/2009/12/opm_beefs_up_training_programs.php">highlighted</a> the Office of Personnel Management's new regulations designed to improve and monitor agency training programs for managers. The nonprofit Partnership for Public Service also has launched an effort to beef up leadership training for GS-14s and GS-15s. The new program, called the Center for Government Leadership, integrates the Partnership's Excellence in Government Fellows program and the Annenberg Leadership Institute into one program, and provides custom trainings for agencies around key leadership issues flagged by federal workers in the group's Best Places to Work survey.
Digital Government
VA's VistA system is world-class but hard to maintain, says IAC's Meagher
The Industry Advisory Council is examining the Veterans Affairs Department's VistA electronic medical record system and wants to accentuate the system's good points while upgrading its outdated software.
Digital Government
Panel Advances Partner Benefits Bill
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday passed legislation that would provide health care and other benefits to the domestic partners of gay and lesbian federal employees. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee <a href="http://wiredworkplace.nextgov.com/2009/11/panel_approves_domestic_partner_benefits.php">passed companion legislation</a> in November. Approval of the bill (S. 1102) would bring the government in line with the benefits offered by most Fortune 100 companies, including several major technology companies.
Digital Government
'Sexting' at work: Can employees expect privacy on government equipment?
Supreme Court gears up to decide whether review of police officer's racy text messages was an invasion of privacy.
Digital Government