Digital Government
DOD, GSA working on enterprise software contract
The Defense Department is working with the General Services Administration to create a standard contract that all agencies could use to create enterprise software agreements, which drive down the cost of software by allowing agencies to buy in bulk.
Digital Government
Kentucky Offers Statewide Virtual High School
Starting in January, the Kentucky Virtual High School will become the country's first statewide program offering online high school courses and will include advanced offerings in foreign languages, math and science.
Digital Government
N.D. Governor Asks for Help Attracting Tech Firms
North Dakota Gov. Ed Schafer recently asked a privatesector advisory committee to recommend tax, investment and public policy ideas to encourage hightech investment in the state.
Digital Government
New York to Bolster High-Tech Initiatives
New York Gov. George Pataki gave high tech a shot in the arm recently by signing into law J2K," a $522 million economic development program that benefits technology research and capital investment in business growth.
Digital Government
West Virginia Gov. To Address Technology Council
West Virginia Gov. Cecil Underwood is scheduled to give the keynote address during the Science and Technology Advisory Council's second annual Mountain State on the Move conference on Tuesday at the Federal Energy Technology Center in Morgantown.
Digital Government
Opening the 64-bit data pipeline
In most aspects of computing, bigger, faster and more is better: Faster clock and network speeds, more RAM and bigger hard disk drives are all benchmarks by which we measure the pace of computing progress.
Digital Government
New Year's fete no fun for CIOs
It won't be the champagne giving federal chief information officers a headache at New Year's. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to partake in a threeday millennium extravaganza scheduled to take place in Washington, D.C., adding a logistical challenge to federal CIOs' Year 2000 problems
Digital Government
States share Medicaid fraud funding woes
Members of a congressional panel this month listened to repeated tales of inadequate funding and antiquated technology preventing numerous state Medicaid agencies from effectively combating fraud cases that result in billions of dollars lost nationally each year. Some state Medicaid agencies are cr
Digital Government
Weather watcher
Jamie Hawkins recalls that when he was a child he would sit under his sister's clear plastic bubble umbrella watching the thunderstorms roll in. Even after 21 years at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Hawkins still is obsessed with watching the weather. 'I was an absolute weathe
Digital Government
FBI bets on new IT initiative for security
Anticipating no new money for information security, the FBI is hoping a major computer project currently hung up in Congress will provide the new technology needed to make its information more secure, a top agency official said last week. Mark Tanner, information resources manager at the FBI, said
Digital Government
Budget should spare IT projects
Congress last week passed a $390 billion spending package that includes millions of dollars for information technology programs at key federal agencies in fiscal 2000. The bill, the result of long and intense budget negotiations between Capitol Hill leadership and the Clinton administration, calls
Digital Government
CIO outlines e-commerce, digital divide plans
North Carolina chief information officer Rick Webb joined lawmakers and state agency representatives here at the recent National Electronic Commerce Coordinating Council conference to outline the state's approach to electronic commerce, state S.B. 222, and the digital divide.
Digital Government
CIO advises 'follows the sun' on Y2K
California chief information officer Elias Cortez's Year 2000 strategy involves a Follow the Sun program to track the global impact of the date change up to 12 hours in advance.
Digital Government
You can take it with you
Remember when the term 'portables' brought to mind notebook computers? Next came mininotebooks and handheld organizers such as 3Com Corp.'s PalmPilot. Now the list of gadgets seems endless. Vendors also are constantly improving existing products to make them more functional, durable and mobile. A
Digital Government
Fedwire Briefs
Bill tightens information security Sen. Fred Thompson (RTenn.) and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (DConn.) introduced on Nov. 19 the Government Information Security Act, a bill based on recommendations from the General Accounting Office on how to better secure federal information systems. GAO found that f
Digital Government
Letters
Workers: Know your rights I just finished reading the Oct. 4 Bureaucratus column [FCW, 'Supervisors need to share leave rights'], which discusses the shabby treatment John Landahl received from the managers of the Fisheries Science Center. Those managers ought to be ashamed of themselves! I wish I
Digital Government
Mapping coral reefs' health
Three agencies have teamed up to develop digital, highresolution maps of the nation's coral reefs in the first step in understanding and protecting these threatened habitats. A U.S. Coral Reef Task Force working group, cochaired by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Geo
Digital Government
Roster
Scott Charney, chief of the Justice Department's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, this month joined PricewaterhouseCoopers's Financial Advisory Services practice. Charney will focus on intellectual property protection, cybercrime investigations, computer crime prevention and other
Digital Government
Federal Bytes
HAVING FUN YET? With less than 40 days until 2000, many federal employees and contractors who are trying to fix potential computer problems before the rollover on Dec. 31 are approaching burnout. Then there's the people floating the idea of getting out of town before any of the problems show up. Ev
Digital Government