Digital Government
Navy: Y2K will cause few waves
The Navy expects Year 2000 computer problems to result in few, if any incidents that would requite a heightened state of readiness, according to a Navywide message from Adm. Jay Johnson, Chief of Naval Operations.
Digital Government
DOD gives medical systems clean bill of health
The Defense Department successfully completed an endtoend Year 2000 test of the computer systems in its Medical Health Care System and found no failures due to bad Year 2000 date code.
Digital Government
Y2K lessons apply to information security
The federal government must apply the lessons it has learned from addressing the Year 2000 problem to its efforts to protect its critical infrastructure from information security threats, according to a General Accounting Office report issued this week.
Digital Government
Colorado Appoints Secretary of Technology
Colorado Gov. Bill Owens recently announced that Marc Holtzman would assume fulltime leadership of the Office of Innovation and Technology (OIT) as Secretary of Technology and relinquish his post as head of the state's International Trade Office.
Digital Government
DOD: 300,000 jobs possible for outsourcing
The Defense Department will have more than 300,000 jobs listed as potentially available for outsourcing to the private sector in its inventory under review at the Office of Management and Budget this month.
Digital Government
N.C. Web Site Aids Floyd Cleanup
When Hurricane Floyd bore down on the North Carolina coast last month, Gov. James Hunt asked his information technology department to provide the state's citizens with a single Internet point of contact for information on the storm and its impact.
Digital Government
LA names new leader for IT agency
The city of Los Angeles last week named Jesse Juarros as general manager of the Los Angeles Information Technology Agency. Juarros, promoted from assistant general manager, replaces John Whang, who recently left the agency to explore an opportunity in education, according to an agency spokeswoman.
Digital Government
U.S. to push moratorium on global Internet tariffs
U.S. lawmakers said last week that they would push for a permanent moratorium on electronic commercerelated global Internet tariffs when the World Trade Organization meets next month in Seattle.
Digital Government
Wild File's GoBack cures hard drive headaches
Wild File Inc. claims that GoBack is a product that saves users from all of the worst headaches that can strike computer users. Other utilities tidy up many of the problems of daily computer usage, but some of the big problems, such as loss of critical system files, overwriting important documents,
Digital Government
Marketplace
Wireless Link Passes Test in Rural Virginia Rep. Rick Boucher (DVa.) last month helped unveil a wireless communications system in Blacksburg, Va., that reduces the costs involved in bringing broadband service the 'last mile' into rural homes and businesses. The Local Multipoint Distributed Service
Digital Government
Intercepts
NAVSAT SETBACK. Stratos Mobile Networks prevailed in its legal protest against the award of an $112 million contract to Communications Satellite Corp. for 64 kilobits/sec satellite service to Navy ships worldwide, a key component of the Navy's Information Technology for the 21st Century project. Th
Digital Government
DOD re-sold Y2K-sensitive excess supplies
The Defense Department donated or sold hundreds of thousands of computers, medical devices and other electronic equipment to state and local agencies, hospitals and other public institutions that could fail to operate because of Year 2000 problems. In a report released this week, the Pentagon's ins
Digital Government
Florida Pioneers EDI-based Purchase Card
Mostly a curiosity just a couple of years ago, the use of purchase cards appears to be an inexorable part of the future of procurement for state and local governments.
Digital Government
Calculating costs, cautions from war
The hightech information systems that U.S. and NATO forces employed against Yugoslavia this year ended up contributing confusion, according to a toplevel draft briefing prepared for the commander of U.S. forces in Operation Allied Force. Draft briefing slides prepared for Adm. James Ellis in an a
Digital Government
IT jobs duck outsource lists
Agencies last week released lists of thousands of jobs that could be outsourced to private companies, including some of information technologyrelated jobs. But critics say the way agencies released the lists could hurt vendors and federal employees who may want to challenge them. The initial group
Digital Government
Roster
Lura Powell, director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Advanced Technology Program, last week said she will take advantage of an early retirement option to retire from the federal government Sept. 30. Powell has been at NIST since 1972 and became the ATP director in 1995. Cit
Digital Government
Changing Gears
Thanks to a comprehensive new accounting rule, state and local IT shops finishing up Year 2000 compliance work soon will find themselves faced with a fresh challenge as they help to implement a whole new approach to the process of governmental financial reporting.
Digital Government
Going with the flow
Responding to the federal government's move toward a paperless environment, workflow automation vendors are moving to tap the need to manage and store the massive amount of electronic documents generated by agencies. As electronic documents increasingly supplant the paper forms that traditionally h
Digital Government
Army studying IT recruitment
The Army has kicked off a yearlong study to help determine how to better recruit and maintain its information technology work force, with an emphasis on how the service can use financial inducements to attract workers.
Digital Government