Digital Government
New release puts a shine on DB2 Enterprise Edition
One normally doesn't go around casually upgrading a database or migrating from one database to another. Usually, there has to be a compelling reason to consider such a major change to what are considered core services. IBM Corp.'s latest update to the venerable DB2 database presents compelling reas
Digital Government
Fedwire Briefs
State official joins Sprint Sprint last week named Vonya McCann its senior vice president of federal external affairs to oversee all of the company's advocacy efforts to Congress, the Federal Communications Commission, the Justice Department and the White House. McCann comes to Sprint from the Stat
Digital Government
Federal Bytes
ARMED FOR Y2K. At last week's Information Resources Management Conference '99 in Williamsburg, Va., the most important piece of information to come out of the executive board meeting of the CIO Council was the results of an unofficial poll on the Year 2000 problem, said Outreach Committee chairman
Digital Government
House committee authorizes $4.8B for basic IT research
The House Science Committee last week unanimously passed a bill to set aside $4.8 billion in funding for information technology research for the next five fiscal years. The bill, the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Act, would funnel more than half of the money to the
Digital Government
Reward industry for RFP suggestions
I recently attended the second meeting of a group working on introducing better incentives into contracting. Ken Oscar, the Army's senior procurement official, convened the meeting. For an account of the first meeting, see my column in the Aug. 2 issue of FCW. Toward the beginning of the meeting, t
Digital Government
OPM lifts feds' lifeinsurance limitations
There has been a change made to the federal employee life insurance program that could be beneficial to many federal workers and their families. The change applies to holders of Option C family life insurance under the Federal Employees Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) program, which provides coverage
Digital Government
GPO delivering presidential papers online
During the Truman administration, the National Historical Publications Commission recognized that the government had no official means of preserving the president's public papers and came up with an idea that delighted historians and librarians nationwide. Noting the need for the uniform preservati
Digital Government
PKI validation tool reassures
CertCo Inc. last week released CertValidator, a solution designed to provide an extra level of trust for digital certificates by automatically checking whether a certificate is still considered valid by its issuer. Digital certificates are one of the most trusted ways of authenticating the identity
Digital Government
Intercepts
PRIVATE N/MCI CLUB? Though the Navy chief information officer shop canceled the comeone, comeall presolicitation conference for the $2 billionplus Navy/Marine Corps Intranet (N/MCI) so that it could keep its request for proposals train running on time, it did hold a rather cozy meeting with som
Digital Government
GSA weighs benefits of smart cards
The General Service Administration's Office of Electronic Commerce plans to study the plausibility of issuing smart cards and publickey infrastructure technology for certain applications on a governmentwide basis. 'We want to examine the feasibility of using smart cards and publickey infrastructu
Digital Government
Y2K global warning
International travelers venturing abroad to celebrate the millennium should be aware that Russia, China, Japan and Italy top a list of countries that the State Department views as vulnerable to widespread failures because of the Year 2000 problem, according to department sources.
Digital Government
Thanks for the memories
This is my last issue as editor in chief of Federal Computer Week, and the staff offered me the chance to use this space to reflect on the changes in the federal market since our first issue, published in March 1987. In that issue, our lead stories were about new security regulations and access to
Digital Government
Micron positioning for services push
Montgomery, Ala. With profit margins on personal computer sales plummeting to their lowest levels in years, one of the federal market's most successful PC vendors unveiled a dramatic business strategy this month that focuses on the burgeoning market in information technology services and support
Digital Government
Execs to define e-commerce guidelines
Chief executives from some of the world's largest telecommunications, media and computing firms will assemble in Paris today to try to establish industrydefined guidelines that they say are necessary to allow electronic commerce to flourish.
Digital Government
The bureaucrat myth debate
Bureaucratus' summary of the Office of Personnel Management's assessment of poor performers in the federal work force should have devoted closer attention to the methodology ['Exploding the bureaucrat myth,' FCW, Aug. 30]. OPM did not interview 3,000plus federal employees; they interviewed more th
Digital Government
Geospatial group demonstrates industry standards
In a significant step toward integrating the incompatible and disparate geospatial databases worldwide, a geospatial industry group demonstrated Sept. 10 how industry standards nearing completion will enable someone to tap into numerous databases via the Internet to create a multilayered digital map.
Digital Government
Company targets electronic conversion
Anticipating a growing need in the federal government for converting print and data streams into electronic format, the Xenos Group Inc. recently opened a federal office and started shipping a new version of its flagship software, which it is marketing to agencies. Xenos, based in Richmond Hill, On
Digital Government
New Intel switches, routers aimed at mid-size nets
IDG News Service San Francisco Continuing its push into the networking systems business, Intel Corp. last week announced the release of a new switch and routers designed for mediumsize networks. Michael Duffy, head of Intel's widearea network (WAN) operations, said the new products enable the
Digital Government
Sun unveils, shows off a new ultra-thin client
IDG News Service Sun Microsystems Inc. last week unveiled its Sun Ray 1 network appliance in a bid to cut management, maintenance and upgrade costs for businesses further than previous thinclient devices have allowed. Unlike prior network computers including Sun's own JavaStation the Sun Ra
Digital Government