Digital Government

State Senators Testify Before House Panel on 'Legislating in the Information Age'

Senators from Florida, Minnesota and Nevada told a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives' Rules Committee July 16 about ways to improve and streamline the legislative process in the Information Age.

Digital Government

Lockheed Martin plans $2B satellite system

Lockheed Martin Corp. plans to spend $2 billion on a worldwide satellite system designed to complement the Global Positioning System and other systems designed to ensure the integrity and availability of GPS signals for air navigation such as the Federal Aviation Administration's new GPSbased navi

Digital Government

A matter of good timing

Dennis McCarthy stood in front of the Master Clock time display at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., looked at his watch and again at the display and declared his watch 40 seconds fast. Most folks would accept a 40second deviation, but not McCarthy, who serves as director of the Dire

Digital Government

SDSC offers archiving tips

Agencies can use current technologies to build a system to preserve electronic records and to ensure longterm access to them, according to a new report by the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC). But the report noted that better software is needed to operate such a system easily. The report, com

Digital Government

New SmartSuite gives Office a run for its money

For information technology decisionmakers in most federal agencies, the main question in selecting an office suite is whether there is any convincing reason to swim against the Microsoft Corp. tide. After all, the Microsoft suite offers a worldclass set of tightly integrated applications, and bec

Digital Government

Industry Watch

Sandia unveils encryption chip Sandia National Laboratories announced earlier this month that it has invented a new computer chip for encrypting large volumes of data sent over highspeed networks. The chip, called the SNL Data Encryption Standard Application Specific Integrated Circuit, can encry

Digital Government

DOD, Netscape ready PKI rollout

The Defense Department last week tapped Netscape Communications Corp. for software that is critical to DOD's future publickey infrastructure plans, and the department is preparing to award multiple contracts for digital certificate management authorities by the end of the month, according to gover

Digital Government

Army awards 2nd piece for logistics redo

The Army last week awarded a $248 million, fiveyear contract to Symbol Technologies Inc. for a system to track and manage supplies and parts as they move from the warehouse to the field, regardless of where in the world either may be. The Automated Identification Technologies II contract will prov

Digital Government

NDS 8.0 offers ready network know-how

Like the mythical Phoenix, Novell Inc. has risen from the ashes as a viable, profitable company by refocusing on its core competency: networking. A major factor in the company's resurrection, Novell Directory Services lies at the heart of the company's current and future strategy. NDS 8.0 is the la

Digital Government

Commerce plans CIO restructure

The Commerce Department is proposing a radical new information technology management structure that would give its bureau and agency chief information officers more authority over IT personnel and spending, FCW has learned. Among the key elements of the proposal is a plan to consolidate all departm

Digital Government

Fedwire Briefs

DOD signs software testing deal The Defense Department last week signed a deal for specialized packages of software to help test missioncritical applications for quality and potential Year 2000 problems. The $3.9 million deal with McCabe ?#038; Amp; Associates Inc. for 1,400 licenses covering the company's

Digital Government

ActiveProject 5.0 keeps projects on track

Managing large projects of any type typically requires expensive project management software that provides tools for tracking milestones, criticalpath elements and individual tasks. What's missing from project management software is a way to manage all of the other information necessary to complet

Digital Government

Set-Asides

Rep. renews effort to split INS Rep. Harold Rogers (RKy.) last week renewed his push to split the Immigration and Naturalization Service into two agencies: one agency that will focus on enforcing the border and one that will focus on citizenship processing and services. Rogers last year proposed a

Digital Government

Mobile Essentials 2.0 keeps users connected

One of the biggest headaches for mobile professionals is managing the host of configuration settings that enable them to connect to the home office. Every time you reach a new location and try to call home, it seems you have to reconfigure your computer with a different dialing sequence, calling c

Digital Government

UVA Opens New Gateway to IT Careers.

The University of Virginia is launching a certificate program to help prepare liberal arts graduates for careers in information technology fields.

Digital Government

Job reassignments must be reasonable

A recent Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) case dealt with the question of how to discipline a manager who misbehaves. The board took corrective action in what was a transparent example of an agency imposing an inordinately severe punishment on a manager. The case involved Patricia Davis, who w

Digital Government

NIST clears security certification tests

The National Institute of Standards and Technology last week authorized the creation of a program that will provide a list of internationally certified commercial information security products for federal agencies. The National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP) for Information Tech

Digital Government

Intercepts

WLMP BIDDING CLOSED. The Army has closed bidding on its besieged billiondollarplus Wholesale Logistics Modernization Program. I hear that only Computer Sciences Corp. and Raytheon Co. submitted offers on a project that could stay tied up for years by Congress which is willing to cut jobs anywh

Digital Government

Adobe GoLive: Web authoring made easy

Agencies looking to increase their World Wide Web presence need a powerful authoring tool to produce appealing Web content. With its unique design tools and friendly interface, Adobe Systems Inc.'s GoLive 4.0 may be that tool. Version 4.0 is the first update since Adobe acquired the product from Go

Digital Government

Bureau of Public Debt upgrades accounting system

The Bureau of Public Debt has purchased a new accounting system to help manage $1.8 trillion in investments made by federal agencies in government securities, including the Social Security Trust Fund and military pensions. The Invest One software from SunGard Investment Systems Inc., Hinsdale, Ill.