Digital Government
Florida's director of technology departs
P.J. Ponder, Florida's director of technology, left his post May 28 to pursue independent consulting opportunities in the private sector.
Digital Government
Livelink 8 offers variety of knowledge-sharing features
Sometimes an organization's biggest intangible asset is the corporate knowledge locked inside the brains of its employees. Open Text Corp. delivers a powerful set of tools to help organizations gather and distribute some of its employees' untapped knowledge with its Livelink 8 product. Livelink pro
Digital Government
Work force woes (Part 2)
Faced with the possibility of losing half of its information technology work force over the next five years, the Treasury Department has issued a new report that calls for the government to overhaul how federal IT professionals are trained, paid and promoted. The report, 'Responding to the Crisis i
Digital Government
Former Army officers now Web entrepreneurs
Former Army officers Ed McDaries and Clarence Briggs already had talked seriously about founding some kind of Internet company back in 1995 when suddenly McDaries was plucked from a training class at Fort Bragg, N.C., and sent to Bosnia. But McDaries' departure did not cool Briggs' Internet fever,
Digital Government
JSTARS flies high over Yugoslavia
RHEINMAIN AIR BASE, Germany Finding Serb tanks and supply convoys in the mountains and wooded valleys of Kosovo, where poor weather often conceals the battlefield, is a daunting task for any pilot, regardless of skill level. However, the Air Force's 60th Air Expeditionary Wing, stationed here at
Digital Government
Work force woes (Part 1)
In an effort to give agencies more flexibility in hiring and paying information technology employees, the Office of Personnel Management this summer plans to revamp the way the government structures its technical work force to more closely resemble the private sector. OPM plans to create a set of s
Digital Government
Fedwire Briefs
IG: SPS acquisition strategy flawed The Defense Department may be forced to spend at least $70 million on additional training, development and helpdesk support before its main computer system for standardizing paperless contracting and procurement procedures is deemed functional, an internal DOD r
Digital Government
DOT mulls online fed travel service
Transportation Department officials last week asked industry for help in creating a World Wide Web site for federal travelers who want to book their trips online, saving the government money in the process. The site, which officials hope will be online by the end of the year, would build on commerc
Digital Government
FDA: medical devices still at risk for Y2K
Food and Drug Administration officials last week told House subcommittees that more than 300 medical manufacturers have equipment on the market that could experience failures from Year 2000 computer problems, and another 200 manufacturers have yet to report if their equipment is Year 2000compliant
Digital Government
Roster Change
The National Library of Medicine last week named Betsy Humphreys associate director for library operations. She will oversee all public and technical processing services, including online databases. Humphreys, a veteran of NLM since 1973, most recently served as deputy associate director of librar
Digital Government
Cole sails IT-21 to Seventh Fleet
ABOARD THE USS BLUE RIDGE Cmdr. Pat Cole, fleet information systems officer for the Navy's Seventh Fleet, knows all too well the problems and difficulties involved in translating the grand vision of the Navy's Information Technology for the 21st Century (IT21) project into reality. 'No one has
Digital Government
Get used to politics as usual
A congressman from Missouri has given the federal information technology community a valuable, though inadvertent, reminder that any effort to bring about dramatic change in government, no matter how sensible, must take into account political ramifications. In this particular case, Rep. James Talen
Digital Government
Turning to the troops
(This is the second in a series of articles looking at Defense Department efforts to bring new technology to the battlefield.) FORT HOOD, Texas 1st Lt. Scott Gregory Trahan, a platoon commander here in the 4th Infantry Division, talks enthusiastically about how the computers in all the Bradley I
Digital Government
Intercepts
EXIT CLEMINS. Adm. Archie Clemins, commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet and the originator and chief backer of the Navy's IT21 project, plans to retire Dec. 1, according to an email message he sent to his friends and staff. President Clinton has nominated Vice Adm. Thomas Fargo, currently serv
Digital Government
Federal Bytes
FRAMING THE ISSUE. Sometimes reporters here at FCW know about a newsworthy event days or even weeks before it officially happens. For example, we were informed by several sources two weeks ago that the Defense Department had selected Sprint to provide frame relay and X.25 telecommunications service
Digital Government
Tangram upgrades asset management tool
Tangram Enterprise Solutions Inc. last week released its nextgeneration asset management software, which includes a new solution to help agencies determine future procurement strategy based on current system and contract performance. Asset Insight 3.0, like older versions of the software, puts sof
Digital Government
Round Two
FCW would like to clarify that Deidre Lee, administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, solely led a summit of senior government procurement officials, sponsored by the Council for Excellent in Government [Steven Kelman's May 10 OpEd column].
Digital Government
Rugged laptop comes with wireless modem
Amrel Systems Inc. and Novatel Wireless Inc. have teamed up to put wireless modems inside rugged laptop computers, which the companies say will give federal users the power to share data more easily when working in the field. The partnership, which materialized this year, has produced a Novatel mod
Digital Government
You can learn to be a smart decision-maker
When I was in government, one of the most common questions folks in Washington, D.C., and those back home in Cambridge, Mass., asked me was, "What's the biggest difference between being in government and being in academia?
Digital Government