Digital Government
Journey Around the Value Chain
In this issue, we bring you stories that show how your peers in state and local government agencies throughout the country are striving to deliver value from their information technology investments
Digital Government
Some Army Web sites to go dark
In the wake of its decision last week to shut down all 998 of its publicly accessible World Wide Web sites, the Army expects that some of those sites will remain offline permanently. Chris Unger, an information systems specialist who serves as Webmaster for the Army home page, said he believes that
Digital Government
Set-Asides
Loan system gets mixed reviews Officials at some colleges and universities remain uncertain about the helpfulness of a student loan information system run by the Education Department, according to a General Accounting Office report released last month. Of the nearly 500 officials surveyed by GAO, 3
Digital Government
DOD enhances nuke planning
The U.S. Strategic Command (Stratcom), the senior Defense Department agency responsible for overseeing the nation's nuclear arsenal, this month awarded a $147 million contract to Lockheed Martin Corp. to bring the United States' nuclear planning capabilities closer to the demands of the postCold W
Digital Government
Time for an answer
Last week a federal judge ruled the National Archives and Records Administration could have more time to come up with rules for agencies to follow when deciding which electronic documents they should keep and which ones they can delete. We believe NARA has had long enough. NARA has been working on
Digital Government
Kerrey to seek IT security lab, panel
Sen. Bob Kerrey (DNeb.) plans to introduce a bill next year that would set up an information technology laboratory to help defend against threats to the nation's IT infrastructure and to ensure an exchange between government and industry about security threats. Kerrey, the ranking minority member
Digital Government
HP, IBM heat up 3-D arena
HewlettPackard Co. and IBM Corp. last week introduced two highend graphics solutions that, although radically different in focus, attempt to take the worlds of modeling, simulation and scientific data visualization to the next level of performance. HP's new Visualize Center and Visualize Workgrou
Digital Government
Intercepts
THE THREESTAR DANCE. Army Lt. Gen. Dave Kelley plans to stay another year at DISA, according to an incoming piece of ALL CAPS rocket mail from Emmett Paige Jr., former ASD/C3I. It sure made me nostalgic for the days when Paige launched rocket mails this way on a weekly basis. Because Kelley has de
Digital Government
Federal Bytes
GET WITH THE PROGRAM. The Naval Undersea Warfare Center certainly gives its contractors a lot of slack. Last week, the center joined the growing list of agencies issuing requests for proposals on the World Wide Web rather than in hard copy format. But in a nod toward technologically impaired vendor
Digital Government
Litton/PRC undertakes Y2K verification work at USPS
Litton/PRC Inc. recently started Year 2000 independent verification and validation work for the U.S. Postal Service, under a $17 million task order awarded by the agency through an existing services contract. The task order was awarded under USPS' Information Systems Support Services (ISSS) contrac
Digital Government
Coming up short on Y2K
The first major Year 2000 milestone passed almost unnoticed last week. Sept. 30 was a target date set by the Clinton administration for agencies to have all their missioncritical systems renovated, yet it slipped quietly past many federal agencies, which are still frantically fixing their computer
Digital Government
GPO bill on deck in Senate
The Senate could vote as early as this week on a bill to reform the Government Printing Office despite strong objections from many federal information technology vendors. The Wendell H. Ford Government Publications Reform Act of 1998 was approved by the Senate Rules Committee in a voice vote during
Digital Government
BTG goes back to its roots with Stac
BTG Inc.'s plan to buy Stac Inc. in a $6.9 million deal marks the company's first acquisition since selling off its reseller business last winter and represents a renewed bid to strengthen its core technical capabilities. BTG last month said it would purchase all the common stock of Stac, an employ
Digital Government
Double take: CIA Web sites revisit old battles
In the fastpaced World Wide Web environment of streaming video, push technology and Java animation, the Web site of the CIA (www.odci.gov) does little to attract the attention of the casual surfer with its plain graphics and textheavy offerings. But if you're looking for additional insights into
Digital Government
Reform wonk applies know-how to PenRen
From 1994 through early 1998, Dave Drabkin was a senior civil servant in the Office of the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition Reform. He was brought in from a legal job at the Defense Logistics Agency by Colleen Preston, acquisition reform's legendary streetfighter during the tough ye
Digital Government
Whistle-blowers not immune from firing
If you think that whistleblowers cannot be fired, think again. A recent case decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals (Karen L. Kewley v. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Sept. 3, 1998) points out that federal workers who blow the whistle should m
Digital Government
Lee champions e-commerce
The frustrations of an Army master sergeant in Saudi Arabia trying to buy information technology equipment and the introduction of Mosaic, the first World Wide Web browser, combined to give John Lee an opportunity that changed his life. The sergeant, coping with time differences and geographical ch
Digital Government
HP turns printer into Net device
HewlettPackard Co. last month introduced several Internetsavvy solutions to the company's network printer line and presented a new way to administer network peripherals. The JetDirect 500X print server is the first HP product to feature the Internet Printing Protocol, which HP jointly created wit
Digital Government
TimeStep VPN emphasizes security
Government agencies are interested in virtual private network (VPN) technology because it promises lowcost, secure data transmission via the Internet and can be used to replace longdistance telephone charges and dedicated lines. As part of our continuing coverage of VPNs, we evaluated TimeStep Co
Digital Government