Digital Government
AMS wins $62M pact for support
The Minerals Management Service earlier this month awarded American Management Systems Inc. a $62 million contract to support information systems used to track about $4 billion a year in royalties paid to American Indian tribes and federal and state governments. The royalties come largely from comp
Digital Government
Intergraph beefs up 3-D
Intergraph Corp. last week introduced the first of a new generation of graphics technology that is designed to dramatically improve 3D graphics performance on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NTbased workstations. Announced at the Special Interest Group on Computer Graphic's Siggraph '98 show in Orlando
Digital Government
It is time for continuous improvement
This past winter, the press published numerous reports that said the Defense Department paid higher prices than in the past for solesource aerospace spare parts, which were classified as commercial items and bought without certified cost data, pursuant to recent procurement reforms [FCW, April 13
Digital Government
Response Networks takes on 'brownouts'
Touting what it calls a new approach to application monitoring, Response Networks Inc. last month started shipping a product designed to diagnose the causes of 'brownouts,' or slowdowns in application performance. VeriServ measures application performance based on how quickly an application respond
Digital Government
GSA to push smart cards
In an effort to encourage the greater use of smart cards governmentwide, the General Services Administration plans to open a smart card office and a center where agencies can test smart card applications. In a memo last month, GSA Administrator David Barram said he plans to issue an administrative
Digital Government
GAO: DOE supercomputers underused, underscrutinized
The Energy Department is not getting enough use out of its 42 supercomputers and needs to take a closer look at its plans to buy five more machines during the next two years, the General Accounting Office said in a new report. The study, requested by House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. John Kasich
Digital Government
AF awards $486M training pact
The Air Force this month awarded contracts to five vendors under a $486 million program that will provide the Air Force and the Defense Department with training and simulation applications. Under the the Training Systems Acquisition (TSA) contracts program, the Aeronautical Systems Center (ASC) at
Digital Government
CIOs float plan for federal IT architecture
A committee of the Chief Information Officers Council has issued a draft plan for a governmentwide information technology architecture designed to help agencies meet a mandate to align computer systems with agency business and mission needs. While the plan does not provide a detailed overview of a
Digital Government
Tauzin plan would block tax for E-Rate
Rep. W.J. 'Billy' Tauzin (RLa.) was expected last week to introduce legislation to block the Federal Communications Commission from levying a separate telecommunications tax to fund the Education Rate (ERate) program, a billiondollar program designed to subsidize Internet connections for schools
Digital Government
DOD programs to protect systems against cyberattacks
The Army this month kicked off a plan to deploy to 400 of its bases worldwide a system that will monitor and detect intrusions to networks, marking one of the first uses of an enterprisewide information assurance solution in the Defense Department. As part of its Command and Control Protect (C2 Pro
Digital Government
Intercepts
The antennae of the Interceptor are folded again this week while he's overseas. The FCW staff who remain stateside, however, have set up dishes to intercept the latest talk at DOD and civilian agencies. SEEING STARS. Our Northern Virginia antenna has picked up signals that Keane Federal Systems Inc
Digital Government
Lockheed Martin tests multimedia conferencing
Lockheed Martin Corp. has been testing the latest version of a Lucent Technologies Inc. multimedia conferencing solution that allows engineers working on the Defense Department's Joint Strike Fighter to videoconference at their desks while simultaneously collaborating on software code and documents
Digital Government
Federal Bytes
Committee chairmen. How engaged is Capitol Hill in the recent round of seat management contracts? Not very, according to former Hill staffer Paul Brubaker, one of the architects of procurement reform legislation. Brubaker now works at Litton/PRC Inc., one of the companies awarded a Seat Management
Digital Government
VA says it will meet Y2K deadline
Officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs last week said they will get all computers for the Year 2000 problem fixed, but the reliability of commercial products will ultimately determine their success. The VA has written much of the computer code in the systems it uses to manage information o
Digital Government
FAA expands telecom network contract
The Federal Aviation Administration last month restructured and increased the value of its fouryearold data networking contract because of a greater demand for network management services. The Agency Data Telecommunications Network 2000 (ADTN 2000) contract was awarded in 1994 for about $18 milli
Digital Government
Hill to debate GPO overhaul
In a move to ensure public access to government documents, the Senate Rules Committee next week will consider legislation that dramatically overhauls the Government Printing Office and extends its traditional authority over printing to electronically produced and disseminated government publication
Digital Government
Microsoft nabs $116M VA software pact
Microsoft Corp. this month began supplying the Department of Veterans Affairs with a suite of software products that the agency will use to store and move electronic patient records throughout its sprawling medical organization and to other federal agencies and private medical facilities. Under a
Digital Government
HHS identifier puts privacy at risk
One of the most valuable benefits computers offer the government is the ease and speed of collecting and storing vast amounts of data. That ability allows policymakers to quickly analyze information to create and run federal programs. But that ability is a doubleedged sword because when the data
Digital Government
GAO: GSA's oversight of advisory panels OK
A senior General Accounting Office official told Congress last week that the process for supervising federal advisory committees, which issue policy guidance on everything from health care to information technology, is mostly effective, but he added that some obstacles block capable management of t
Digital Government