Digital Government

GeoResearch signs R&D deal with Census for mapping tech

Mapping vendor GeoResearch Inc. has signed a research and development agreement to help the Census Bureau achieve greater accuracy in its population count, the company announced late last month. Population information serves as the foundation for creating and redrawing congressional districts, and

Digital Government

FAA delays STARS rollout

The Federal Aviation Administration late last month said it will delay rollout of its critical $1 billion air traffic control modernization program by at least nine months to fix potentially hazardous design flaws identified by air traffic controllers and technicians.

Digital Government

NPR effort to take flight after USPS folds WINGS

The U.S. Postal Service's decision last month to shut down its Internet site that offered the public integrated government services underscores the challenges associated with governmentwide electronic service delivery. The Web Interactive Network of Government Services (WINGS), which USPS launched

Digital Government

Reversing a 'Brain Drain' in Green County, Pa.

Green County, Pa., located in the Rust Belt and saddled with a poverty factor of more than 25 percent, has spent decades trying to recover from a mass exodus of workers that has left the area's work force depleted.

Digital Government

Senate wants industry to pay costs of moving spectrum

In an action that could dampen commercial interest in future spectrum auctions, the Senate fiscal 1999 Defense authorization bill proposed that privatesector organizations reimburse federal agencies for expenses up to $5 billion associated with reallocating radio spectrum frequencies. The Federal

Digital Government

Justice, Microsoft duke it out in cyberspace

Anyone with access to the World Wide Web can download the U.S. government's documents in its antitrust case against Microsoft Corp. But anyone who decides to download the U.S. v. Microsoft case documents from the Justice Department Web site (www.usdoj.gov) will need a very large disk drive and an a

Digital Government

Draft report outlines PKI policy

To improve the public's access to government services and information and to tighten the security of unclassified government information systems, the federal government must work in partnership with the private sector to design and build a publickey infrastructure (PKI), according to a report bein

Digital Government

Virginia's IT Game Plan

Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore unveiled his technology master plan last month, naming computer industry executive and government policymaker Don Upson as the state's first secretary of technology and forming an information technology commission to advise the state.

Digital Government

New Pentium II PCs crank on benchmarks

TESTING BY Andreas Uiterwijk Not even a year ago, government power users were eyeing Intel Corp.'s justreleased 266 MHz Pentium II processor. Now, they have Intel's newest processor and chipset the 400 MHz Pentium II processor and the 440BX chipset to consider. To find out how much faster the

Digital Government

GAO targets Army's Year 2000 effort

The Army's Year 2000 program could fail because of management problems, an incomplete test plan and other reasons, according to a General Accounting Office report released last wee

Digital Government

In Milwaukee Partnership, Parents and Kids Learn Together

Underpriviledged families in innercity Milwaukee are learning computer, reading and writing skills at public technology centers.

Digital Government

Computer Sciences garners $131 million contract option

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center has exercised an option to continue an existing contract with Computer Sciences Corp. for the provision of information services to Marshall and to NASA agencywide. The option, valued at $131 million, covers the period of May 1, 1998, through April 30, 1999. It co

Digital Government

Medieval history takes Lipkin on high-tech career path

There are not many paths leading medieval history graduates to jobs at technology companies along the Beltway. But Joel Lipkin found one. While earning his doctorate in medieval history at Catholic University, Washington, D.C., Lipkin, now vice president of business development at Government Techno

Digital Government

Deca dumps commissary upgrade plan

A plan to modernize the Defense Commissary Information System (DCIS) suffered a fatal blow last month when the Defense Commissary Agency (Deca) canceled the program in the face of rising Year 2000 costs and an inability to accommodate commercial best practices and systems. The contract, awarded to

Digital Government

HP adds new model to PC workstation lineup

HewlettPackard Co. has introduced a new midrange Kayak PC workstation and refreshed two existing Kayak models with faster Intel Corp. processors and the new 440BX chipset. The new addition to the Kayak line, the XAs, is a higherend version of the XA model. The XAs, available in desktop and mini

Digital Government

AMS to update financial management system

The General Services Administration in May began switching its decadesold, mainframebased financial management system to a new offtheshelf, client/server system provided by American Management Systems Inc. Bill Topolewski, director of GSA's Office of Financial Management Systems, said the agenc

Digital Government

Wang unveils Tempest version of Cisco router

Wang Global introduced two new Tempest networking products, including its first Tempest router, for the intelligence community and other agencies that are concerned about the security of their data. The Wang Tempest router is based on the Cisco Systems Inc. 2514 router, and the Tempest 10/100 megab

Digital Government

New switch products from GDC, Fore improve ATM bandwidth

Asynchronous Transfer Mode technology, still viewed as the preferred future networking technology by most agencies, continues to move forward with announcements by General DataComm Inc. of an upgrade to its voiceoverATM technology and by Fore Systems Inc. of a new highbandwidth switch. GDC offic

Digital Government

Clinton overlooks the obvious: Y2K

When President Clinton last month unveiled his plan to protect the nation's critical computer systems from cyberattacks, he left out what is arguably a bigger threat to these systems: the Year 2000 problem. In a speech delivered to the graduating midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy, Clinton outlin

Digital Government

Texas Twist

It may sound like a dance, but Texas' TWIST is a system that actually eliminates steps for the state's citizens to get from welfare to work. TWIST, a.k.a. The Workforce Information System of Texas