Digital Government
INS awards Wang $538M pact
The Immigration and Naturalization Service last week awarded Wang Government Services Inc. a $538 million information technology services contract that will support the whole range of INS systems. Under the fiveyear Facilities Operations Support (FOS) contract Wang Government Services will manage
Digital Government
Massa thinks big as director of Cisco's federal unit
When Cisco Systems Inc. chief executive officer John Chambers recently asked Jim Massa director of Cisco's federal operations what his plans were for the group Massa replied 'I want to be $1 billion in size before Cisco is $10 billion in size." Unmoved Chambers responded 'Well that's all well and
Digital Government
DOD exec keeps his eyes on prize
Norman Brown director of the Defense Department's Software Program Managers Network has every reason to be pessimistic about the potential for helping the department get control of the cost and quality of large software projects. But amazingly he is not. Certainly the statistics offered by recent m
Digital Government
CSC shows briefing center
Computer Sciences Corp. last week took the wraps off its $30 million 36 000squarefoot conference center in Falls Church Va. which will host federal and commercial organizations. The Executive Briefing Center features videoconferencing facilities equipped with PictureTel Corp. equipment computerb
Digital Government
White House promotes smart card app creation
The Clinton administration plans to convene a group of agencies that regularly work closely with the public to develop smart card applications for delivering frequently demanded services.'The problem is no one wants to go first " said Greg Woods deputy director of the National Performance Review i
Digital Government
Federal Bytes
Dumbcriminal files While the FBI is often loathe to reveal details of its investigations we had to chuckle at a recent tidbit gleaned from a meeting of the Computer System Security and Privacy Advisory Board. According to Susan Koeppen a trial attorney with the Justice Department's Computer Crime
Digital Government
Religious-freedom regs poised on slippery slope
President Clinton has issued an executive order on religious freedom and the workplace that is destined to provoke and antagonize many federal employees. Clinton said new guidelines contained in the executive order will affirm that federal employees may engage in personal religious activities while
Digital Government
Fedwire
Agriculture CIO issues Y2K deadlines As a result of the Agriculture Department's poor progress in preparing to fix the Year 2000 problem USDA chief information officer Anne Reed sent a memo last Friday ordering USDA agencies to assess all missioncritical systems and submit a detailed plan that lay
Digital Government
New Sybase product manages multiple data types
Sybase Inc. last week introduced a new version of its database management system that enables users to manage different types of data such as audio video text and geospatial information. Adaptive Server Enterprise 11.5 which is an enhancement to Sybase SQL Server 11 also incorporates objectoriente
Digital Government
Agencies expand Web sites to meet growing demand
As an increasing number of Americans are taking to the Internet in search of government information agencies with popular World Wide Web sites are beefing up their systems to meet the public's demand for online realtime data. NASA for example had 47 million hits on July 8 four days after the Pathf
Digital Government
Set-Asides
Rep. SSA in PEBES spat Rep. Jim Bunning (RKen.) chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee's Subcommittee on Social Security and John Callahan the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration have squared off over the security of SSA's new service to provide Internet access to ben
Digital Government
Court orders NASA to save space station project e-mail
A federal court recently issued a protective order barring NASA from deleting any electronic mail associated with the design and development of its Space Station Freedom project a predecessor to the International Space Station. The recent order from the U.S. Court of Federal Claims which came to li
Digital Government
Awards
Northrop Grumman Corp. A $4.3 million award for Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System interim contractor support. Electronic Systems Center Directorate of Joint STARS Contracts Hanscom Air Force Base Mass. Computing Distributors International. A $1.3 million award for AWACS hard disk subsys
Digital Government
Feds signal deepening Y2K crisis (Part 1)
In the wake of Office of Management and Budget threats to bar four agencies from buying information technology in fiscal 1999 at least one top manager has asserted that his agency will need 'a massive infusion of money' to make its computers Year 2000compliant. Jim Harrel the Transportation Depart
Digital Government
NIST preps policy plan
The National Institute of Standards and Technology is finalizing a guide designed to help agencies craft a security policy to ward off widespread vulnerabilities associated with Internet use. While Internet connectivity offers enormous benefits to users it is dangerous for sites with low levels of
Digital Government
GSA's digital signature plans hinge on standards
The General Services Administration hopes to award in January a governmentwide contract for digitalsignature services to give citizens secure access to private data but policymakers at the agency must settle issues related to federal standards before the solicitation can be issued this fall. Judi
Digital Government
NIH taps 45 to share $2B ECS II business
The National Institutes of Health awarded contracts last week to 45 vendors who will now compete for a potential $2 billion in business through the Electronic Computer Store II program. NIH chose the winners from an unprecedented 78 bidders who sought a piece of the governmentwide hardware and soft
Digital Government
CBT inks licensing deal with Air Force
CBT Systems Ltd. Menlo Park Calif. signed a licensing agreement this month with the Air Force that gives all Air Force personnel unlimited free access to more than 500 computertraining programs. The contract which has been valued at more than $500 000 runs for one fiscal year and covers interactiv
Digital Government
EIA predicts spending to stay flat through 2002
Spending on federal information technology will remain nearly level at roughly $27 billion a year through 2002 according to projections that the Electronic Industries Association (EIA) plans to release this week at its annual Federal Information Systems Forecast. Although showing relatively flat gr
Digital Government