Digital Government
Industry Watch
Viasoft gains federal customers Viasoft Inc. last week said it has six federal customers that have agreed to use its Year 2000 conversion tools under a federal pricing program launched earlier this year. The customers are the Air Force the Agriculture Department's Rural Development Agency the U.S.
Digital Government
Bell Atlantic rings up $11.7M win at FEMA
Bell Atlantic last week won a potential $11.7 million contract to provide wideranging telecommunications support to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Under the contract Bell Atlantic will provide FEMA with centralized acquisition ordering and coordination of local telecommunications service
Digital Government
Agencies peddle own Y2K fixes
The federal government roundly criticized for falling behind on the Year 2000 problem has paradoxically emerged as a provider of dateconversion services. A handful of federal agencies offer or soon will offer Year 2000 services proposing their own computers as test beds for other agencies' app
Digital Government
Set-Asides
Proposal would expand 8(a) program The Small Business Administration has proposed new rules for its 8(a) minority business development program designed to open the program to more firms and to give agencies more incentives to award contracts to small companies. Among the changes the proposal would
Digital Government
NASA's Electronic Handbooks offer paper-free management
Researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have developed a software tool that they say enables the largest endtoend completely electronic use of the Internet by the federal government to date. The tool called Electronic Handbooks (EHBs) is designed to eliminate all paperwork required to m
Digital Government
OAO lands $200M job at NASA
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has selected OAO Corp. to negotiate the award of the fiveyear $200 million Desktop and Network Services (DNS) outsourcing contract to support 7 000 PCs. Under the performancebased contract OAO will provide personnel computer hardware and software as well as
Digital Government
FEDWIRE
Langston ponders move to DARPA Navy chief information officer Marvin J. Langston is considering a position at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as director of information systems. Langston's office confirmed that he is talking with DARPA about the job and expects to decide by Oct. 1. An
Digital Government
Exodus of key IT policy-makers could jeopardize reform efforts
The departure of many senior federal policymakers leaves an information technology management void that must be filled to sustain reforms in procurement policy according to industry and government observers. Information technology officials in the private and public sectors say Steven Kelman John
Digital Government
Widespread cost cuts spur portables market
The notebook computer market is taking on new life in the 1997 buying season with a slew of price cuts by major vendors both on highend systems positioned as desktop replacements and on lowend systems running older Intel Corp. chips. In a twoweek period Acer America Corp. Compaq Computer Corp. D
Digital Government
Navy delivers top-notch Guam coverage; new TRAC site tracks FBI business
The Navy demonstrated the breadth of the World Wide Web and its ability to compress time and distance with the service's online coverage of the Korean Air Lines Flight 801 crash on Guam earlier this month. Thanks to the Web the Navy put Guam thousands of miles in distance and a day away in time
Digital Government
OSS, SRA team for 'virtual' support to intell community
Open Source Solutions Inc. has teamed with SRA International Inc. to provide 'virtual' intelligence support to the U.S. intelligence community and other federal agencies. The aim is to integrate SRA's information technology expertise with OSS' worldwide network of intelligence professionals and sub
Digital Government
Federal Bytes
Inside Washington Government watchdogs looking for examples of open government need look no farther than NASA employee Dave Lavery. Lavery telerobotics technology program manager in the space agency's Office of Space Science has a Toshiba CCD desktop camera in his office that allows viewers to chec
Digital Government
Army pact to track supplies globally
The Army earlier this month awarded a $111 million contract to Savi Technology Inc. to supply equipment software and services that will enable the Defense Department to track supplies in transit across the globe. The Radio Frequency Identification Equipment acquisition is geared toward realizing wh
Digital Government
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Smaller is better I was pleased to see Jennifer Jones' article reporting the current restructuring of the U.S. Information Agency's (USIA) embassy libraries into Information Resource Centers (IRCs) ['Embassy libraries close doors to public go online ' FCW July 28]. A shift from the larger highmain
Digital Government
ATM network sets stage for multimedia applications
The Air Force late last month unveiled a new Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) network at Charleston Air Force Base S.C. that officials said will position users there to exploit multimedia applications in the future. Master Sgt. Ted Crincoli said the base began installing Cisco Systems Inc. Lightscr
Digital Government
Awards
CACI Inc. A $4.3 million award to provide Year 2000 services including planning conversion and verification. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Washington D.C. Force 3 Inc. A $4.1 million award for information technology services including telecommunications services. General Services Administration I
Digital Government
Thie tackles parks' preservation
As a lover of dogs a fan of auto racing and a custodian of America's icons Don Thie knows all about competition. He's seen it at the Indianapolis 500. He's seen it in dog shows. And he's seen it in the budget process in which he tries to wrangle as much money as possible for information technology
Digital Government
CBD Watch
Office of Naval Intelligence. Generalpurpose information technology equipment. Sol. N00015970022. (CBD Aug. 12) The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) has developed a World Wide Webbased tool called SeaLink which enables customers to access various command intelligence databases including those w
Digital Government
Lucent takes aim at $2B in federal opportunities
A year and a half ago telecommunications behemoth AT&T spun off Lucent Technologies Inc. and computer manufacturer NCR Corp. as part of massive restructuring. Now Lucent a giant by its own right with $27 billion in annual revenue in communications products and services is making a name for itself i
Digital Government