Digital Government

CBD Watch

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Warfighter Visualization. Sol. BAA 9637. (CBD Aug. 19) DARPA is soliciting proposals for research and development of visualization technologies for warfighters. The objective of the Warfighter Visualization program is to revolutionize and accelerate the a

Digital Government

Study pans fed security role as attack hits Justice site

Federal Information Technology officials caught offguard as hackers broke into the Justice Department's home page received a second wakeup call last week as an independent study was released showing how the majority of federal state and local agencies are wide open to electronic attack.Only days

Digital Government

Soldier faces court-martial in espionage case

FORT BRAGG N.C. The Army has charged Pfc. Eric Jenott assigned to the 35th Signal Brigade 18th Airborne Corps with espionage theft of computer passwords and computer crimes involving classified military networks that include unauthorized hacking of supposedly secure systems. The Army provided onl

Digital Government

CIO Council holds first meeting

The Year 2000 problem information security and multiagency contracts are among the issues that could be on the agenda of the newly formed Chief Information Officers Council according to officials who attended the group's inaugural meeting last Wednesday. The twohour session attended by about 40 CI

Digital Government

Awards

TRW Inc. A $51.3 million award to provide engineering and technical support. Office of the Director of Test Systems Engineering and Evaluation Defense Evaluation Support Activity Arlington Va. BBN Systems and Technologies. A $2.2 million award for highperformance distributed services technology. N

Digital Government

GSA sets 2000 language

As the controversy about federal response to Year 2000 issues grows the General Services Administration is set to publish as early as this week contract language that could substantially ease the procurement of software and services to help fix the problem. GSA had proposed several earlier versions

Digital Government

R&D pacts to supportsearch andretrieval

The Patent and Trademark Office in conjunction with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently awarded its firstever research and development contracts to help administer the complex patent process. Under the agreements which total $11 million the University of Massachusetts a

Digital Government

Forum's new unit to promote tech to all levels of government

The Smart Card Forum a prominent U.S. smart card technology trade group is forming a unit to promote the technology to federal state and local agencies. Michael Smith general manager for operations with Schlumberger Danyl Moorestown N.J. and a Smart Card Forum board member said the unit will provid

Digital Government

JWID Web sites serve up hot tech for warfighters

Gadgets and gizmos galore that's what's promised at the annual Joint Warfare Interoperability Demonstration (JWID). If you can't make it this week to one of the JWID '96 sites then you can tap into JWID on the World Wide Web on a home page hosted by the Army at www.army.mil/jwid96.htm. Once on th

Digital Government

Government should take advantage of outsourcing

Information technology is a late20th century supernova overwhelming the old and then rendering obsolete its own advancements. Technology opens new vistas creates opportunities and rewrites the rules about how to do business. A slide rule on my coffee table and an old portable typewriter bear mute

Digital Government

Webmasters advocate an open environment

Netscape Communications Corp. and Microsoft Corp. aim to compete for market share in World Wide Web browsers by emphasizing unique features of their particular products but that will not gain them any new federal fans. Government Webmasters see their job as making sure that the largest possible num

Digital Government

Army pacts offer low-end bargains

With the yearend buying season in full swing there's good news for shoppers seeking lowend PCs and notebooks. Vendors have upgraded their entrylevel models and in some cases are offering them at the same or lower prices. Recent industry price reductions on processors and memory are showing up on

Digital Government

California firm projects agencies into 3-D Worlds

Worlds Inc. is helping the U.S. Information Agency and the National Park Service develop online 3D environments designed to make searching for information electronically a little more like visiting a library or touring a park. Worlds San Francisco specializes in the field of multiuser networked v

Digital Government

Commerce to probe dumping claims; NSF pact put on hold

The National Science Foundation stalled a $35 million supercomputer buy last week following the Commerce Department's decision to investigate allegations that Japan's NEC Corp. is dumping supercomputers in the United States. 'It would be inappropriate for NSF to approve this procurement until the d

Digital Government

FGIPC formsint'l panel onsecure services

The Federation of Government Information Processing Councils (FGIPC) is creating an advisory council made up of officials from federal state local and foreign governments to focus on promoting secure electronic information exchange between different levels of government and U.S. citizens. FGIPC pre

Digital Government

AGENDA

SEPTEMBER 36 Information Resources Management Conference '96. Hershey Hotel and Conference Center. Hershey Pa. Call Betty Moore at (202) 5014298 fax (202) 5013805 email betty.moore@gsa.gov. 46 Information Warfare: Conference on Electronic Civil Defense. Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel. Arlingto

Digital Government

NTIS handles GSA documents

The Commerce Department's National Technical Information Service (NTIS) now manages and disseminates a collection of guides and documents from the General Services Administration's Office of Governmentwide Policy. Documents from the information technology and capital planning section collections ar

Digital Government

GAO: Culture slows IT overhaul

Deepseated acquisition 'culture' problems still threaten the Federal Aviation Administration's modernization programs despite recent major changes in the agency's procurement organization according to the General Accounting Office. In a report titled "Aviation Acquisition: A Comprehensive Strateg

Digital Government

Private practices not always best practices

The General Accounting Office recently weighed in on the Travel Reform and Savings Act (H.R. 3637) currently before Congress calling it an attempt to employ the socalled best of 'private sector travel practices' to the federal government. I really get a kick out of GAO's embrace of private sector

Digital Government

FAA: Learning the hard way

The Federal Aviation Administration's decision to scale back its program for modernizing air traffic control over the oceans because of budget pressures should raise a red flag for all federal agencies which are now planning for fiscal 1998. While it is common enough for Congress to cut funding for