Digital Government

GSI lobs suit against $3B DISN contract

Government Systems Inc. took its challenge of a $3 billion Defense Department communications integration and support contract to a federal court in Illinois last week, a month after filing a similar protest with the General Accounting Office. GSI filed suit in federal district court in East St. Lou

Digital Government

Mapping standards for cooperation

When John Moeller talks about geographic information systems (GIS), he sounds more like a poet or novelist than a scientist. 'When you get down to it, the thing that links all of us together and determines who we are is geography,' Moeller said. 'That's what holds communities together: the geograph

Digital Government

Rules seek to emulate private-sector planning

New budgeting guidelines issued by the Office of Management and Budget this month demand that agencies treat their information technology acquisitions more as private companies do as investments that contribute to the bottom line. Revisions to OMB Circular A11, Part 3, "Planning, Budgeting and

Digital Government

Network operations center takes off

The Federal Aviation Administration unveiled this month the Enterprise Network Operation Center (ENOC), which will centralize network management chores for the FAA's nine regions and provide improved communication for employees. The ENOC will be manned by RMS Technologies and Digicon Corp., which w

Digital Government

Informix, Netscape, BTG team on servers

BTG Inc., Informix Software Inc. and Netscape Communications Corp. have announced a strategic alliance to compete in a growing federal market for highpower Internet server solutions. The trio is assembling software packages for developing highcapacity World Wide Web sites that can store and serve

Digital Government

Compaq debuts network management software

Continuing its quest to become a leader in the internetworking market, Compaq Computer Corp. today announced new Netelligent networking products and a closer relationship with Cisco Systems Inc. The new products will be available on the General Services Administration schedule in August. Earlier th

Digital Government

Search high-court cases or catch the buzz at the HIVE

You can read a selection of recent and past decisions of the Supreme Court on a World Wide Web service maintained by Cornell University at http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/supct.table.html. Visitors to the site especially those more fluent in legalese than in computer code will be relieved to f

Digital Government

GSA schedule sales up 30 percent

The summer of '96 is shaping up to be a hot one for vendors on the General Services Administration schedule. Scores for the first half of the fiscal year are in, and the verdict is that sales are running 33 percent ahead of last year's pace. According to International Data Corp. analyst Jan Morgan

Digital Government

High tech aids search for answers

When TWA Flight 800 plunged into the ocean just 15 minutes out of John F. Kennedy International Airport, the USCGC Juniper, the first of a new generation of hightech Coast Guard cutters, took up a position at the crash site and coordinated the early stages of the searchandrecovery effort. Since

Digital Government

House panel backs on-line access

The House Rules Committee is supporting a resolution sponsored by Rep. Rick White (RWash.) that would require House committees to provide timely online access to hearing transcripts, bills, amendments, votes, rules and other information via the Internet. At a committee hearing last week, White sa

Digital Government

Editorial

What's the problem with GATEC? or many supporters of electronic commerce, it was very bad news that Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) had reorganized and would be eliminating the organization that created and supported the Government Acquisition Through Electronic Commerce solution sele

Digital Government

Hughes, ZDS detail portable wares

Hughes Data Systems Inc. and Zenith Data Systems unveiled their portable computer offerings on the Air Force Desktop V contract, as industry analysts and other vendors predicted a booming federal market for the goanywhere machines. Both companies kept the identity and configurations of their porta

Digital Government

NEC's new desktops to lower admin costs

NEC Technologies Inc. is expected today to announce its latest PowerMate PCs, ranging from entrylevel Pentium systems to topoftheline Pentium Pro PCs and designed for lower lifecycle costs. The new PowerMate models the first new machines since the company merged its nonJapanese PC operation

Digital Government

ROSTER

Rear Adm. Edward Kristensen, commander of Logistics Group Two, based in Norfolk, Va., was assigned coordinator of fleet support for Navy vessels supporting the search for and recovery of debris from TWA Flight 800. Kristensen will be aboard Landing Ship Dock51, USS Hill, operating off the coast o

Digital Government

IBM snares $93M ASCI pact for machine at Livermore

Silicon Graphics says it is onboard with DOE too IBM last week won a $93 million contract with the Energy Department's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to build a supercomputer capable of processing 3 trillion to 4 trillion calculations per second. The award is part of DOE's Accelerated Stra

Digital Government

OFPP pushes agencies for pilot-project ideas

Agencies that want to test acquisition ideas have the opportunity nominate their procurements for one of more than two dozen pilot projects being planned by the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. Under the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (FASA) and the Information Technology Management Refo

Digital Government

Cabletron offers feds trade-in special

Taking advantage of the new flexibility of the General Services Administration's multipleaward schedule (MAS) program, Cabletron Systems Inc. has begun allowing schedule customers to trade in old Cabletron gear for credit against purchases of new equipment. Marsha Holland, director of business dev

Digital Government

How can companies protect data?

The following question was asked by a company official: We often provide sensitive business information to government agencies as part of the proposals submitted under various solicitations. Standard solicitation provisions state that the information will be treated as confidential, and in this con

Digital Government

NFC chooses CD-ROMs over paper for financial reports

The Agriculture Department's National Finance Center (NFC) has developed a system that allows it to distribute financial reports and data to its clients on CDROM rather than paper, saving the agency $7 million over five years. The NFC provides financial and administrative services to more than 40

Digital Government

New file system could be blessing and curse

Microsoft Corp. will introduce a new file system with this fall's OEM release of Windows 95. The release OEM Service Release 2 will be installed on new computers. Those PCs already running Windows 95 won't be affected by this release. Or will they? The new release will include FAT32, a file sys