Ideas
GSA's Tech Team Keeps Busy
The General Services Administration's revamped <a href=http://techinsider.nextgov.com/2010/05/gsa_adds_tech_office.php>Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies</a> has its hands full with tech projects designed to engage the public, promote openness and improve government innovation and efficiency.
Ideas
A Stolen Government Laptop -- Ho Hum
Now it's just a dog-bites-man story. Journalists usually look for the man-bites-dog news -- the unusual, atypical stories. A stolen government laptop, which compromises government workers' personal identity, just no longer fits that bill. Still, here's another one.
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I'm a BARF Forum Member, Thank You
Government loves acronyms. So do technologists. But sometimes people don't think through the name of their organization, contract or program -- until it's too late. I'm not so sure the folks over at the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board were oblivious to what their group spelled out as an acronym. After all, their job is to rat out contractors or agencies that don't follow the rules. Someone over there had a sense of humor.
Ideas
War of the Smart Phones
The BlackBerry seems to be the accessory of choice in Washington. In bars, offices, the gym, you name it, you're likely to see more than a few of these gadgets. But could other smart phones catch up, even in the federal government?
Ideas
Data.gov To House New APIs
A series of new application programming interfaces - tools that facilitate interaction between datasets and other software programs - will make it easier for developers to play and interact with the content on <a href="http://www.data.gov/">Data.gov</a>, the online repository of federal information and a cornerstone of the open government initiative.
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Navigating the Do-Not-Pay List(s)
White House officials on Friday announced they will begin rolling out governmentwide a mashup device currently used to detect stimulus-spending fraud, but they also noted a technological weakness preventing agencies from quickly spotting potential improper payments.
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Ready For Telework?
Federal employees may want to telework, but only a small number have access to the resources and support necessary to do so, according to a new survey.
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Twitter Down
Twitter, the ever-growing popular microblogging social network, has experienced some trouble in the past few days. Users increasingly have seen periods during which the site is over capacity and it slows down as a result. Company execs have acknowledged the site isn't quite ready to handle the high traffic demands, but as these delays become more regular, it begs the question: What should Twitter really be used for, and does the federal government fit that model?
Ideas
No Passing Grade For e-Passport
The technology behind e-Passports, the relatively recent identity document upgrade to include biometrics and other personal information, may not be safe from terrorists, counterfeiters and other malicious attacks. In fact, data security has been a key concern about e-Passports for several years.
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Advantage of Executive (Cyber) Privilege
What's the biggest advantage of taking the job of cybersecurity coordinator at the White House? Being able to turn your nose up at Congress, apparently.
Ideas
Labor Changes Career Video Contest
The Obama administration's strategy of hosting contests to find answers to the nation's problems seems to be an exercise in trial and error, <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20100430_9749.php">as predicted</a>.
Ideas
Classroom Tech Questioned Again
<em>The Washington Post</em> ran an <a href=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/10/AR2010061005522.html>article</a> on Friday that questions just how much -- if at all -- the high-tech gizmos like whiteboards (which replaced chalk boards) that schools have been spending millions of dollars improve learning and test scores. From the article:
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Twitter Seeks "Government Liaison"
Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/job.html?jvi=oBbkVfwL,Job">announced</a> this week that it would be hiring its first DC-based "government liaison" to boost government presence on the social networking site. This sparked off an intense debate over the kind of person it would take to get the government to embrace social media.
Ideas
Orszag Wants Innovation
Tom Shoop, the editor in chief and author of the FedBlog at Nextgov's sister site Government Executive, started a bit of a debate on Wednesday over the supposedly sorry state of the government's computing power -- or is that the government's sorry state of <em>leveraging</em> computing power to create interactive apps that the public can use?
Ideas
OMB to Tackle Financial Systems
Developing financial management systems that work has been a <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20081002_7594.php">big, persistent pain</a> for agencies for years and years. But now the Office of Management and Budget wnats to see if they can provide a solution. The office is getting ready to issue new rules to try to rein in the runaway systems, according to an <a href="http://federalnewsradio.com/?nid=35&sid=1976572">article</a> by Jason Miller at Federal News Radio.
Ideas
Drones: Playstation Mentality?
As the CIA increasingly is making drone strikes the centerpiece in the war on terror, it is shaking the boundaries of international law and risking "developing a 'Playstation' mentality to killing," warned a senior United Nations official last week.
Ideas
Your Archives, Through Social Media
The National Archives and Records Administration is going all-in with social media in hopes of assisting and expanding its audience. And the agency isn't approaching it haphazardly--look across Facebook, Flickr and Twitter and you'll find consistent names and information, as well as a centralized "one-stop shop" for social media on the <a href=http://archives.gov>Archives.gov</a> website.
Ideas
Wired: Army Arrests Docs Leaker
Wired's Threat Level blog reported late Sunday that Army officials have arrested a U.S. intelligence analyst who allegedly leaked military and State Department documents to <a href=http://wikileaks.org/>Wikileaks</a>, a whistleblower Web site. The site posted in April a video of a 2007 U.S. helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed innocent civilians.
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