Ideas

System Preserves E-Mail, 'Berry Messages

The administration on Friday disclosed the mechanics of how it is preserving unclassified White House emails, including BlackBerry messages, in response to a settlement between the nonprofit National Security Archive and the Executive Office of the President.

Ideas

TSA: The Tech Vs. Human Argument

Slate held a contest for readers to submit ideas on how the Transportation Security Administration could improve security at airports. The site received 375 submissions, which were judged by a panel of four judges:

Ideas

Take Your Fed To Work Day

Private sector executives on Thursday let Obama cxabinet deputy secretaries learn the secret behind their success: technology-driven operations.

Ideas

Haiti: What Agencies Are Tweeting

Jose Antonio Vargas at the Huffington Post reminded readers about the power of the Web and social networking during times of natural disasters, such as the earthquake in Haiti:

Ideas

Social Security Pays Docs to E-file

The Social Security Administration, bogged down with a backlog of disability claims and oncoming onslaught of baby boomer paperwork, is trying to expedite processing by paying medical providers $15 to submit applicants' records electronically.

Ideas

Acquisitions Solutions Buys Consulting Firm

Acquisition Solutions Inc. purchased nearly all of the assets of ICOR Partners LLC, a government consulting firm, and has created a business unit to specialize in management solutions. Acquisition Solutions provides agencies with training sand program management services, development of contract requirements, and process improvement and other contracting support. ICOR offers enterprise architecture, governance, business transformation, performance and portfolio management advice.

Ideas

A Discussion on the IT Budget -- 2

Bob Evans, senior vice president and content director at TechWeb, and I have been discussing federal IT spending -- too much, not enough, or how do you know? It was prompted by a <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=222200171">blog item</a> he posted on Jan. 5. We started the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=222200171">e-mail discussion</a> shortly after.

Ideas

Chopra Chided at CES

Federal Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra spoke at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada on Friday and his <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/01/aneesh-chopra-innovation-open-technology-standards.html">message</a> was one that should be familiar to Nextgov readers: He spoke abstractly of making government more open to innovation and specifically emphasized the importance of standards in health information technology.

Ideas

Health IT Incentives Out Of Reach?

Health information technology advocates say new federal requirements for hospitals to become eligible to receive electronic health record incentives set the bar too high.

Ideas

Spy Handbook for Kids

Most have probably heard of classics like <i>Charlotte's Web</i>, <i>James and the Giant Peach</i> and the whole Judy Blume library, but how about a children's how-to book on becoming a spy?

Ideas

A Discussion on the IT Budget

Bob Evans, senior vice president and content director at TechWeb, this week took on Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=222200171">in his blog</a> for adding $5 billion to -- rather than cutting -- the $76 billion federal information technology budget.

Ideas

Cybersecurity Appointee Makes History

Since his campaign President Obama has repeatedly emphasized how he wants to attract a more diverse group of Americans into public service. Yesterday he advanced that goal by appointing Amanda Simpson to be senior technical advisor to the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security.

Ideas

Mashup Probes White House Visitors

Less than a week after the White House began releasing visitor logs on a regular basis, watchdog groups already are linking the names of people doing business there to campaign finance stats online for all to see.

Ideas

Kundra: CIO of the Year?

Like any publication <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20091229_9301.php?oref=topstory">scrambling</a> <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20091229_7623.php?oref=topnews">to fill</a> those dark days at the end of the year, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/leadership/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=222002611">InformationWeek</a> handed out its annual awards in December.And there was one name included on the list that may come as a surprise to Nextgov readers: Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, who was named "Chief of the Year" by the magazine:

Ideas

HHS Defines 'Meaningful Use' for EHRs

The Health and Human Services Department on Wednesday set preliminary terms dictating who will and will not get billions of dollars in stimulus funds for buying electronic health records systems.

Ideas

Order Addresses Digital Declassification

A much anticipated redo of classification policy released by the White House this week confers new responsibilities for addressing the impending problem of reviewing mountains of electronic records for declassification.

Ideas

Would-be Bomber Fallout Piles Up

<em>New York Times</em> columnist Maureen Dowd pointed out in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/30/opinion/30dowd.html?_r=1">her Wednesday column</a> the incongruity of a President Obama's technological savvy and his inability to prod agencies to move out of the past:

Ideas

TSA: Overly Reliant on Technology?

Anyone who has watched the news during the past few days has heard extensive commentary about how a terrorist managed to board a plane with explosives on Christmas Day. Some blame inefficient management of the watch lists, others blame lax security procedures. But one commentator who spoke during a local NBC affiliate broadcast gave the most backwards rationale of all: over reliance on technology.

Ideas

Put Desktops In Cloud

An EPA senior official who earlier this month challenged a Washington online community to "put your desktop into the cloud" -- or work completely on the Web -- has generated <a href="http://semweb.meetup.com/31/calendar/11944383/">some grassroots support</a>.

Ideas

On Deck: The Cyber Deputy

After a long wait, the country finally has it's first cybersecurity czar in the person of Howard Schmidt. Like most of the experts, having interviewed Schmidt I'm well aware the depth of his experience and expertise in this area. But any federal manager is only as good as the people who support him, which is why I was very interested to see <a href="http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=35&amp;sid=1848282">this report</a> from Jason Miller of FedNewsRadio about his potential deputy: