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Open Government Momentum Continues
Agencies continue to innovate in response to the Obama administration's open government initiatives, said panelists at a Wednesday event sponsored by Government Executive, Nextgov's sister publication.
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Office Of Technology Assessment Reboot
Engineers, scientists and at least one lawmaker are pushing like never before to resuscitate a legislative agency that once provided Congress with technological expertise.
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USA.gov Plus YouTube
The General Services Administration wants to know: has USA.gov, the all-encompassing government information portal, made your life easier?
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Time to Regulate Internet Security?
James Lewis, director of the technology and public policy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and one of Washington's more respected cybersecurity experts, is on schedule to give testimony Tuesday afternoon at the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. The panel's topic: "Cybersecurity: Next Steps to Protect Our Critical Infrastructure." <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090401_6424.php>The Cybersecurity Act of 2009</a> will be a topic of conversation.
Ideas
Second Life at Work
The Agriculture Department is going virtual, and employees may soon be able to conduct business through 3D avatars rather than traditional teleconferencing, email or good old-fashioned staff meetings.
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Over the Moon @Nasa
Walter Cronkite may be dead, and we no longer have the sense that television can bring the nation to the moon at the same time, but Nasa's Twitter feed manages to give its 270,000 followers the chance to almost be in space with its astronauts -- in real time.
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There's an App for That
If you've ever had a burning desire to read Zachary Taylor's inaugural address, wondered about the exact wording of the Mayflower Compact or simply forgotten the 17th Amendment, don't worry. There's an app for that.
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Nominate a Colleague for an Award
Do you know a federal manager who recently took risks to push through a bold idea, policy or program that uses technology to make government work better or improve public services? If so, we'd like to hear your story by <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov_awards/>nominating</a> your colleague for a Nextgov Award.
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IBM to Merge Contracting Systems
The government announced on Thursday that IBM U.S. Federal has won a $74.4 million dollar contract to consolidate disparate systems that track contractor performance. The reconfiguration is intended to make it easier for federal acquisition workers to monitor the purchase of equipment, supplies, information technology and telecommunications services governmentwide, according to the General Services Administration, the agency that awarded the contract.
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Swab for Security
The latest screening technology to hit airports nationwide is perhaps less controversial than full-body scanners but less familiar to travelers: Explosive Trace Detection units that test swabs of luggage and passengers' hands for explosives.
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Social Networking: In. Blogging: Out.
Teens and young adults are moving away from blogging and using Facebook and other social media sites in increasing numbers, according to a <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2010/02/facebook_social_networks_incre.html" target="blank">recent study</a> from the Pew Research Center.
Ideas
Another Government Dashboard
The Office of Management and Budget on Tuesday announced the debut of another <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/jsp/Utilities/index.jsp" target="blank">IT dashboard</a>, this time as a window into the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
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Crowd-Sourced Digitization Kicks Off
A new experiment in crowd-sourced digitization kicked off last week with the inaugural meeting of the International Amateur Scanning League. This new club's first task will be to organize its volunteers to digitize 1,500 DVDs from the National Archives and Records Administration so that the content can be shared on YouTube, the Internet Archive and Public.Resource.Org's Public Domain Stock Footage Theater for free.
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The Administration in 140 Characters
The Democratic National Committee last week announced a new job opening sure to invite a flood of responses. The position? <a href="http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/socnetsmanager" target="blank">Social networks manager</a>, otherwise known as Barack Obama's twitterer.
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DARPA's Mad Science?
Wired had a field day decrying Darpa's proposed project, BioDesign, as a "mad science" project to "re-write the laws of evolution to the military's advantage, creating 'synthetic organisms' that can live forever -- or can be killed with the flick of a molecular switch." If that sounded just a little alarming, the fine print of Darpa's FY2011 budget didn't help placate enraged readers.
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Xbox to Aid E-Health?
The Xbox, Microsoft's powerful video game console, may soon be good for more than just virtual basketball games and war simulations. Company researchers currently are looking to adapt the device to various healthcare needs, including the transfer and display of electronic medical records.
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OSTP Launches New Web Site
The Office of Science and Technology Policy on Wednesday announced the launch of its redesigned <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ostp" target="blank">Web portal</a>, which updates the old site's features and incorporates a few new ones.
Ideas
Get Ready for Cyber ShockWave
A Washington think tank will host a simulated cyberattack on the United States on Tuesday to demonstrate how the government would respond to a large-scale attack on the nation's computer systems and networks.
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