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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.
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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.
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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.
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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:
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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.
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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.
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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:
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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.
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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>.
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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&sid=1848282">this report</a> from Jason Miller of FedNewsRadio about his potential deputy:
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Howard Schmidt: What They Say
Last night, the White House <a href=http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1209/122109j2.htm?oref=todaysnews>officially confirmed</a> that Howard Schmidt, the former cyber adviser in the Bush administration, would be appointed to the much anticipated position of cyber coordinator. Since then, the comments have been flowing in. Below is just a taste of how the cybersecurity community is reacting to the pick.
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DHS Bumps Real ID Deadline
After months of <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20091124_7157.php>speculation</a>, the Homeland Security Department officially moved back the compliance deadline for Real ID, which requires states to issue licenses that meet federal security standards.
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Intellectual Property: Hindering Green IT?
Intellectual property rights ensure competitiveness, but do they hinder progress? In terms of green IT, it depends on who you ask.
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NonTweeters Beware
Tom Froemski at ZDNet poses a provocative opinion about those who fail to join the social networking movement to tweet, blog, edit wikis and comment on anything digital: "You might not have much of a viable future."
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Another New Site
The State Department on Thursday joined a growing list of federal agencies that are announcing Web site redesigns with great fanfare. The State and Homeland Security departments each scheduled press briefings to unveil their new online gadgetry. This raises the question: Do citizens expect the government to continuously refresh its public persona on the Web, like a commercial company?
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Policy on Fixing Reports Reversed
The board overseeing stimulus spending, acknowledging inaccuracies in job-creation data, has reversed a policy barring recovery fund recipients from fixing mistakes after reports are due, board officials announced on Tuesday.
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DHS Steps Up Information Sharing
State and local governments just may enjoy greater access to federal information, if recommendations from an interagency task force actually get implemented. Led by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder, the Presidential Interagency Task Force on Controlled Unclassified Information released <a href=http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/cui_task_force_rpt.pdf>a report</a> recommending a "single, standardized framework for making, safeguarding and disseminating sensitive but unclassified information."
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Biz-Filing Transparency Bill Moves
The House on Monday evening approved legislation that would make it easier to scrutinize data on companies receiving federal funds. It would require corporations to file activity reports to agencies in a uniform business language and require agencies to ensure the public can view the standardized financial information.
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Facing 21st Century Problems
Today's news that technicians have located <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20091214_7919.php">22 million missing</a> Bush administration e-mails will be rightly viewed as a victory for the transparency community, particularly the two organizations that pursued the lawsuit. Failing to install an electronics record keeping system will go down as another failure for the Bush administration, albeit a relatively minor one.
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