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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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Science Committee Chair to Retire
Government is losing another experienced representative in technology Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, said he plans to retire, CongressDaily's Tech Daily Dose blog <a href="http://techdailydose.nationaljournal.com/2009/12/rep-gordon-to-retire.php">reports</a>.
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Openness vs. Project Management
Two discussions of note occurred on Thursday during the <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20091210_8194.php?oref=topnews">Senate Budget Committee hearing</a> where Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra and other technology executives appeared.
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Facebook Suicide
You can bet your "[agency].gpv/ open Web page" (refer to bottom of page 2 in the Office of Management and Budget's <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/memoranda_2010/m10-06.pdf">open government directive</a>) that agencies are going to employ social media tools.
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Transparency Bill Moves Onward
A House committee on Thursday passed legislation that would make it easier for citizens to download and search information on the finances of companies given government money. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee agreed to add the measure to a bill that is moving faster, S. 303, the 2009 Federal Financial Management Improvement Act.
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Senators Want Answers on Networx
Whenever you've got what looks like a clear-cut case of government waste, some sort of manufactured political outrage inevitably follows. Taking up the mantle of the indignant taxpayer this week: Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The reason for their indignation? Millions in missed savings due to <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090814_8767.php?oref=search">delays in the transition</a> to the Networx telecom contract.
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Powers-King to Retire from GSA
Just confirmed that <b>Mary Powers-King</b>, director of governmentwide acquisition contracts and Schedule 70 for GSA's Integrated Technology Service will retire shortly after the New Year. Powers-King has 31 years of federal service, including more than 25 years managing IT programs. No successor has been named yet, although her deputy, <b>Jim Ghiloni</b>, is probably near the top of the list.
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Toast To Transparency
In Washington on Tuesday night, the Sunlight Foundation is hosting an impromptu transparency happy hour to "mull" over the open government directive that the White House issued this morning.
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Open Government Directive Arrives
The White House, <a href="http://techinsider.nextgov.com/2009/11/remember_the_open_government_directive.php">at long last</a>, has a release date for the transparency directive that President Obama announced on his first day at work: Tuesday, Dec. 8 at 11:00 a.m.
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Public Vote on Ways to SAVE
FedBlog guest blogger Dan Munz had an <a href="http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/12/save_some_money.php">interesting post</a> on Monday about the White House allowing the public to vote on the president's <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/save-award">Securing Americans Value and Efficiency (SAVE) award</a>:
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FDA, That's an Apple, as in iMac
Blogger <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/author/mg/">MG Siegler</a> at Tech Crunch recently <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/04/fda-imac/">wrote</a> the delivery -- or lack thereof -- of his new Apple iMac <em>computer</em>. It seems was held up in Louisville, Ky., because UPS, which was delivering the package, said it had filed documents with the Food and Drug Administration and the Agriculture Department to get approval. Did the word "apple" confuse the agencies?
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