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Lieberman previews cybersecurity bill
Another day, another cybersecurity bill. Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., previewed the bullet points of a measure he plans to introduce later this year, which includes procurement reform that requires vendors to comply with security standards when selling technology solutions to federal agencies.
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Recovery.gov Missing Pieces
Recovery.gov on Friday will sport a few improvements and a lot more offerings, but perhaps one piece of valuable information will be missing: the demographics of the people receiving money.
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Google Gets Virginians to the Polls
With the Virginia general election only a week away, residents of the commonwealth looking for voting information might find one of Google's latest gadgets useful.
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Nothing on the Internet is Dead
A few weeks ago, the <em>Wall Street Journal</em> published a piece about <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203803904574431151489408372.html">how e-mail's reign</a> as the king of online communication is over. Author Jessica Vascellaro didn't decree the death of e-mail, she just argued the constant stream of updates social media services like Facebook and Twitter provide are more in sync with today's permanently plugged-in approach to the Web.
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O Gov Directive? Not This Month
While the administration had hoped to issue a long-awaited open government directive <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20091002_5291.php">before the end of the month</a>, sources close to the process expect that it will be out within the next couple weeks.
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Obama Launches Global Tech Fund
The White House on Friday invited private equity fund managers to <a href="http://www.opic.gov/investment-funds/calls-for-proposals/global-technology-innovation-fund/">submit proposals</a> for the establishment of a fund that will invest in technology access in countries with large Muslim populations.
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Who's Gonna Win a Webby?
Early-bird entries for the Webbies, an international contest often called the Emmys of the Internet, are being <a href="http://www.webbyawards.com/index.php">accepted until Oct. 30,</a> and I am really hoping a number of federal Web managers are planning on entering their sites.
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The Hoping it Fails Syndrome
Something you hear quite often when covering government is the concern among top managers that some, or sometimes many, federal employees want executives who are trying to change government to fail. Most often, it's not politically driven. The change involves business processes and strategic shifts, ideas that are not ideologically spawned or driven. Mangers I have talked to say these employees just don't want to change the way they have worked for years, or they see the change as a threat to their control over a specific detailed process or policy, or they fear the change threatens their livelihood.
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GovLoop Expands
Last month I <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090928_8720.php">reported</a> that GovLoop, the unofficial "Facebook to the Feds," was acquired by GovDelivery, partly so founder Steve Ressler could devote all his time to nurturing and expanding his pet project. Yesterday Steve sent me some news: He's made the first addition to the GovLoop team and it's someone who should be familiar to the Gov 2.0 crowd. <a href="http://twitter.com/krazykriz">Andrew Krzmarzick</a>, formerly senior project coordinator at the USDA Graduate School.
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'Used Gov' and Social Messaging
Usability guru Jakob Nielsen and his team at the Nielsen Norman Group recently released a research report on the design and usability of social messaging and RSS feeds. In the <a href="http://www.useit.com/alertbox/streams-feeds.html">outline of the findings</a> Nielsen posted on his <a href="http://www.useit.com">Web site</a>, he bluntly states, "we have a long way to go to improve the usability of social network messaging and RSS feeds."
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No Need for IT in Cabinet
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano shot down the prospect of a cabinet-level information technology position during an online video address on Tuesday.
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Feds Offer 38,484 Budget Cuts
Federal employees conceived 38,484 ways to cut the federal budget during a month-long contest that ended last week, Office of Management and Budget officials said on Monday.
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Be an Analysis Ninja
Google Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik detailed how to measure the success of a government Web site on Google's <a href="http://googlepublicsector.blogspot.com/">Public Sector Blog</a> last week. And his first instruction was <em>not</em> to turn to any of the tools Google offers in its analytics toolset.
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Recovery.gov Enhances Downloads
The board overseeing stimulus spending has provided Internet users with a bulk download of all federal contract results, after transparency activists griped that Recovery.gov's data was hard to analyze. The new <a href="http://www.recovery.gov/FAQ/Pages/DLCenter.aspx">data set</a>, labeled "AllNationwideContracts.zip," is a single spreadsheet listing the status, location, funds awarded and jobs created for projects across all 50 states.
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Workin' the Recovery.gov Stats
On Thursday, the Recovery Board <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20091015_8475.php?oref=topstory">published the first spending reports</a> on Recovery.gov from companies that received stimulus contracts before Sept. 30. The resulting media <a href="http://www.star-telegram.com/local/story/1689639.html">attention</a> has the White House <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/10/14/new-math-counting-stimulus-jobs/">scrambling to explain</a> why so few jobs have been created after spending so much taxpayer money.
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White House Blogs Cybersecurity
The Obama administration has posted three blogs to WhiteHouse.gov on cybersecurity since the sixth annual National Cybersecurity Awareness Month officially kicked off Oct. 1. The <a href=http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/National-Cybersecurity-Awareness-Month/>first post</a>, by John Brennan, read more like a marketing letter, emphasizing that "government, industry and the individual computer user must all play a role in securing our information networks and data."
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A Short Route to Gov 2.0
<a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20091015_3756.php?oref=topnews">My story</a> on Thursday about the creation of <a href="http://go.usa.gov/">go.usa.gov</a>, the official government link shortener, is probably not going to dominate the headlines on the day when Recovery.gov is rolling out the first wave of recipient-reported data. But it's a small example of the type of innovation that can only help the government increase its ability to serve the American public online.
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Whoops, Where Sweden's Web Sites?
We hear a lot about cyberattacks, but here's an "oops" moment that hurts:
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Millions More for Cargo Screening
The Homeland Security Department will spend $88 million in Recovery Act funds on scanning technology that will be used to inspect commercial goods crossing U.S. borders.
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