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Hathaway Resigns from White House
The <em>Wall Street Journal</em> <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124932480886002237.html?mod=googlenews_wsj">reported</a> this afternoon that acting cybersecurity czar Melissa Hathaway has resigned from her post for personal reasons.
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What's the Deal with Medicaid Systems?
One of the most complicated networks to assemble has to be a Medicaid claims processing system. Numerous states -- <a href="http://www.cio.com/article/20133/Maine_s_Medicaid_Mistakes">Maine</a>, <a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/558169.html">North Carolina</a>, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/07/13/ap6647246.html">Indiana</a> and many others -- have reported during the past several years that the development of modern Medicaid claims processing systems are over budget, behind schedule and simply don't work.
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Updated: Recovery.gov Contract
The government is behind in posting the potential $18 million contract for the redesign of Recovery.gov because of the work involved to ensure the disabled can access it, said officials at the General Services Administration and the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board.
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Godwin's White House Tenure Ends
Bev Godwin, who helped bridge the digital divide between federal Luddites and Obama administration tech whizzes, is leaving her post at the White House's new media office.
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A Lesson from Al Gore to Obama?
Regardless of your party affiliation, it's hard to deny that President Obama has raised the profile of information technology and cybersecurity issues significantly since taking office. Along with appointing the nation's first chief information and chief technology officers, Obama has personally delivered a <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090529_1893.php">major speech</a> on cybersecurity and promised to deliver unprecedented transparency via the publishing of government data online.
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The Health Show Must Go On
After liberal and conservative House Democrats on Wednesday compromised on a health care bill, the <a href="http://energycommerce.house.gov/">Web site of the committee with jurisdiction</a> apparently went down due to "an unusually high number of visitors."
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Former DHS CIO Cooper to FAA?
The federal information technology industry is talking about the rumored appointment of Steve Cooper as the chief information officer at the <a href="http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ato/">Air Traffic Organization</a> <strike>Federal Aviation Administration</strike>.
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Library Official Picked For Archivist
President Obama reportedly plans to appoint David S. Ferriero to the position of U.S. Archivist, a job that entails deploying a massive technologically-agnostic system to preserve and publish the historical record of the United States, according to the nonprofit National Coalition for History.
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NIH Gets Schooled on Wikipedia
Wikipedia is the Web's most prominent source of information, but because of its crowd-sourcing model, it's not always the most credible. That's pretty much the opposite of federal Web sites, which are generally considered among the most <a href="http://www.cdc.gov">trusted</a> <a href="http://www.nih.gov">sources</a> of information on the Web, if not the best known.
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White House Confronts Cookies
The White House may lift its policy barring federal Web sites from tracking users' online behavior. A <a href="http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/E9-17756.htm">Federal Register notice</a> published on Monday seeks public comment on revisions to an existing ban on persistent cookies -- common software programs that commercial sites deposit on a visitor's computer to collect usage information.
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Asking About Cookies
Bev Godwin, director of online resources and interagency development for the White House new media team, <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Cookies-Anyone-the-http-kind/">asked</a> the public on Friday to weigh in on the decade-old federal policy that does not allow agencies to use persistent cookies on their Web sites.
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Howell Addresses Interior Lawsuit
Today at <a href="http://www.affirm.org/">AFFIRM's</a> annual leadership awards luncheon, OMB deputy administrator for E-Government and information technology Mike Howell, formerly CIO at the Interior Department, was awarded with organization's top prize for executive leadership in federal information resources management. Following the award Howell made some brief remarks about leadership and then addressed a controversial topic.
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Archives Strategizes for Gov 2.0
The National Archives and Records Administration is out with a <a href="http://www.archives.gov/about/plans-reports/strategic-plan/2009/nara-strategic-plan-2006-2016-update.pdf">draft 2009 strategic plan</a> that lays down a marker for some ambitious changes, including expanded responsibility for e-records management -- and departmentwide telework. The strategy states:
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Why We Need E-Medical Records
We recently came across this <a href="http://cbs11tv.com/local/medical.mistake.military.2.1091010.html">story</a> from a CBS affiliate in Dallas-Fort Worth about 20-year-old Colton Read, who serves in the Ninth Intelligence Squadron at Beale Air Force Base, Calif. He entered the David Grant Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base near Sacramento to have his gall bladder removed and ended up with his legs amputated.
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Homeland Security 2.0
The Homeland Security Department sent out a <a href="http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1248296963736.shtm">release</a> this afternoon announcing the redesign of <a href="http://www.dhs.gov">DHS.gov</a> and the launch of an official DHS <a href="http://www.youtube.com/ushomelandsecurity">YouTube channel</a>:
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Nixon Tape Transcripts 'Interpretations'
It likely is impossible to produce a perfect transcript of the infamous Nixon tapes because audio fidelity was not taken into consideration in designing the White House tape-recording system, reports Steven Aftergood, author of an e-newsletter and blog on government secrecy published by the nonprofit Federation of American Scientists.
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Recovery Board Won't Fix Ham Goof
The independent board overseeing stimulus spending will not correct information on Recovery.gov that indicates the government is paying more than a million dollars for two pounds of frozen ham, a spokesman for the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board said on Monday.
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Show Me The Plan!
I don't know if Roger Baker is a "<a href="http://techinsider.nextgov.com/2009/07/rock_star_cios.php">rock star</a>" CIO, but I do think Mr. Baker is an extremely competent one who seems intent, along with his boss, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki, on creating a new standard for IT governance, risk management and project accountability in the federal government.
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