Digital Government

Barriers to Gov't Innovation

People

Fed health IT leader submits resignation

Dr. David Blumenthal has been leading the federal effort to distribute about $20 billion in economic stimulus law funding for electronic health record implementations across the country.

Acquisition

Army secretary directs strategic insourcing

Proposals now must be fully documented and justified before they get senior officials' approval.

Digital Government

DOD, VA not working well together on digital medical records, GAO says

The Defense and Veterans Affairs departments aren't working effectively together on a strategy for joint digital medical records, a new report says.

People

Budget proposes cuts to some service contracts

The 2012 budget is expected to be lean, and details of some of the proposed cuts are beginning to emerge.

Modernization

White House e-mail service fails

The White House's unclassified e-mail system went down early Thursday; the reason was unknown by late Thursday afternoon.

Cybersecurity

'Kill switch' bill returns just as Egypt shuts down Internet

Senators plan to reintroduce a comprehensive cybersecurity bill, but recent events in Egypt have reignited controversy over the purported potential for a presidential “kill switch” for the Internet.

Acquisition

Contracting officers get too friendly with contractors, senator says

Contracting officers lose objectivity because they are too friendly with companies, McCaskill says.

Digital Government

Website aims to collect info on 'burdensome' regulations

Stearns is getting input on which laws are thought to be stifling economic growth.

Digital Government

Internet hits key milestone

ICANN's Internet Assigned Numbers Authority allocated the last blocks, containing about 60 million IPv4 addresses, to the five Regional Internet Registries on Thursday.

Digital Government

Next Generation 911 projects get going again

Government Computer News

Digital Government

Army taps Second Life for troop and family support

Virtual resiliency center will offer everything from exercise classes to tools for coping with the stress of multiple deployments.

Modernization

Age gap narrowing in use of mobile devices

As expected, the oldest Americans tend to lag behind their younger neighbors in use of new technologies.

Digital Government

Social media tends to be a one-way communication for FEMA

The tools are one way to get the message out about disasters, said George Haddow, who served as deputy chief of staff at FEMA under James Lee Witt, FEMA administrator during the Clinton administration.

People

Take these steps to spark innovation at your agency

Federal agencies wanting to answer President Barack Obama's recent call for greater innovation should create a space online for employees to collaborate and volunteer to join initiatives they are passionate about, according to the Partnership for Public Service.

Ideas

OMB Memo: Myths about Contractor-Government Talks