Modernization

SSA awards $2.8 billion services support contract

Accenture, Computer Sciences, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman will compete for task orders to help the agency exchange electronic medical records, and expand Internet services for Medicare and supplemental security income applicants.

Digital Government

GAO finds contractors have inappropriate access to private data

The White House should include nondisclosure agreements in the Federal Acquisition Regulations restricting vendors from releasing sensitive data.

Digital Government

Defense lacks doctrine to guide it through cyberwarfare

Top priority for the Cyber Command is to document rules of engagement, GAO officials say.

Ideas

Video Gaming 101

Here's something every teenager will just love: The <a href=http://www.cihe-uk.com/>Council for Industry and Higher Education</a> in London released a report on Friday that concluded children should take classes on computer games as a way to improve the United Kingdom's competitiveness in the information technology (or what the Brits call information communications and technology) field.

Digital Government

Google Instant on Kundra, Kushi, KOAT

Google's new instant search feature promises results instantaneously with every letter typed into the search bar. But I find it more annoying than useful.

Digital Government

Imagine Twitter on 9/11

Tweeting was not an option for witnesses, survivors or victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack at the Pentagon. If those individuals were able to log on to Twitter and instantly communicate their whereabouts to their social networks, what would have happened? Families and first responders may have had the chance to say goodbye or save a life, maybe.

Digital Government

Health IT: Unwired, Unadopted

Providers and consumers of health care are eager to use mobile devices that deliver improved efficiencies and outcomes, yet a number of factors -- from hospitals' inadequate bandwidth to misaligned payment incentives -- are slowing adoption.

Digital Government

Smart phone as clinical tool: A teledermatology pilot program

A smart-phone pilot project gives patients in underserved areas better access to dermatologists.

Cybersecurity

Don't Tweet Your Password. Duh.

Twitter users report seeing tweets claiming if a user types his or her password into the live feed, twitter will automatically obfuscate it. These posters claim to have entered in their passwords to demonstrate, and allegedly all asterisks appeared when the tweet went live. If you've seen this tweet please ignore it, it's not true. The tweet is just a ploy/gimmick/joke to get people to post their passwords. Here's <a href="http://bash.org/?244321">an example</a> of this kind of nonsense.

Modernization

Smart phone as patient tool: A mental health application

A project funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse turns a smart phone into a tool for aiding people with borderline personality disorder.

Modernization

How your mobile phone could help keep you healthy

With smart-phone use on the rise, health care agencies are launching a variety of mobile applications for patients and providers.

Acquisition

Agencies must toughen rules to protect sensitive information, GAO says

Federal officials need to address nondisclosure agreements and the process for notifying officials when information is improperly disclosed or misused.

Modernization

A cost of consolidation?

Agency officials looking to consolidate their technology operations might want to refactor the risks after the recent meltdown of services in Virginia.

People

Speaking truth to PowerPoint

PowerPoint opponents and defenders ponder the ramifications of a recent dust-up about DOD’s reliance on the presentation software.

Digital Government

Buzz factor

These were the most-read stories on FCW.com for the past two weeks.

People

Best place to work? Check the corner office.

The most important factor in determining employee satisfaction is an agency’s top leadership, according to an annual survey.

People

Failure? Bring it on!

GovLoop members have been discussing the merits of failure for improving personal and government performance, writes Andrew Krzmarzick.

People

VA mailed it in on FLITE contract, IG says

The Veterans Affairs Department's FLITE financial system modernization got behind schedule partially because VA personnel missed conference calls with the contractor, according to a new report.