Digital Government

DHS moves forward with financial management system

Congress asks senior executives how a White House moratorium on such projects will affect the progress of the $450 million Transformation and Systems Consolidation program.

Modernization

Report: IT dashboard plagued by outdated data

Watchdog finds website intended to provide near real-time updates on projects' cost and progress doesn't have the latest information.

Digital Government

Officials defend meaningful use standards as a work in progress

Republican lawmakers argue incentive payments for doctors and hospitals to adopt e-health records might be too generous if standards are not strict enough.

Digital Government

Contractors in top secret programs may pose a major challenge for insourcing proponents

The explosive series of news articles currently running in The Washington Post—“Top Secret America”—is bound to add weight to the case against outsourcing.

Digital Government

Suss Lands Former DISA CIO

In what has to be considered a coup in the world of federal information technology consulting, Suss Consulting signed July 16 former DISA Chief Information Officer John Garing to its team, along with James Kane, who served as chief Executive officer of rival Federal Sources Inc. for the past decade.

Digital Government

Government's Big Recruiting Problem

I met last week with about 25 students from Cornell University who took part in the school's annual Summer in Washington program. Part of the work is to meet in a class setting every week to discuss the impact of the Internet on politics, business and the arts. Many work as interns at federal agencies.

Ideas

Topping the Twitter Charts

Do individual federal employees really have an impact on Twitter?

Digital Government

Ah, the HIPAA Irony

In an interesting twist, the regulation that was designed to protect patients' sensitive information has forced the identification of medical practices that experience privacy breaches.

Cybersecurity

Cyber Ops Resources Revealed?

<em>This post was written by Jill R. Aitoro</em>. Try to find out how much federal government spends on cybersecurity per year and you likely won't get a straight answer. The typical explanation is this: Cybersecurity spending is spread across a variety of federal agencies and funding pulled from a number of different categories of appropriations.

Digital Government

VA sets performance, VLER goals in strategic plan

The Veterans Affairs Department is emphasizing performance measures and the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record program among its top priorities in its new strategic plan for 2010 through 2014.

Modernization

GAO incorporates new technologies into strategic plan

Advances in technology and the wide-ranging effects of networks and virtualization will influence federal programs during the next five years, the Government Accountability Office reported.

Digital Government

NASA cloud goes open source, but where are feds heading?

Blogger Brian Robinson wonders about the long-term impact of NASA’s involvement with a new industry initiative aimed at promoting open source-based cloud technology.

Modernization

Applying for FEMA aid now a smart phone app away

The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced today that it has set up a new service that allows smart phone users to apply for federal disaster aid.

Digital Government

Agencies may have to abandon bureaucratese

Agencies may have to change their writing style because a new writing coach -- the law -- may soon arrive, blogger Matthew Weigelt writes.

Digital Government

Task Force recommends a metric for measuring data center efficiency

Industry and government have put a premium on data center energy efficiency, frequently using energy efficiency metrics. But the metrics haven't always been applied clearly and consistently.

Digital Government

Ready or not, the workplace will get a lot more mobile, social

A global survey by Unisys and IDC finds rapid growth in the use of smart phones and special networking applications on the job.

Digital Government

States' IT needs clash with federal policies

NASCIO President Stephen Fletcher, a former fed, discusses the need for better state/federal coordination, the unintended costs of data center consolidation, and the need to protect personal identities at the state level.