Ideas

Intellectual Property: Hindering Green IT?

Intellectual property rights ensure competitiveness, but do they hinder progress? In terms of green IT, it depends on who you ask.

Ideas

NonTweeters Beware

Tom Froemski at ZDNet poses a provocative opinion about those who fail to join the social networking movement to tweet, blog, edit wikis and comment on anything digital: "You might not have much of a viable future."

People

GSA looks for input on improving USA.gov

GSA launched a new online forum in an effort to gather ideas from the public on how to improve USA.gov.

People

Medical claims database could aid research on best treatments

The Health and Human Services Department announced plans to use economic stimulus law funding to create a new database of medical claims for all payors nationwide.

Digital Government

It's Good to be IT Now

The Daily Beast's Clark Merrefield <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-12-02/cutting-edge-jobs/?cid=hp:beastoriginalsL3#">highlights the top 10 information technology jobs</a> that will be the most in-demand through 2016. Despite the grim outlook for jobs in the recovering economy, Merrefield notes, IT jobs remain the silver lining, with the number of openings and wages up for cutting-edge jobs like network architects, system software designers and data engineers.

People

Senators push for acquisition workforce training

Two new bills would set up a federal acquisition management fellows program and strengthen the civilian training institute.

Modernization

Laptop with personal data about thousands stolen from Army employee

A government laptop containing names and personally identifiable information of more than 42,000 patrons of childcare and recreational facilities at Fort Belvoir in Virginia since 2005 was stolen on Nov. 28.

Cybersecurity

Hackers with political agenda bring down Twitter

Twitter says attack on site's Domain Name System redirected users to a cryptic anti-American message from the "Iranian Cyber Army."

Digital Government

Verizon lab to demo the greener side of telecom

Verizon Business opens a lab to show feds how optical local-area networks can help make buildings greener by reducing the energy needs of their networks.

Digital Government

iPhone: Enterprise-worthy, perhaps, but secure enough for feds?

The latest iPhone operating system is more secure, but doubts linger about whether it can rival the BlackBerry for government-level real security.

Cybersecurity

DHS lacks strategic plan for managing integration, GAO says

While the Homeland Security secretary talks about DHS unification, GAO finds gaps in plans to achieve departmental IT integration.

People

Pay-for-performance: A modester proposal

Blogger John Klossner thinks that pay-for-performance would work if it weren't for one small factor: human nature.

Digital Government

H1N1 hotline spreads flu info

InformationWeek

Digital Government

Saying security can come later, panel pushes for more information sharing

Benefits of exchanging sensitive information among governments to fight terrorism far outweighs risks of not securing messages, a presidential task force argues.

Digital Government

Senators introduce bills to boost acquisition workforce roles, training

Legislation would create a three-year graduate program in federal procurement and increase the visibility of the Federal Acquisition Institute.

Digital Government

SkyGrabber How To

The Wall Street Journal <a href=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126102247889095011.html>reported</a> on Thursday that the bad guys in Afghanistan and Iraq have cleverly figured out how to use a $29.95 software package called SkyGrabber to intercept video feeds from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Ideas

Another New Site

The State Department on Thursday joined a growing list of federal agencies that are announcing Web site redesigns with great fanfare. The State and Homeland Security departments each scheduled press briefings to unveil their new online gadgetry. This raises the question: Do citizens expect the government to continuously refresh its public persona on the Web, like a commercial company?