People

Crowdsourcing saves the day in 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'

FCW cartoonist and blogger John Klossner delivers a fresh, high-tech spin on the classic Jimmy Stewart film.

Digital Government

HHS beefs up health IT coordinator's office

The Health and Human Services Department's Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology will double in size to prepare for regulations.

People

White House settles Bush-era suit over millions of e-mail messages

The Obama administration and two private groups that sued the Bush administration have reached an agreement to settle the ongoing litigation.

Digital Government

House backs e-standards for financial reports

Measures are designed to make it easier for people to search data from firms that receive federal funds.

Digital Government

House plans wireless network, but can it be secure, will it work?

The House office buildings' thick marble walls; a requirement to segregate access for members, staffers and the public; and wide swings in traffic volume create one complex project.

Digital Government

Most lab results still on paper, impeding push for e-health records

Lack of standards, multiple formats and thousands of clinical terms also make establishing a national health network complex and problematic.

Digital Government

Panel: Government should educate workforce on benefits of social media

Agencies can encourage employees to embrace social media through training and adopting tools that align directly with the organization's mission, panelists say.

Ideas

Biz-Filing Transparency Bill Moves

The House on Monday evening approved legislation that would make it easier to scrutinize data on companies receiving federal funds. It would require corporations to file activity reports to agencies in a uniform business language and require agencies to ensure the public can view the standardized financial information.

Digital Government

Press Releases of the Day

From two quite loopy press releases I received today:

Ideas

Facing 21st Century Problems

Today's news that technicians have located <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20091214_7919.php">22 million missing</a> Bush administration e-mails will be rightly viewed as a victory for the transparency community, particularly the two organizations that pursued the lawsuit. Failing to install an electronics record keeping system will go down as another failure for the Bush administration, albeit a relatively minor one.

Ideas

Science Committee Chair to Retire

Government is losing another experienced representative in technology Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, said he plans to retire, CongressDaily's Tech Daily Dose blog <a href="http://techdailydose.nationaljournal.com/2009/12/rep-gordon-to-retire.php">reports</a>.