Ideas

U.S., Mexico Sign Telecomm Agreement

Public safety and law enforcement organizations in Mexico and the U.S. will soon be able to communicate across the border. The departments of Homeland Security and State announced Wednesday that senior officials on the U.S.-Mexico High-Level Consultative Commission on Telecommunications signed a bilateral telecommunications agreement to support a cross border communications network that will provide cross-border voice, data and video channels to strengthen border security and incident response.

Ideas

School Districts Face Unsecure Networks

The Homeland Security Department has talked a lot about testing network security in federal government and critical infrastructure markets, but one network administrator warns about vulnerabilities in K-12 school districts. In an email to Nextgov, he had the following to say about his own experience:

Cybersecurity

Groups ask court to delay E-Verify despite ruling

The organizations trying to stop the E-Verify rule from covering federal contractors have filed for an injunction to delay enforcement from beginning Sept. 8.

Modernization

Administration wants help archiving its Facebook, Twitter content

The Executive Office of the President wants to hire a company to crawl and archive Web sites that have content covered by the Presidential Records Act.

People

VA says it has new system to prevent IT mismanagement

In response to criticism from its inspector general's office, the department said it has set up a new oversight system to improve its IT management.

Cybersecurity

Who is sending mysterious laptops to governors?

The FBI is investigating unsolicited laptop computers sent to several governors’ offices.

People

5 decisions that will determine the fate of e-health records

The road ahead is still bumpy for EHRs, but experts say success hinges on the outcomes of five major decisions.

Digital Government

Silicon Valley's Recruitment Model

Wired's Epicenter blog <a href="http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/08/what-the-obama-administration-is-learning-from-facebook-google-and-ideo/">highlights</a> a recent trip Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry made to Silicon Valley. The goal of the trip was to learn from companies like Facebook, Google and design firm Ideo about how to attract young, tech-savvy employees to the federal workforce.

People

5 reasons why DOD should embrace social media (and 5 reasons why not)

We asked some experts to present the arguments on both sides of the debate over the use of social media at DOD.

Modernization

Top 5 FCW stories

We like to think everything we publish is interesting and useful to our readers, but some stories are undeniably hot.

Acquisition

5 ways to improve procurement

Here are the best ideas that nobody is talking about.

Modernization

Top 5 ways to think about Gov 2.0

When considering modern communications, social networking and emerging technology, government has many different connotations, such as process, provider, partner, product and protector.

Digital Government

Senator's hold on GSA confirmation hobbles Networx transition

Transition to Networx slowed further because Sen. Kit Bond won't let Martha Johnson's confirmation come up for a vote.

Cybersecurity

IG: FEMA needs centralized IT for disaster relief

FEMA needs to centralize how it buys goods and services for dealing with disasters into an integrated information technology system, a report recommends.

Digital Government

DHS needs to plug some cybersecurity holes, audit finds

The DHS Inspector General recommends improving the department's coordination of cybersecurity for critical control systems.