Digital Government
First responders should use service agreements for telecom equipment
Former Homeland Security secretary says the practice would allow emergency workers to upgrade equipment quicker and more cheaply.
Digital Government
Navy to form directorate to manage info, cyber and space capabilities
The Information Dominance Directorate will combine functions managed by the director of Naval Intelligence and deputy chief of naval operations for communication networks.
Digital Government
Administration issues solicitation to archive social media content
The White House wants to capture, extract and store information posted by its employees on publicly accessible Web sites, including Facebook and Twitter.
Digital Government
Concern grows over emphasis on technology to push transparency
Some members of the open government community want the Obama administration to address policies that would make information disclosure a central part of doing business, not just creating Web sites and applications.
Digital Government
Help wanted: Agencies will need 11,000 more IT workers
Federal agencies will need to hire over 270,000 new employees for mission-critical jobs over the next three years, including over 11,549 IT pros, according to new survey.
Digital Government
Banging the Cyber Workforce Drum
Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/technology/56941-revamping-and-securing-our-countrys-civilian-cyber-infrastructure-rep-loretta-sanchez">writes</a> on The Hill's Congress Blog about the importance of securing a top-notch cybersecurity workforce in the federal government. The Defense Department, for example, has thousands of cybersecurity workers dedicated to combating cyber threats and building cybersecurity plans, but the Homeland Security Department has only 100 employees dedicated to this work. "With the gap between military and civilian cyber security personnel as large as it is," Sanchez writes, "there needs to be strong government leadership to increase recruitment pools and employ the next generation of cyber leaders that will help and protect our civilian networks."
Digital Government
House Hearing on VA-SPAWAR Deal
The House Veterans Affairs Committee's Economic Opportunity Subcommittee has just shoehorned into its schedule next week a hearing on the interagency agreement that the Veterans Affairs Department put together with the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command.
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.
Modernization