Acquisition
NIH emphasizes health IT in its new $20 billion contract
National Institutes of Health officials expect to award the 10-year, $20 billion Chief Information Officer—Solutions and Partners 3 contract in early 2010.
Digital Government
Agencies Pay More Student Loans
Federal agencies increased their spending on student loan repayments for employees by 22 percent in 2008, and the incentives were widely used for recruiting and retaining information technology workers, according to a new <a href="http://www.opm.gov/oca/pay/studentloan/html/CY2008StudentLoanRepaymentReport.pdf">report</a> by the Office of Personnel Management.
Modernization
DHS starts social network about Southwestern border
The Homeland Security Department is using a site called Ning.com to host a new social network that focuses on topics related to the Southwest border.
Digital Government
8 objections to playing it safe with emerging IT
Readers take issue with a former DHS official who urges caution when it comes to cloud computing, agile development and other IT fads.
People
VA tries new 'corporate' acquisition
The Veterans Affairs Department is struggling with a 26 percent vacancy rate in its acquisition staff, Deputy Secretary W. Scott Gould said today as he outlined a new "corporate" approach to the buying process.
People
Rising Stars a reminder of an earlier day
Trail Bosses and Rising Stars, though drawing from different generations, have much in common.
Modernization
Court ruling puts brakes on sales of Microsoft Word
Microsoft's loss in a patent dispute with Toronto-based i4i LP means that it will have to stop selling Microsoft Word in U.S. markets. The issue concerns the use of "custom XML" in Word in the Microsoft Office 2003 and Microsoft Office 2007 productivity suites.
People
DISA director emphasizes contractor workforce importance
Lt. Gen. Carroll Pollett, director of the Defense Information Systems Agency, reiterated the importance of the contract workforce to DISA at an industry presentation Aug. 7, especially, he said, as the agency faces moving its staff to Fort Meade next year.
Digital Government
VA likely to miss deadline to process education benefits claims
Backlog of 200,000 claims await processors, but some universities and colleges will allow veterans who have unpaid tuition and housing bills to remain in school.
Digital Government
Defense Preps New Web Portal
The Defense Department plans to launch a new Web portal, <a href=http://www.defense.gov>Defense.gov</a> on Aug. 17, which will serve as "the table of contents for DoD," Tom Dorsz, deputy director for the public Web at the Pentagon, told me.
Digital Government
Facebook? No, e-mail is fine
Agencies have good reason to be concerned about Facebook, writes FCW columnist Judy Welles.
Ideas
The Facts On Kundra's College Records
I'm hesitant to address this topic, since I don't really want to draw additional attention to an erroneous report. But this <a href="http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2009/08/12/special-report-is-us-chief-information-officer-cio-vivek-kundra-a-phony/">piece</a> from <em>PC Magazine</em> columnist John Dvorak on his blog Dvorak Uncensored has been creating enough buzz this morning that I felt it necessary to clear up a few points Dvorak raises.
Cybersecurity
Agencies told to keep up with ID management
A senior GSA executive gives an inside look at governmentwide identity management initiatives at Virtual FOSE.
Digital Government