Digital Government
Who defends you when you get sued?
The public and government workers can sue federal employees, and evidence shows that such lawsuits are on the rise. The government will defend employees if they are sued for events that occur in the course of their jobs, but some opt anyway to purchase private insurance, which agencies now must hel
Digital Government
Identix shrinks fingerprint ID
Identix Inc. last month unveiled a fingerprint reader small enough to be incorporated into cellular phones and portable computers. The DFR 300 is designed to control access to electronic devices by checking a user's fingerprint scan against an image already on file. Fingerprint readers have been us
Digital Government
Bill to beef up info security
A bill was introduced last month that would centralize the authority for security policy, enabling agencies to better secure information systems. The Government Information Security Act would give the Office of Management and Budget the final say regarding security system policies for information s
Digital Government
Marketplace
Two Strong OCR Contenders After years of widespread competition, the desktop optical character recognition (OCR) market has come to be dominated by two products: Caere Corp.'s OmniPage and ScanSoft Inc.'s TextBridge. To test OmniPage and TextBridge, we scanned the same set of 50 typewritten, magaz
Digital Government
The Virtues of Thinking Big
The short history of the information technology industry is filled with big initiatives that fell short or fell flat. The most dramatic changes usually have been the product not of grand schemes but of serendipitous events that overtook the schemes and the schemers. But state officials at the Natio
Digital Government
Navy Fleet Hospitals face Y2K risk
Year 2000 certification errors made by a Navy program office have led the Defense Department's inspector general to conclude that the Navy's 10 deployable fleet hospitals may contain medical devices that are not Year 2000compliant.
Digital Government
GSA's acquisition policy chief loses battle with cancer
Memorial services were held on Dec. 3 in Takoma Park, Md., for Ida M. Ustad, deputy associate administrator for acquisition policy at the General Services Administration.
Digital Government
Urban Renewal
To look at the Edgewood Terrace community in Northeast Washington, D.C., with its bright colors, extensive, ongoing construction and hightech gloss, you would never know that less than a decade ago the same area was known as Little Beirut. The primary economic activity thriving in the povertystri
Digital Government
Federal regs, buying process 'out of sync'
The federal government must use information technology to speed the regulatory process if it wants to foster and adopt industry's newest technologies, which are developed at a rate that overwhelms the federal procurement process, according to a Commerce Department official. The government's budget,
Digital Government
Pathways Connects Atlanta's Homeless, Poor to Services
Bill Matson has thought about homeless people for a long time, first as an operations manager for the Salvation Army and now as executive director of Pathways Community Network Inc., an Atlanta social services umbrella organization. Threeandahalf years ago Matson decided there should be a way to
People
Microsoft, Lotus battle hits Marines
The Marine Corps last week signed a deal with Microsoft Corp. for a 70,000seat enterprise license for its Office desktop software, adding more fuel to a controversy raging across government regarding stacked competition and billions of dollars in lost savings in office automation software. The Mar
Digital Government
Vendors simplify storage management
The explosive growth of networked computers at government agencies and their increasing support of online applications is driving the value and volume of stored data to new heights. Unfortunately, agency information technology managers don't often have the luxury of adding staff to keep pace. That'
Digital Government
The Y2K Silver Lining
Don't be surprised to see smiles on the faces of IT professionals when they talk about the Year 2000 computer datechange bug, even when you consider the possibility of a complete technological meltdown and all that it entails. They're not sadistic. More like opportunistic. Although they've spent m
Digital Government
Roster Change
Kelly Carnes last month was sworn in as assistant secretary of Commerce for technology policy. She will direct the Commerce Department's Office of Technology Policy. Carnes has served as deputy assistant secretary for technology policy for the past five years. John Cunningham has been named directo
Digital Government
NASA adds sites for Polar Lander
NASA developed a traffic plan in preparation for curious onlookers seeking realtime sights and sounds from the Mars Polar Lander, which descended toward the planet Dec. 3. The space agency created scores of mirror World Wide Web sites to ease congestion. During the 1997 Mars Pathfinder landing, NA
Digital Government
A New Civic Center
Officials of Clackamas County, a largely rural area south of Portland, Ore., say they have found a solution to a problem that plagues many of its residents and eventually threatens to dampen the local economy.
Digital Government
The Long Arm of the Law
When a convict with a 10year history of abusing and stalking his exwife made parole in Scott County, Minn., last year, the only thing between him and his victim was an inconspicuous bracelet prison officials had attached to his ankle. He paid it no mind and headed straight for his exwife. But be
Digital Government
FBI cancels mega-modernization project
After months of tussling with Congress, FBI officials have killed plans for a contract that would have enhanced the agency's crimefighting ability by giving its agents new hardware and software for sifting through and sharing information during investigations. As part of the FBI's Information Shar
Digital Government
Nebraska airs show for agricultural market
Agricultural producers in Nebraska soon will be able to log on to find the latest market news on a weekly TV show produced by the University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension program.
Digital Government