Digital Government
1998 Eagle Awards
The Eagle Awards will be announced March 25 at the dinner honoring the Federal 100 winners. The awards are given to two individuals each year one from government and one from industry who have made outstanding contributions to the federal IT community in the previous year. They are selected f
Digital Government
Curtis tapped for Y2K post
The Defense Department has set up a highlevel Year 2000 oversight office and last week named William Curtis, a former deputy director for procurement and logistics at the Defense Information Systems Agency, to head it. Curtis, with 33 years of federal service, including a tour in Vietnam as an Arm
Digital Government
NASA, DOE help Ukraine avoid nuclear disaster
The Chornobyl (formerly spelled Chernobyl) nuclear power plant's concrete enclosure, which is the only barrier between Ukrainians and deadly nuclear radiation, is crumbling, and two U.S. federal agencies are involved in a project to build a stateoftheart information technology system to fix it.
Digital Government
Virginia Rep. Tom Davis Plans new Cooperative Purchasing Push
Virginia Rep. Tom Davis Plans new Cooperative Purchasing Push
Digital Government
How are mapping services acquired?
A reader raised the following topic: A federal agency plans to buy automated mapping products and services. The agency claims the procurement is exempt from the Competition in Contracting Act's requirement to consider price or cost when selecting an offeror. Is this correct, and if so, why are the
Digital Government
DOD pushes ahead with PKI pilot
The Defense Information Systems Agency plans to roll out a pilot digital signature program based on commercial products this spring for anywhere from 250,000 users to as many as half a million users. The pilot will serve as the test bed for the development of all types of paperless processes throug
Digital Government
Former professor lands at NTSB
Jumping into the Washington, D.C., political scene from academic life in rural South Dakota may sound like quite a culture shock. But Vernon Ellingstad, director of the Office of Research and Engineering at the National Transportation Safety Board, said the transition has gone smoothly for him. 'In
Digital Government
Two reports urge feds and industry to cooperate on EC
A pair of recently released documents on electronic commerce provide agencies with a road map to speed up the rate at which EC is used in government. In a strategic plan sent to Congress this month, the Office of Management and Budget recommended that by 2001 all federal agencies use commercial off
Digital Government
White House mulls Year 2000 legislation
In the wake of a report showing most agencies still far behind in reprogramming computers for the Year 2000 problem, the Clinton administration said last week it may seek legislation that would give some agencies a stronger role in overseeing the millennium fix for service contractors, insurance co
Digital Government
FBI to expand computer intrusion reporting program
The FBI plans to roll out to more than 50 cities an intrusiondetection reporting program that will be one of the first largescale examples of private companies working with federal law enforcement agencies to fight computer crime. The FBI is testing the program, called InfraGuard, in Cleveland [F
Digital Government
Computer system abuse soars
More than half of federal agencies report they have been victims of unauthorized use of computer systems, and agencies' financial losses have risen by more than 3,000 percent from last year, according to a report issued this month. The report, conducted jointly by the San Franciscobased Computer S
Digital Government
Maine Video System Eyes Small-Business Development
All over the country, small businesses struggle to compete with larger, better-funded competitors, but in parts of northern and eastern Maine, the challenges can seem as long and insurmountable as the winters.
Digital Government
Davis plans to resurrect cooperative purchasing
Rep. Tom Davis (RVa.) last week said he will introduce legislation this year to allow state and local governments to purchase information technology products and services from the General Services Administration's federal supply schedule. Meanwhile, opponents of cooperative purchasing have vowed t
Digital Government
More Americans filing taxes electronically
With less than one month to go in the 1998 taxfiling season, the Internal Revenue Service reports that millions more Americans are filing their taxes electronically this year.
Digital Government
1998 Federal 100 Winners
(Organizations reflect positions held in 1997.) Albert E. Arnold Colonel, U.S. Army Donald J. Arnold GTE Government Systems Anthony L. Baggiano RobbinsGioia Inc. Alan P. Balutis Department of Commerce Craig Benson Cabletron Systems Inc. Mark A. Boster Department of Justice Lawrence Brachfeld Lieu
Digital Government
Lotus integrates voice, Internet in SmartSuite
Lotus Development Corp. has enhanced its SmartSuite office automation package with 100 new features and enhancements, including integrated Internet functionality and speech recognition as part of its spreadsheet. The Millennium Edition now in beta testing combines the Word Pro word processor, L
Digital Government
Set-Asides
Bill gives CIO more funds The House Agriculture Committee's Subcommittee on Department Operations, Nutrition and Foreign Agriculture this month sent a bill to the full committee that would transfer more information technology funds to the USDA's chief information officer. The USDA Year 2000 Complia
Digital Government
Toshiba gives new look to Equium line
Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. this week released the second generation of its Equium desktop PC line for the corporate and government markets, touting new design features and a builtin help system. The Equium 7000S and 7000D run the latest Intel Corp. Pentium II processors, but company
Digital Government
Telecom fee rankles cash-strapped agencies
ATLANTA The General Services Administration and the Defense Department are at odds with AT&T and Sprint over a new 4.9 percent 'universal service fee' that the companies have tacked onto FTS 2000 longdistance bills that will require agencies to pay millions of dollars more each month for telecom
Digital Government