Digital Government
Employees at HUD lose background-check case
A number of employees at the Department of Housing and Urban Development recently challenged the agency when officials there attempted to perform background investigations on them. Before delving into the case I will offer some information on the issues involved. Regulations issued years ago by the
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Fedwire
NASA unveils outsourcing draft RFP NASA last week released the draft request for proposals for its Outsourcing Desktop Initiative for NASA (ODIN) which will turn over the selection and design of its information systems to private contractors. Now each NASA center is responsible for selecting system
Digital Government
DOJ proposes rules under information act
The Justice Department last week became the latest agency to propose regulations carrying out the Electronic Freedom of Information Act (EFOIA) Amendments a 1996 law that requires among other provisions that agencies publish online indexes of documents the public requests. The proposed regulation
Digital Government
Installing an Electronic Town Crier
As a child missing in your community? A criminal suspect on the run? Neighborhood meeting coming up?
Digital Government
PeopleSoft to announce 5-year deal for applications suite
PeopleSoft Inc. this week is expected to announce a fiveyear deal with the U.S. Mint for its suite of manufacturing distribution and financial applications in a contract valued at about $11 million. The Mint selected PeopleSoft after reviewing other vendors including Baan Oracle Corp. and SAP Amer
Digital Government
Project Management Software Demystified
The devil as the adage goes is in the details.
Digital Government
Saving money with credit cards
Credit cards have been nothing short of revolutionary as far as federal information technology procurement is concerned. They save time and money. They reduce frustration and empower end users. They allow agencies to manage cash better to keep more precise budget data and to automate much of the ad
Digital Government
USPS taps Lockheed for $700M scanner buy
The U.S. Postal Service last week awarded Lockheed Martin Federal Systems a contract potentially worth $700 million to purchase handheld scanners for tracking packages a technology Postal officials hope will help the agency compete with private delivery companies. The sixyear Mobile Data Collectio
Digital Government
HCFA cancels pact; rethinks MTS program
After spending $43 million over the past three years to design a new system to process medical bills for the Medicare program, the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) last month suspended a prime contracting arrangement with GTE Government Systems Corp. and acknowledged it is not sure how t
Digital Government
Report on Web site hack: This is what not to do
The privately funded Intranet Institute late last month released a lessonslearned report based on an incident involving hackers breaking into a Justice Department World Wide Web site a year ago last month. Intruders broke in electronically to DOJ's Web site Aug. 16 1996 and supplanted Attorney Gen
Digital Government
Skeds loom large in IT 'open season'
Heading into the final weeks of the fiscal yearend buying season federal agencies appear to be making use of the full range of vehicles available to them for information technology products and services according to vendors. The coming weeks especially the last two weeks of September are expec
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Air Force purchase will challenge bidders
HANSCOM AFB Mass. The Air Force Electronic Systems Center which is putting together a large procurement for information technology support services said last week that its decision to award blanket purchase agreements rather than standard contracts would affect everything from how prospective bid
Digital Government
CBD Watch
Department of Veterans Affairs. Interactive multimedia kiosk system. Sol. 5067297 (CBD Aug. 26) The VA Medical Center Ann Arbor Mich. is seeking a contractor to develop and install a computerbased interactive multimedia kiosk system. The multimedia information will be developed using audio video
Digital Government
FAA's Tuttle glides toward future
When Dave Tuttle program director for Flight 2000 at the Federal Aviation Administration soared over the mountains in his glider 30 years ago little did he know that someday he would lead an effort to get a revolutionary FAA program off the ground. The Flight 2000 program scheduled to take place in
Digital Government
Atlantic Fleet prepares ship-to-shore network
NORFOLK Va. The Navy's Atlantic Fleet (LANTFLT) which is headquartered here has embraced the Pacific Fleet's Information Technology for the 21st Century project which will provide a seamless shiptoshore computing system. LANTFLT has developed a coordinated plan to use IT21 to upgrade its entir
Digital Government
V-Squared opens configuration center
V Squared recently opened a PC configuration center in Dulles Va. The company now has the capacity to build 1 500 PCs a day during three shifts. The company manufactures its own line of PCs servers Redundant Array of Independent Disks subsystems and CDROM towers. VSquared is a subsidiary of Deci
Digital Government
Plan afoot to allow credit for GSA schedule purchases
The General Services Administration the Small Business Administration and the Office of Federal Procurement Policy are working together on a plan that would allow agencies to obtain credit toward their smallbusiness goals by purchasing from Federal Supply Service schedule contracts. Currently agen
Digital Government
Group says few fed sites protect privacy
While a growing number of agencies are collecting personal information such as Social Security numbers from visitors to federal World Wide Web sites few have policies or mechanisms to guard against the data falling into the wrong hands according to a report released last week by OMB Watch. The nonp
Digital Government
Industry Watch
Netscape unbundles Navigator Netscape Communications Corp. last week unveiled the unbundled standalone Netscape Navigator 4.0 software which features Netscape's Netcaster push technology. Navigator the browser component of Netscape's Communicator client package will offer traditional browsing func
Digital Government