Digital Government
OPM raises the bar for new COs
The Office of Personnel Management has established new qualifications for civilian agency contracting officers that are designed to create a more highlytrained work force. As of Jan. 1 1998 new hires for positions in the GS1102 job category such as contract administrators contract specialists a
Digital Government
Nexar launches its new line of expandable systems
Nexar Technologies Inc. today took the wraps off its latest line of PCs designed to support multiple microprocessors and to make the task of upgrading major system components easier. Nexar's Cross Processor Architecture (XPA) midtower PC follows the Nexar 9000 and Nexar II in the company's evolutio
Digital Government
Vendors work for one e-mail protocol
Security vendors are working to merge two security standards for electronic messaging that would make it easier for military and civilian agencies to send secure electronic mail to each other. For years there have been several competing standards to secure email but none of these could interoperat
Digital Government
Sprint takes gripes public
Sprint escalated its criticism of the General Services Administration's recently released FTS 2001 solicitation with a letter last week to GSA administrator David Barram accusing the agency of riddling its solicitation with governmentunique requirements. Gary Forsee president and chief operating o
Digital Government
Senate moves on bill to restrict agencies from hiring agencies
The controversy over the Federal Aviation Administration's award of a $250 million data processing contract to the Agriculture Department is breathing new life into efforts in the Senate to push forward legislation that would bar the government from engaging in any functions that can be effectively
Digital Government
Intercepts
Eminently Emmett. Paige Jr. of course whose prepared remarks for his retirement ceremony as ASD/C3I last month carried the same pungency as his utterances throughout his tour of duty. DOD still relies too much on "sneakernet" to exchange data Paige said while most "systems or applications are no
Digital Government
Vendors give K6 a thumbs-up
ATLANTA Last week's Spring Comdex show featured vendor support for Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s K6 chip a projection of Windows NT 5.0 availability from Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates and a slew of new notebooks from Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. At Comdex Digital Equipment Corp.
Digital Government
Bureaus ferret out stats; FEMA tracks storms
The Commerce and Labor departments have launched a joint Web page that features a search tool to let users access and manipulate large demographic and economic data sets. Point your browser to ferret.bls.census.gov/cgibin/ferret to access the Federal Electronic Research and Review Extraction Tool
Digital Government
INDUSTRY WATCH
HP unveils server storage systemAs part of a new push into the data center environment with its 'Wintel' product line HewlettPackard Co. this week is unveiling a highend network server and a highdensity storage system. The NetServer LXr Pro based on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT comes with up to
Digital Government
Treasury taps Telos for TDPI
The Treasury Department last week chose Telos Corp. to supply Microsoft Corp. Windows NTbased workstations and servers to its bureaus under a oneyear blanket purchase agreement. The award is the second of nine BPAs the department intends to sign as part of its Treasury Distributed Processing Infr
Digital Government
Unisys offers feds on-line ordering
Unisys Federal Systems Division has formed a new venture called Select IT that will let government users order offtheshelf computer products online and have them delivered within one to two days. The new service announced last week gives users access to more than 35 000 products sold by six majo
Digital Government
GDE lands library-images pact from AF
The Air Force last month chose GDE Systems Inc. to maintain and upgrade a huge library of satellite images used by the Defense and intelligence communities to plan missions. The Image Product Library is part of the massive U.S. Imagery System which the National Imagery and Mapping Agency is creatin
Digital Government
Sen. Levin concerned about MOLs
Concerned that changes in regulations guiding the General Services Administration's multipleaward schedule program have reduced free and open competition Sen. Carl Levin (DMich.) sent letters to four agencies last month requesting information on the extent to which they make large purchases from
Digital Government
Marines take new IT to Sierra Leone
Marine Expeditionary Units (MEUs) responding to realworld contingencies in Sierra Leone and the Congo during the past month tapped into newly deployed command control and information technology systems to support these missions. Marines from the 22nd MEU who last week evacuated 2 500 Americans and
Digital Government
Telecom giants battle for $1B systems revamp
Bidders view the upcoming $1 billionplus project to upgrade Pentagon telecommunications systems as a battle of the telephone giants pitting AT&T against its offspring including Bell Atlantic and Lucent Technologies Inc. as well as GTE Inc. All four companies will vie for a prize valued as both a s
Digital Government
CBD Watch
Agriculture Department. Information technology services including telecommunications services. (CBD June 5) The USDA is soliciting information from public and privatesector commercial organizations on technically feasible equipment and systems that can provide electronic benefits transfer equipag
Digital Government
'Master' agreements to integrate agency
In what it characterizes as a new way of doing business for systems development the U.S. Postal Service has announced plans to award seven longterm 'master' contracts for particular functional areas that span the department. With the socalled Preferred Supplier/Partner Agreements USPS will hire o
Digital Government
Concerns over NGI threaten funding
Congress may balk at funding the Clinton administration's $100 million Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative because of the concerns of some legislators about the structure of the multipleagency researchproject and the apparent exclusion of rural states from the process. Members of a Senate su
Digital Government