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The first adopter

If nothing else, Barack Obama might well go down in history as the nation’s first information technology president. That’s the one thing we can say about his still-young administration.

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Bill would mandate using XBRL to track TARP money

The open-standard technology allows analysts, agencies and companies compare financial data more easily, backers of new legislation say.

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The federal workforce: Clerk vs. Businessman

The Obama administration is taking a positive view of the coming wave of retirements by federal employees.

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Obama's emerging IT agenda could mean big changes

Experts say the new president is moving ahead with his ambitious agenda despite the financial meltdown and disease outbreak

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Net-centric data is linchpin to transformation

A network-centric data strategy that streamlines data discovery and sharing is crucial to Defense Department transformation efforts, Pentagon officials said.

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Pointers: Recommended reading for the week of May 18

Assessing White House 2.0; five signs a project is in trouble; how to measure employee engagement; the Facebook management muddle.

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Obama backs whistle-blowers but not in intell

The Obama administration wants to sign a whistle-blower bill but not for intelligence workers, according to a senior Justice Department official.

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Two alternative approaches

Here are two approaches to data sharing that seek to get the right people connected to the right information.

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Kundra's savings plan takes shape

The Obama administration inherited $71 billion worth of annual IT spending from the previous administration, and Vivek Kundra, the government’s chief information officer, will now take his whack at making that money count and holding agencies that spend it more accountable.

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Welles: New book provides fresh take on many familiar business ideas

You are bound to find some truths that work for you in a new book, "Rules of Thumb: 52 Truths for Winning at Business Without Losing Your Self," by Alan Webber. Webber gives all of them a new context that keeps them current.

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Drapeau: Public affairs efforts can borrow from nimble jazz music

Coordination of a public affairs effort in government is similar to jazz improvisation — an office has a strategic theme, but tactically, improvisation must also occur. And one lesson from the military is the notion of "commander's intent."

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House passes technology R&D bill

The measure seeks to strengthen collaboration among government agencies, industry and academia on IT research and development projects.

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FCW Insider: Are feds more cost-effective than contractors?

A recent remark by Obama triggered a lengthy debate among readers about the relative value of in-house and contract staffers.

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Get a Life: To blog or not?

Government blogs have grown like Twitter, writes blogger Judy Welles. How useful are they?

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White House to change program assessments

The Obama administration wants analyses of programs instead of merely grading them as successful or unsuccessful.

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Committee studies public health, research

The federal advisory group on health information technology considers adding public health and research data needs to its requirements for electronic health records.

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Agencies will feel pinch from Obama budgets

Federal agencies have not heard the last word on spending cuts in the fiscal 2009 and 2010 budgets.

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Health care reform tied to IT

Health care reform won't be complete without adopting health IT, the national coordinator for health IT says.

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White House seeks cuts to defense contractor workforce

The Obama administration wants to save $900 million by reducing defense contractor employees and get $2 billion by collecting delinquent taxes from federal contractors.

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Senators grill VA's CIO nominee

Roger Baker answered senators' pointed questions about how he would deal with system failures and other IT problems at the Veterans Affairs Department.