Digital Government

Product safety commission to use crowd sourcing

A new website will allow researchers to download data sets about incidents involving hazardous products, with the aim of identifying patterns so that warnings can be issued more quickly.

Digital Government

Transparency effort will not end with Data.gov makeover

Observers applaud the redesign to make the site more interactive, but say data needs better context and documentation.

Cybersecurity

House panel approves bipartisan bill to overhaul cybersecurity

Measure aims to bolster defenses against attacks that have grown in number and intensity.

Digital Government

Public views agency websites as transparent, collaborative

Index that measures citizens' perception of the amount of posted information and ways to collaborate with officials indicates a favorable opinion about the open government initiative.

Digital Government

Data warehouse gets a facelift for its one-year anniversary

Sets of statistics will receive popularity ratings and visitor information similar to that on the video-sharing site YouTube.

Cybersecurity

Lieberman's cybersecurity bill leans on buying power

Measure would require acquisition officers to learn about security vulnerabilities in technology products in an effort to use the government's vast purchasing power to push vendors to provide more secure solutions.

Digital Government

Bush White House failed to archive most e-mails for 21 days

A comparison of archived messages and those restored from backup tapes reveals 83 percent of emails for certain days during a two-year period would have been lost.

Ideas

Banning Sex Offender E-mail Addresses

The Justice Department on Friday allowed states to exclude certain personal information about sex offenders from public notification websites in a move to increase compliance with the law.

Cybersecurity

House panel to consider cybersecurity overhaul

Measure could incorporate language that would link bonuses and awards to success at warding off computer system attacks.

Modernization

Recovery board sends its website to the Amazon cloud

Officials expect to save about $750,000 during the next two fiscal years as a result of outsourcing Recovery.gov's backbone to the Elastic Compute Cloud.

Cybersecurity

Contractor helps groom future cybersecurity specialists

Northrop Grumman contributes money and staff to a competition that will teach high school students to detect and fix computer vulnerabilities.

Digital Government

Treatment program agency shows how a dashboard can work

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration tracks in near real time the results of state and local efforts to inform federal officials and Congress -- and soon the public.

Cybersecurity

Making Dashboards Meaningful

Agencies are boosting transparency online, but making data meaningful is the real trick.

Cybersecurity

World leaders crowd source solutions to global security

A European think tank issues 10 recommendations collected during a five-day online dialogue that included thousands of international experts, government policymakers and activists.

Ideas

Tech To Trap Stim Violators

New rules from the White House aimed at penalizing stimulus recipients who fail to report on their spending instruct agencies to probe a report-tracking database every day for potential offenders.

Ideas

Apps Speed NY Subway Commute

While Washingtonians are just grateful when Metro subway cars move, some New Yorkers want mobile apps that will point them to the most convenient seats in New York City Transit cars.

Digital Government

Senate's Public Online Information Act draws criticism

Both contracting groups and some open government advocates say Sen. Tester's bill goes too far in disclosing contractor information.

Cybersecurity

House panel advances bill to make chief technology officer and cyber czar permanent jobs

Legislation aimed at streamlining FISMA to improve information security processes and ease reporting burden on agencies.

Digital Government

Social Security turns to the Web to manage escalating workload

Online services would ease burden on field offices scrambling to keep up with spike in beneficiaries, agency CIO says.

Digital Government

E-health records grants to create 1,000 jobs, White House says

The Obama administration awards $220 million in stimulus funds to communities selected as pioneers in expanding the use of digital patient records.