Digital Government
It's Time for Google Croissants
Google, it seems, thinks it can do almost anything better than anybody, from its core search business to <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20100211_9967.php?oref=topnews>broadband networks</a> to <a href=http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/02/exclusive-google-nexus-one-hands-on-video-and-first-impressio/>mobile phones</a>.
Digital Government
Army seeks to revive airships as sensor platforms
Aircraft are a high-tech twist on the first military use of balloons in the Civil War to provide human observers with an elevated view of the battlefield.
Digital Government
Where's the Snow Plow?
That's been a hot question and topic of conversation in the Washington area for the past week, and in Howard County, Md., the answer to that question is easy thanks to GPS technology.
Digital Government
Sensitive Information? Read the Budget
It's amazing what I can find trolling through thousands of pages of budget documents. Like this one: the location of a highly sensitive system.
Modernization
DISA's 2011 budget tightens communications security
Request includes walling military traffic from the Internet, upgrading secret messages for the president and providing satellite phones to troops in Afghanistan.
Digital Government
VA Wants Some Good Health IT Ideas
The Veterans Affairs Department kicked off the <a href=http://www.ehealth.va.gov/EHEALTH/VHAInnovationInitiative.asp>Veterans Health Administration Innovation Initiative</a> on Feb. 5 and asked its employees to come up with some good ideas to help it do the transformation thing.
Digital Government
FAA asks for big increase for next-generation air traffic control system
Some of the 31 percent hike will pay for automated clearances for takeoffs and managing enroute communications between pilots and controllers.
Digital Government
The Marine, J.D. Salinger and Service
Like many of my generation (I turned 66 on Monday), I grew up with the works of J.D. Salinger, not only <em>The Catcher in the Rye</em>, but his short stories in <em>The New Yorker</em>, which I subscribed to for years, including when I was in the Marine Corps.
Digital Government
On Patrol in the Snow
Jungle fatigues are not the best clothing for 26-plus inches of snow, but the Three Soldiers at the Vietnam Memorial seemed to weather the weather well on Sunday, in this picture taken by my pal Joe Mancinik, a Navy veteran attending The George Washington University, whom I mentor.
Digital Government
DISA telecommuters can work just fine even with more snow
Virtual private networks and distributed laptops support the majority of the agency's Washington metropolitan area workers.
Digital Government
DISA's Star Trek Communicators
One of the most tantalizing lines buried in the <a href=http://comptroller.defense.gov/defbudget/fy2011/budget_justification/pdfs/01_Operation_and_Maintenance/O_M_VOL_1_PARTS/DISA_FY11.pdf>fiscal 2011 budget request for the Defense Information Systems Agency</a> is a $102.8 million single item for a Senior Leadership Enterprise communications system.
Modernization
Defense shifts funding for command and control systems in 2011
Administration asks to reduce funding for joint radios and mobile communications system, while proposing a budget boost for its global command network.
Digital Government
Takai Update, with Pal Aneesh
Yesterday I <a href=http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2010/02/california_cio_next_defense_cio.php?oref=latest_posts>reported</a> that the White House plans to tap Teri Takai, chief information officer for California, as the new Defense Department CIO.
Digital Government
Yes, It Snows in Washington
I interviewed about 10 people Inside The Beltway on Wednesday and Thursday from my office here in The Original Las Vegas, N.M., and before we addressed the topic I wanted to discuss, each and every one of my interviewees felt the need to tell me a tale of woe about snows, past, present and future.
Digital Government
Federal CIO begins selling huge IT consolidation plan
Vivek Kundra meets with tech industry to outline initiative to move computer services out of departments in a bid to focus agency chief information officers on applications that serve citizens.
Digital Government
California CIO Next Defense CIO?
I'm picking up very strong signals that the White House has started to vet <a href=http://www.cio.ca.gov/About/takai.html>Teri Takai</a>, who has served as the California's chief information officer for the past two years, as the next CIO of the Defense Department.
Digital Government
White House budget document shows IT spending winners, losers
Defense Department would receive the biggest increase, while the tech budgets for Commerce, Homeland Security, Interior, Labor, and NASA would be cut.
Digital Government
That Brit Report On Chinese Cyber Spying
The <em>New York Times</em> rather breathlessly <a href=http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/01/world/europe/01spy.html>reported</a> during the past weekend that in 2007 the head of British intelligence warned businesses in England that Chinese intelligence agencies were engaged in a wide ranging effort to hack into their computers.
Digital Government