Friday: Analytics, BYOD policies and the Blue Button Challenge

IRS embraces analytics. The IRS has recently been turning to analytics in order to more effectively spot tax abuse and bad credit claims, AOLGov reports. "What's different today is the power to analyze activities in real time," Dean Silverman, senior advisor to the commissioner, said at a panel discussion.

Stop robo-calls, win big prizes. The Federal Trade Commission is offering up $50,000 via challenge.gov to anyone who can develop an effective, easy-to-use and practical technology to stop robo-calls, according to The Hill. “We think this will be an effective approach in the case of robocalls because the winner of our challenge will become a national hero,” David Vladeck, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement.

Cyber-help for small business. The Federal Communications Commission unveiled the Small Biz Cyber Planner, which "lets small businesses create customized cybersecurity plans by answering a short set of questions," The Hill reports. Since the tool was introduced last year, nearly 10,000 businesses have used it.

MyKinergy scores $25K in Blue Button Challenge. Kinergy Health has claimed the top prize for the Patient Engagement Blue Button Challenge, a call for innovation to encourage patients to use Blue Button, InnovationWeek reports. MyKinergy is an app that will complement Blue Button, a web-based feature that allows for patients to securely and remotely access and download health information, and can therefore share it with their providers.

Smart policies for smartphones.  The IBM Center for the Business of Government urges agencies to "develop an explicit policy for employees' online activities even on their own devices."

HAVA having an effect on voting systems. Since the 2000 election irregularities in Florida, the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) has established the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) in order to oversee that states keep to the HAVA mandates, and to "assist states in acquiring and maintaining electronic and optical-scan voting systems,"  GovWin IQ reported. p>