Soundbytes: Texting, Cloud Data and Net Neutrality

A weekly roundup of comments from Nextgov.com. All comments are presented in their original, unedited form.

On Debate heats up over police access to data in the cloud

The much bigger question here is that data stored in one of more clouds and than transmitted between clouds if not done securely and maintaining good data transmission integrity, is of very questionable value as it's accuracy can always be in question. From Jeffrey A. Williams

On Lawmakers ask White House to stop DHS financial system

It is possible to do a massive system in a private sector entity because they all follow one chart of accounts. Massive rewrites of financial systems across multiple diverse businesses, such as those cobbled together at DHS are highly risky and highly expensive. Those systems can be virtually integrated much more effectively and efficiently. From Jbeachk

TASC as designed is a wasteful boon-doggle. All the systems DHS now uses have been upgraded or replaced within the past 6 years (their service lives are 15-20 years) at an expense of over $1 Billion. Read more from Paul Austin

On Net neutrality bill gives FCC no new rulemaking power

So what does this mean? Does this bill uphold genuine net neutrility or is it some back door method for big corporations to enclose and commercialize the internet? From Alfred Molison

On Defense brass tells Hill reasons for shutting CIO office

ACE-IT is the biggest fraud I have seen in my 24 years in the FEDS. Cut it and go back to Gov Employees running IT. ACE-IT is an expensive contract-based system put in place by BUSH that saves no money and provides less service (i.e. is more expensive in many ways). From marty

First thing I have seen government do that makes sense. Start getting rid of some tiers of management to cut out all the cost and delays. No one wants to see anyone else lose their jobs! But when tiers of positions are created that only slow down the process and add to the budget, it is not fiscal responsibility nor provides good job performance from our government. This needs to be done in all agencies. From 1234polla

On Transportation, industry look for ways to stop distracted driving

Kids fighting, arguements, sodas, food, dogs, bees, wasps, bad radio station, dashboard clip of to-do lists, cell phone, texting - all in the car. I once was behind a car where the front seat passenger and the driver were hitting each other. Out of all of these things.. texting has got to be the most dangerous and most of these a driver should pull over for anyway.. but then we would never get anywhere would we. From scouter

On IRS fails to assign employees security roles and responsibilities, audit finds

Govt contractors have become, in some instances, some of the biggest thieves. Even selling lists for advertisers which happened to a relative from the US dept of ed contractor who took over student loan payments and had misspelled name that only an advertiser got the same misspelling on. Read more from lindajoyadams

On GAO: Defense finance systems $6.9 billion over budget, years behind schedule

This response is not acceptable. These same audit requirements are imposed on all tiers of suppliers. Having successfully lead two prime AFPRO audits I submit that the most difficult part of the audit is the inconsistency of the auditors since so much is left to a matter of interpretation of the individual auditor/team. Read more from sc1