Digital Government
Takai: Let's All Work Together
Teresa "Teri" Takai, who President Obama <a href= http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20100329_8439.php>nominated</a> as the Defense Department's chief information officer on Monday, taped a video message for her workers in February that could easily be applied to Defense: work together more effectively.
Digital Government
Honoring Bataan in Kuwait
It turns out that on March 21 as I and 5,000 military and civilian folks participated in the 21st <a href=http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2010/03/45_pounds_sure_is_heavier_nowadays.php>Annual Bataan Memorial Death March</a> at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., we had some company at the Army's Camp Arifjan in Kuwait.
Digital Government
Navy CIO Tweaks Social Policy
The Navy has started to develop its own take on the Defense Departmentwide <a href=http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/DTM-09-026.pdf>social media policy</a> for the Navy and Marine Corps <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20100226_3264.php>released in February</a>. Navy Department Chief Information Officer Rob Carey <a href=http://www.doncio.navy.mil/Blog.aspx?ID=1653>said in a blog post</a> on March 26 that he expected the service's policy to be released real soon.
Digital Government
Commemorating Vietnam Vets in N.M.
On March 29, a statue depicting a kneeling soldier paying homage to a fallen comrade will be dedicated at the <a href=http://www.nmvetsmemorial.org/>New Mexico Veterans' Memorial</a> adjacent to Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque.
Digital Government
The Vietnam War Anniversary
The Defense Department plans to kick off any time now the 50th anniversary commemoration of the Vietnam War -- even though we're already three months into the 50th year.
Digital Government
45 Pounds Sure is Heavier Nowadays
This Sunday, as my buddy Paul McCloskey, editor of <a href=http://govhealthit.com/>Government Health IT</a>, and I passed mile marker six on the <a href=http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2010/03/touched_by_history.php>Bataan Memorial Death March</a> we passed a young soldier toting an enormous rucksack, who was limping and favoring his left leg.
Digital Government
Nation Building Starts with Telecom
The Defense Information Systems Agency wants some really smart folks to help it, the Central Command, the State Department and the Agency for International Development to <a href=https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=d469343af62d27ddf38abe886cd37b5f&tab=core&_cview=0>build an information communications technology infrastructure</a> for Afghanistan.
Digital Government
Touched by History
WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M. -- I had the privilege on Sunday of participating for the second time in the annual <a href=http://www.bataanmarch.com/>Bataan Memorial Death March</a> here at this sprawling Army military installation that occupies much of New Mexico south of the small city of Alamogordo.
Digital Government
Money for USPS in Broadband Plan
The U.S. Postal Service, which expects to <a href=http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0310/030210l2.htm>lose $7 billion this year</a>, could pick up more than a bit of spare change by helping the Federal Communications Commission and the National Telecommunications Administration conduct a national analysis of spectrum usage, according to the FCC's National Broadband Plan, which it recently sent Congress.
Digital Government
VA Valet Parking Services?
Yep, soon veterans headed to the Veterans Affairs Department hospital in Loma Linda, Calif., which is down Interstate 10 in Palm Springs will be served with the same kind of highfalutin parking service experienced by the pampered set at upscale restaurants.
Digital Government
Another Simulation Gone Bad
Anyone who logged on to the <a href=http://www.sncf.com/>Web site of SNCF</a>, the French national rail service, on Tuesday would have read a bulletin that a high-speed TGV train had crashed in Burgundy, killing more than 100 people and injuring nearly 400.
Digital Government
VA's Health Exchange Down a Month
The Veterans Affairs Department doesn't plan to turn on for at least another month a system that exchanges information in veterans' electronic health records with the Defense Department, Roger Baker, VA's chief information officer told me.
Digital Government
The Camera's (Human) Eye
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has kicked off a research project to develop systems imbued with something that only exists in the animal kingdom: visual intelligence. The name of the project? The <a href=https://www.fbo.gov/download/ef9/ef9960d732bf796e6557916b4adf3ea9/DARPA_Minds_Eye_Industry_Day_Announcement_15March2010_(2).pdf>Mind's Eye</a>.
Digital Government
It Was War of the Worlds Again
Television viewers in the Republic of Georgia thought for a few panicky moments on March 13 that the country had come under attack by Russia for the <a href=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/10/world/main4336544.shtml>second time since 2007</a>.
Digital Government
F-35: The Stripped Down Version
The Pentagon will end up paying Lockheed Martin Corp. between <a href=http://armed-services.senate.gov/statemnt/2010/03%20March/Fox%2003-11-10.pdf>$95 million</a> and <a href=http://armed-services.senate.gov/statemnt/2010/03%20March/Sullivan%2003-11-10.pdf>$131 million</a> for each next generation F-35 fighter -- or 60 percent to 90 percent more than the original advertised sticker price.
Digital Government
VA Still Recovering from Bug?
I'm picking up strong signals that the Veterans Affairs Department has yet to <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20100304_9977.php>fix the bug in its electronic health data exchange</a> with the Defense Department and may not until next week rather than on March 9 as predicted.
Digital Government
The Travails of Joint Radios
The Joint Tactical Radio System, in development since 1999 when I only had a few gray hairs, failed another series of tests last year at Fort Bliss, Texas.
Digital Government
Sign Up for the Bataan March
Last year, I hiked in the <a href=http://www.bataanmarch.com/>Bataan Memorial Death March</a> and <a href=http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2009/03/the_army_got_it_right.php>considered it one of the top 10 events of my life</a>, a day where those old fashioned words comradeship and camaraderie rang true.
Digital Government
Security Breach Déjà Vu at VA
Oh my, when will they ever learn at the Veterans Affairs Department? I have heard from well placed sources that the VA inspector general may start an investigation into how and why an employee of the VA medical center in Atlanta downloaded patient clinical data to a personal laptop.
Digital Government
Don't Ask, and Ye Shall Recieve
Roger Baker, the chief information officer at the Veterans Affairs Department and <a href=http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2010/02/vas_66_billion_man.php>the $6.6 billion man</a>, will get a few more shekels to spend in fiscal 2011 if the Senate VA committee and the Republicans on the House VA committee get their way in the long budget process.
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