Digital Government
On Second Thought, We'll Take Two
Way back in 1994 when twitter described only the high pitched sounds made by birds, some smart folks at the Defense Department, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA figured out they could save a lot of money by developing a weather satellite system to satisfy both Defense and civilian requirements, rather than building separate systems for both.
Digital Government
Federal Internships for Military Spouses
Military spouses spend much of their lives wandering from post to post for 20 years, a situation not exactly conducive to landing and holding on to a good job.
Digital Government
Why Is A War Bill Funding That?
The $106 billion 2009 <a href=http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h2346enr.txt.pdf>war supplemental appropriations bill</a> passed by the Senate yesterday sure looks like a piggybank for a lot of stuff that has nothing to do with supporting troops operating in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Digital Government
VHA Bar Code Project Stalled
Waaaay back in 2004, the Veterans Health Administration kicked of a bar code project to label patients' specimens and blood intended for transfusion, a rather nifty use of technology to ensure, for example, that a patient with type O blood instead of type A.
Digital Government
Another Whack at Acquisition Reform
The House Armed Services Committee in its version of the 2010 Defense authorization says in a <a href=http://armedservices.house.gov/pdfs/HASCFY10NDAA061709.pdf>summary</a> that it plans to provide the Defense Department with the authority to establish 10 pilot programs to "rapidly acquire" information technology capabilities under an alternative acquisition process.
Digital Government
Baker Wonders Where's the Privacy?
At a meeting held by the Health IT policy committee on Tuesday, Roger Baker, the Veterans Affairs Department's new chief information officer, injected a dose of practical reality to the very wonkish discussion of what "meaningful use" of electronic health record systems means -- as required by the 2009 <a href=http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h1enr.pdf>American Recovery and Investment Act</a>.
Digital Government
A Joint Cyber Command Office
The House Armed Services Committee decided to tinker around with Defense Department cyber stuff in its version of the fiscal 2010 Defense authorization bill and inserted language calling for the department to establish "a joint program office for cyber operations capabilities."
Digital Government
Men in Gray
I've been poking around a pile of <a href=http://www.defenselink.mil/comptroller/defbudget/fy2010/budget_justification/index.html#>fiscal 2010 budget justification documents</a> that recently surfaced on the Defense Department Comptroller Web site. I found a rather yummy item in the <a href=http://www.defenselink.mil/comptroller/defbudget/fy2010/budget_justification/pdfs/02_Procurement/Vol_1_Other_Defense_Agencies/DISA_PDW_PB10.pdf>proposed procurement budget</a> for the Defense Information Systems Agency.
Digital Government
China's 128 Cyberattacks a Minute
As the Defense Department slowly moves toward development of a cyber command (see previous blog item), it sure looks like the United States needs some kind of defense against cyber aggression from China, even though no one in the Pentagon, quite diplomatically, pins such cyberattacks directly on the Chinese government.
Digital Government
No Cyber Command Announcement
Though my colleagues in the chattering classes have pumped out megabytes of <a href=http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=cyber%20command&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wn>copy</a> on formation of a new Defense Department cyber command over the past couple of days -- it's not happened yet.
Digital Government
Unlike Obama, Senate Likes GPS Backup
The Obama administration came up with a loopy plan to save a grand total of $36 million out of the proposed <em>$3.5 trillion</em> federal budget by <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090317_8821.php>canceling funding</a> for the Coast-Guard-operated terrestrial Long Range Navigation system (Loran). A lot of folks (except the bean counters) view Loran as the only viable backup to the satellite based GPS system used for position, navigation and timing worldwide.
Digital Government
A Real Hooah Airman
Although "hooah" is an Army term not used by the Air Force, in the case of Tech. Sgt. Darrell DeMotta, an Air Force Joint Terminal Attack Controller I had the pleasure to meet this week at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, N.M., the term definitely applies.
Digital Government
Doing the Innovation Thing at ASD/NII
Here in Whatsland we try to keep track of all the personnel changes at the office of the assistant secretary of Defense for networks and information integration (a.k.a. the chief information officer shop). I note that yesterday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates appointed Prabha Kumar, as the chief innovation and technology officer for ASD/NII.
Digital Government
EDS' Failure to Wipe
EDS, which runs the Navy Marine Corps Intranet under a 10 year, $10 billon contract, serves about 650,000 folks. Users turn in, on an annual basis, about 120,000 old computers for new ones. The company failed to magnetically wipe (the technical term is <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degaussing>degaussing</a>) at least 12 hard drives containing secret information, according to a snippet from a Navy inspector general report, which made its way here to Whats central in Las Vegas, N.M.
Digital Government
AHLTA Definition Contest Update
Last month I kicked off a <a href=http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2009/05/the_ahlta_definition_contest.php>contest</a> for the best definition of AHLTA, the Defense Department's electronic health record system that used to stand for the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application.
Digital Government
VA/SPAWAR Deal: No SEWP
The Veterans Affairs Department has an instruction in place that all information technology purchases go through the governmentwide Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (<a href="http://www.sewp.nasa.gov/">SEWP</a>), managed by NASA.
Digital Government
New GI Bill Ripoff
One of the key tasks the VA IT shop has assigned to the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center is the <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20081029_2928.php">development of a claims processing system</a> for the new GI Bill, formally known as the <a href="http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=110_cong_bills&docid=f:h2642enr.txt.pdf">Post 9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act.</a>
Digital Government
Kudos for fast VA Response
I have complained in the past about my queries to the VA going into as black hole. No more, thanks to Katie Roberts, the new VA press secretary.
Digital Government
Pile On for $1.5B Navy Contract
At least four major industry teams submitted bids on Wednesday for the Navy's <a href=https://e-commerce.sscno.nmci.navy.mil/Command/02/ACQ/navhome.nsf/homepage?readform&db=navbusopor.nsf&whichdoc=0713C6E52C4D7BA28625751C0079AB6B&editflag=0>Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services</a> (CANES) contract.
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