Ideas
NonTweeters Beware
Tom Froemski at ZDNet poses a provocative opinion about those who fail to join the social networking movement to tweet, blog, edit wikis and comment on anything digital: "You might not have much of a viable future."
Ideas
Science Committee Chair to Retire
Government is losing another experienced representative in technology Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, said he plans to retire, CongressDaily's Tech Daily Dose blog <a href="http://techdailydose.nationaljournal.com/2009/12/rep-gordon-to-retire.php">reports</a>.
Ideas
Openness vs. Project Management
Two discussions of note occurred on Thursday during the <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20091210_8194.php?oref=topnews">Senate Budget Committee hearing</a> where Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra and other technology executives appeared.
Ideas
FDA, That's an Apple, as in iMac
Blogger <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/author/mg/">MG Siegler</a> at Tech Crunch recently <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/04/fda-imac/">wrote</a> the delivery -- or lack thereof -- of his new Apple iMac <em>computer</em>. It seems was held up in Louisville, Ky., because UPS, which was delivering the package, said it had filed documents with the Food and Drug Administration and the Agriculture Department to get approval. Did the word "apple" confuse the agencies?
Ideas
If at First You Don't Succeed . . .
Maine has to have one of the longest running system-development sagas going. In 2001, the state awarded a contract to CNSI to build a Medicaid claims processing system. After numerous delays and cost overruns, Maine turned the system on in January 2005. The system immediately began <a href=http://www.cio.com/article/20133/Maine_s_Medicaid_Mistakes>misreading claims</a>, resulting in millions of dollars worth of medical bills that doctors and hospitals field to go unpaid.
Ideas
A Cold '11 Budget, But Warmth for IT
The Office of Management and Budget has <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20091113_3188.php?oref=topnews">asked</a> civilian agencies to ready themselves for fiscal 2011 budgets to be frozen at fiscal 2010 levels or, even worse, to be cut by 5 percent because the Obama administration is facing record deficits, which could become a drag on Democrats in elections next year.
Ideas
Y2K's Legacy: Not a Waste
Writer Farhad Manjoo has an <a href=http://www.slate.com/id/2235357/>article</a> on Slate about the government's victory over the Year 2000 computer bug. In brief, computers didn't crash as date fields clicked over from 99 (for 1999) to 00 (for 2000) as was widely feared because the federal government, working in concert with companies and other countries, worked to rewrite software code to show four digits for years instead of two.
Ideas
We Want Your Comments
You'll notice a new feature on Nextgov today. You now can submit a comment on a Nextgov article using the Disqus platform, which you will find at the bottom of each article. The application replaces the site's Forum section, with the expectation that if readers see comments at the bottom of an article it will encourage a dialogue.
Digital Government
Anti-Social Feds
If the Obama administration still <a href=http://techinsider.nextgov.com/2009/10/o_gov_directive_not_this_month.php>hasn't issued its directive</a> on how agencies should pursue transparency, collaboration and participation with the public, but it may want to first encourage federal managers to use these tools.
Ideas
The Hoping it Fails Syndrome
Something you hear quite often when covering government is the concern among top managers that some, or sometimes many, federal employees want executives who are trying to change government to fail. Most often, it's not politically driven. The change involves business processes and strategic shifts, ideas that are not ideologically spawned or driven. Mangers I have talked to say these employees just don't want to change the way they have worked for years, or they see the change as a threat to their control over a specific detailed process or policy, or they fear the change threatens their livelihood.
Digital Government
Check Your Paycheck
The Office of Personnel Management <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20091021_4165.php?oref=topnews">announced</a> on Wednesday that they had successfully consolidated 26 payroll systems into four. At the pres conference about the consolidation, Linda Pena, associate deputy assistant secretary at Veterans Affairs Department, where employees had to replace a 1960s era payroll system, said most VA employees didn't realize the system had changed until they saw a different name on their paychecks.
Ideas
Intellipedia on the Block?
Colleague Marc Armbinder <a href="http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/10/shutdown_of_intelligence_community_e-mail_network_raises_concerns.php">posted</a> yesterday an item on his Atlantic Politics blog that the intelligence community is pulling the plug on <a href="https://www.ugov.gov/">uGov</a>, "one of its earliest efforts at cross-agency collaboration," Armbinder wrote.
Ideas
What IT Means to Leaders
Just how much should leaders know about technology? Plenty, according to retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, president of UCLA's Center for Middle East Development and author of "Leading the Charge: Lessons from the Battlefield to the Boardroom." Zinni, who gave one of the keynote presentations at Government Executive's Excellence in Government conference in Washington on Monday, said: "IT has changed the way we lead. ... If you don't grasp the technology and how to use it ... you will be left behind.
Ideas
Rep. Doesn't Catch TSA's Wave
The Transportation Security Administration's full-body scans at some airport security check points have been the subject of some heated discussions, <a href="http://www.tsa.gov/blog/2009/08/imaging-technolgy-bigger-picture.html">even on the TSA Blog</a>.
Ideas
Hate Meetings? You'll Love This
For all of you who hate meetings - and that's probably most of you - here's a recommendation from a New York state assemblyman for fighting swine flu that you'll find a big time saver: Cancel meetings and use the phone.
Ideas
The Real Cost of Consolidation
In his blog The Risk Factor, blogger Bob Charette <a href=http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/blog/computing/it/riskfactor/wisconsins-accountability-consolidation-and-efficiency-initiative-it-projects-overrun-a-bit>wrotes</a> about Wisconsin's four-year effort to consolidate networks to save money and improve administration. The state auditor has some results:
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