Digital Government

Census seeks more IT funds for 2000 head count

Legally blocked from using sampling in the 2000 census to apportion congressional seats, the Census Bureau last week asked Congress for an increase of millions of dollars to beef up information technology programs it plans to use to support the national head count. The increase, which is part of a

Digital Government

Commerce plans reorganization of NTIS

The Commerce Department plans to submit to Congress in the next six weeks a blueprint that would reorganize the agency's National Technical Information Service as it struggles to survive in the era of the Internet. NTIS collects, archives and sells scientific, technical, engineering and related bus

Digital Government

Navy tapped to lead DOD smart card efforts

Language in the Senate's Defense authorization bill for next year would make the Navy the lead Defense Department agency for the department's smart card program and would give the Navy up to $30 million to field the technology. The Navy has been one of the leading government agencies in using smar

Digital Government

House panel OKs FAA funding plan

A House committee amended and passed a bill yesterday that would reauthorize Federal Aviation Administration modernization programs by using money mainly collected from passenger ticket taxes.

Digital Government

New Web site to help agencies go electronic

The General Services Administration plans to launch a World Wide Web site that will serve as a onestop shopping site to help agencies migrate to an electronic environment.

Digital Government

DOD buried under

Software problems have delayed the fullscale deployment of a computer system that the Pentagon plans to use to buy everything from staples to submarines in an electronic, paperless environment an initiative that top Defense Department officials want functional by January 2000. The $326 million S

Digital Government

NASA scientists reach North Pole, classrooms

In what may be the ultimate in distance learning, a group of NASA scientists this month concluded a trip to the North Pole, where they used the Internet to send live video feed and chat with students around the world, creating the first Internet link to the remote region. As part of the North Pole

Digital Government

L-3 beefs up risk-assessment software

L3 Network Security Systems LLC earlier this month announced a new security product and an upgrade to its riskassessment flagship software, which will help agencies identify network vulnerabilities and determine the effects these vulnerabilities could have on business operations, according to the

Digital Government

Feds, states pilot smart health cards

In a project that could have implications for how the government delivers public benefits in the future, federal and state agencies next month will kick off a multistate pilot project to deliver a variety of public health programs on a single smart card. The Health Passport Project will provide sma

Digital Government

Answering the call at the FAA

Spending 30 years at AT?#038; Amp;T before launching his government career three months ago, Daniel Mehan, chief information officer at the Federal Aviation Administration, knows firsthand what it is like to be in the middle of a major organizational change. The divestiture of AT?#038; Amp;T and the resulting challeng

Digital Government

GOES to monitor severe weather

In time for the start of hurricane season, which begins June 1, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration plans to launch a weather satellite that will ensure that instant weather data is delivered to forecasters to provide more accurate severeweather warnings. The new Geostationary Ope

Digital Government

Elron debuts context-based e-mail filter

Elron Software Inc. today introduced a new tool that will help agencies protect sensitive email messages from getting into the wrong hands and will filter out messages that contain offensive language by analyzing their context. Message Inspector, which is the latest addition to the company's Comma

Digital Government

USDA awards CD-ROM-based training contract

Enterprise Training Solutions, a multimedia training integrator, late last month won a contract from the Agriculture Department to provide a CDROMbased training program to instruct up to 40,000 farflung users on new software applications. The program will provide training to support the USDA's C

Digital Government

Bill would open Y2K sked to state, local agencies

Rep. Tom Davis (RVa.) last week introduced a bill that would permit state and local governments to buy hardware, software and support services from the General Services Administration schedule to address the Year 2000 problem. A spokesman for Davis said the Year 2000 Compliance Assistance Act, H.R

Digital Government

GSA appoints Mitchell to e-commerce post

The General Services Administration announced yesterday that it named Mary Mitchell as deputy associate administrator of the Office of Electronic Commerce in GSA's Office of Governmentwide Policy.

Digital Government

Phase Two of CommerceNet's online catalog project begins

Agencies and vendors last week kicked off the second phase of a pilot project that aims to demonstrate how government online catalogs operate together and to lay the groundwork for widespread federal use of electronic commerce. Through the Catalog Interoperability Pilot, a group of Internet vendors

Digital Government

NASA gives kids window on North Pole

Most of us will never get to visit the North Pole, but a new NASA World Wide Web site that is tracking an expedition to the polar region might be the next best thing to being there. As part of the North Pole Project, scientists from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center are setting up camp at Resolut

Digital Government

FAA charts new course for STARS

The Federal Aviation Administration today announced plans to field early versions of a new air traffic control system to a few smaller airports while delaying full rollout of the $1 billion project until the final system is ready for use.

Digital Government

FAA restores funding to test new air traffic control concept

The Federal Aviation Administration has restored $14.8 million in fiscal 1999 funding for a critical program that will move the agency one step closer to a revolutionary concept in air traffic control.

Digital Government

Internet database accesses patents, trademarks

Commerce Department Secretary William Daley today unveiled an Internet database that will make it easier to access the text and images of 2 million patents and more than 1 million registered and pending trademarks.