Digital Government
FAA plans $1B comm upgrade
The Federal Aviation Administration last month detailed its plans to alleviate the growing congestion of the airwaves that link pilots and air traffic controllers by undertaking a $1 billion upgrade of the agency's air and ground communications systems. The Next Generation Air/Ground Communications
Digital Government
Litton/PRC undertakes Y2K verification work at USPS
Litton/PRC Inc. recently started Year 2000 independent verification and validation work for the U.S. Postal Service, under a $17 million task order awarded by the agency through an existing services contract. The task order was awarded under USPS' Information Systems Support Services (ISSS) contrac
Digital Government
Piloting FAA's modernization
When the Federal Aviation Administration tapped Steven Zaidman as the agency's associate administrator for research and acquisitions in July, he said people did not know whether to congratulate him or send condolences. 'I said neither,' said Zaidman, a 21year veteran of the FAA. 'It's a challengin
Digital Government
PTO awards $172 million data capture pact
The Patent and Trademark Office this month awarded a $172 million contract to Reed Technology and Information Services Inc. to convert hardcopy patent application files into electronic form. Under the Patent Data Capture contract, RTIS Government Services will convert patent application files into
Digital Government
GSA to use electronic posting system for solicitations
The General Services Administration starting next month will use a new electronic posting system for solicitations in order to save money and speed up procurement time and has drafted a plan to take the system governmentwide. Last month, GSA issued a memo stating that starting Oct. 1 it will use th
Digital Government
OAO ranked top ODIN bidder
While NASA awarded contracts to all seven bidders in the recent Outsourcing Desktop Initiative for NASA (ODIN) contract, OAO Corp. outpaced the other vendors in all the main categories analyzed in the competition, according to a recently released sourceselection document. NASA officials briefly di
Digital Government
Unisys delivers servers, storage to DISA centers
Unisys Corp. announced last week that its Federal Systems unit had won $165 million worth of contracts from the Defense Information Systems Agency to deliver mainframes and storage systems to the agency's consolidated megacenters. DISA placed the orders for 24 Unisys ClearPath enterprise servers an
Digital Government
SBA program to funnel contracts to smallest businesses
The Small Business Administration announced last week a new pilot program that will make it easier for businesses that have 15 or fewer employees to win federal contracts by giving the businesses the first chance to bid on some procurements. SBA designed its Very Small Business SetAside Pilot Prog
Digital Government
USPS names chief tech officer to build 'info platform'
William Henderson, postmaster general at the U.S. Postal Service, announced last week the appointment of Norm Lorentz as the agency's first chief technology officer, who is tasked with carrying out the agency's new vision of an integrated 'information platform.' Lorentz, who has been with USPS sinc
Digital Government
FAA sets course for free flight
In response to earlier criticism, the Federal Aviation Administration is expected to accept a new scaledback plan that significantly restructures the agency's Flight 2000 program, which will test a revolutionary air traffic management concept. Flight 2000 will test new technologies for 'free fligh
Digital Government
FAA taps vendor group for help on $2B telecom pact
To reduce the risks of rolling out a $2.75 billion telecommunications procurement, the Federal Aviation Administration has teamed up with an industry group to formulate an acquisition strategy. The FAA and the Government Electronics and Information Technology Association (GEIA) will work together o
Digital Government
Raise won't fix IT pay gap
President Clinton this month approved a 3.6 percent pay raise in 1999 for federal civilian employees and military personnel, and he proposed a 4.4 percent increase for the following year. However, critics said the increase is not enough to lure workers into government information technology. 'An in
Digital Government
Hurricane watchers can storm fed Web sites
As Hurricane Bonnie approached the Southeastern coastline last week with winds of 115 mph and heavy rain, several government World Wide Web sites provided users with detailed information. The National Hurricane Center's (NHC) Web site at www.nhc.noaa.gov should be the best place to start for the la
Digital Government
SMI's new smart card chip improves security, memory
Siemens Microelectronics Inc. (SMI) has begun shipping a new 16bit chip for smart cards that adds more security and memory to better enable multiple applications on a single card. Company officials said the product is the industry's first 16bit cryptocontroller chip that is specifically designed
Digital Government
Commerce site combats pending IT worker shortage
To help combat a shrinking hightech work force, the Commerce Department last week unveiled a new Internet site that provides a single source for information on information technology training programs. The move is in response to a report the department's Office of Technology Policy released last f
Digital Government
Microsoft makes electronic commerce push in fed market
Microsoft Corp.'s federal operations last week launched an Internet server product designed for online commerce and laid out the company's strategy for the technology. Site Server 3.0, Commerce Edition, brings together components customers need to set up and manage electronic commerce applications.
Digital Government
Cylink builds PKI for USPS secure postage
Cylink Corp. announced last week that it has developed a publickey infrastructure (PKI) for the U.S. Postal Service's program that secures communications for users downloading and printing postage from their PCs. Under USPS' Information Based Indicia Program (IBIP), which is in pilot testing now,
Digital Government
HHS prescribes info standards for health care
In a move that would dramatically affect federal and private health care programs nationwide, the Department of Health and Human Services last week proposed new national security standards to protect health care records that are stored or transmitted electronically in the United States. The propose
Digital Government
Bills propose fraud-buster
In an effort to crack down on fraud in the Food Stamp Program, new legislation introduced late last month would require the Agriculture Department to set up computerized matching of data with the Social Security Administration to weed out those ineligible to receive the benefits. Computerized match
Digital Government
Expanded CBDNet falls apart
A multipleagency effort to enhance the Commerce Business Daily online listing of government contracting opportunities has unraveled over the past two months, underscoring once again how difficult a task it is for agencies to agree on how to create a single face to industry for electronic commerce.
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