Digital Government
Unions seek bargaining over electronic pay stubs
Groups praise initiative as environmentally sound, but want to make sure no employees are left behind.
Ideas
House Panel Clears Grid Security Bill
The Energy and Environment Subcommittee passed a bill on Wednesday to protect the nation's electricity grid from terrorism and cyber threats.
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity legislation clears Senate committee
Bill includes certification and compliance mandates for the private sector.
Ideas
Open Government = Another Buzzword?
Opening up the government means more than just putting information out there, said Rachel Flagg, General Services Administration web content manager and Federal Web Managers Council co-chair, during a panel discussion Tuesday at GovSec, a government security expo in Washington, D.C.
Ideas
Tax Free Smart Grid Grants
Federal grants under the Smart Grid Investment Grant program will not be taxed, the Treasury and Energy Department announced Wednesday. This means that the IRS will provide a safe harbor for corporations receiving grants under the $3.4 billion federal stimulus program, which funds projects that aid the modernization of the energy grid.
Ideas
Real vs. Robotic Mules
On Afghanistan's mountainous terrain, there are places where <a href="http://www.militaryspot.com/resources/item/humvee/">Humvees</a>, the military's four-wheeled and diesel-powered beast, can't go. But mules can. Armed with a knack for survival and "entirely nonpartisan about the contents of its load," writes Susan Orlean in a <em>New Yorker</em> article, the mule has proved a valued trooper in the military.<p>
Ideas
Tweeting for Startup Visa
Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and venture capitalists flew in to Capitol Hill last week to promote the Startup Visa Act, a bill to amend immigration law and make it easier for foreign entrepreneurs to stay in the U.S. -- and create jobs here -- if they demonstrate funding from U.S.-based investors. This wasn't just a stakeholders' party. So far, more than 780 voters have sent over 2800 messages to their elected representatives - through 2gov, a nifty tool that channels Tweets to Congress. And 95 percent are supporting the bill.
Digital Government
State rolls out new online visa application for temporary visitors
Consular Affairs expects all overseas posts issuing visas to use the new electronic form by the end of April.
Digital Government
White House, NIST launch online forum to collect public input on smart grid
As part of Obama's open government initiative, the public can provide comments in a blog about how their personal energy use is sent over the advanced electric grid.
Ideas
Over the Moon @Nasa
Walter Cronkite may be dead, and we no longer have the sense that television can bring the nation to the moon at the same time, but Nasa's Twitter feed manages to give its 270,000 followers the chance to almost be in space with its astronauts -- in real time.
Ideas
Crowd-Sourced Digitization Kicks Off
A new experiment in crowd-sourced digitization kicked off last week with the inaugural meeting of the International Amateur Scanning League. This new club's first task will be to organize its volunteers to digitize 1,500 DVDs from the National Archives and Records Administration so that the content can be shared on YouTube, the Internet Archive and Public.Resource.Org's Public Domain Stock Footage Theater for free.
Ideas
DARPA's Mad Science?
Wired had a field day decrying Darpa's proposed project, BioDesign, as a "mad science" project to "re-write the laws of evolution to the military's advantage, creating 'synthetic organisms' that can live forever -- or can be killed with the flick of a molecular switch." If that sounded just a little alarming, the fine print of Darpa's FY2011 budget didn't help placate enraged readers.
Digital Government
XML versions of online federal regulations lack signature of authenticity
The Government Printing Office posted information in a format to allow manipulation of the data while it looks for a way to digitally sign the documents to indicate they have not been altered.
Digital Government
GAO: Defense and VA are making progress on data-sharing
Departments can exchange health records electronically, report says, but joint program office lacks organization and performance measures.
Digital Government
GSA official: Government transparency still faces hurdles
Agencies must improve the quality of federal data and present it clearly to the public, according to associate administrator.
Digital Government
Dense federal regulations grow more accessible
Agencies are putting the Code of Federal Regulations online in a machine-readable format.
Digital Government
Census plans unprecedented online campaign for 2010 count
The bureau has customized its media campaigns based on how different age and ethnic groups use the Internet and certain platforms.
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