Digital Government

Clinton to ask for electronic filing, trade data systems

More than four years after the Clinton administration proposed automating interactions between businesses and federal agencies, officials plan to raise the profile of two projects designed to simplify the collection of trade data and promote electronic filing of corporate tax information. The presi

Digital Government

Army to hold commanders and sysops liable for hacks

The Army is preparing new computer security regulations that would make base commanders and system operators liable under the military's criminal code for the security of their information systems. Col. Mike Brown, the Army deputy director of information security, said the new policy will be based

Digital Government

Rossotti weighs in on Prime

Charles Rossotti commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service may change his agency's approach to its 15year modernization effort so that the IRS would have more flexibility in dealing with vendors and choosing information systems. In a Dec. 21 memo obtained by FCW Rossotti outlined his 'observati

Digital Government

Records Web site goes public

The National Archives and Records Administration has made public its prototype of a World Wide Web page that describes federal agencies' records and their plans for preserving them. Although the application called the Agency Records Disposition Online Resource (ARDOR) is designed primarily as a ref

Digital Government

SGI/Cray supers to improve weapons equipment design

The Army late last month brought online a pair of new Silicon Graphics Inc./Cray Research supercomputers that will provide Defense Department scientists with the processing power necessary to develop new weapons and equipment that immediately performs as expected according to DOD researchers. The A

Digital Government

Eastman Software nabs imaging workflow pact

The Social Security Administration has awarded Eastman Software a $5.1 million contract for imaging workflow and computeroutputtolaserdisc (COLD) software that ranks the buy among the largest federal or commercial installations of the technology. SSA plans to deploy the software to 11 000 users

Digital Government

15 vendors get ready for EIA Omnibus pact

The Energy Information Administration plans to use 11 new information technology contracts awarded last month to update its computer systems and networks as well as to maintain existing equipment and develop new agencywide software applications.

Digital Government

Smaller contracting staffs rely on IT to cope

Buyouts and hiring freezes at federal agencies have reduced the procurement work force by nearly 12 percent during the past five years, forcing the remaining contracting officers to develop strategies for coping with a growing workload.

Digital Government

Lockheed snares $210M telecom pact

Lockheed Martin Technical Services last week captured a five-year, $210.4 million contract to provide telecommunications and computing support services for the Environmental Protection Agency's Washington, D.C., headquarters, adding the win to a $259 million pact it received in October 1997 to support the agency's North Carolina-based National Computer Center and regional offices nationwide.

Digital Government

DOE designs system for secret documents

The Energy Department plans to develop a cutting-edge computer system to speed the declassification of some 280 million pages of information dating from World War II to the present.

Digital Government

Handheld PCs fly on NASA shuttle

Astronauts took the first handheld computer into space on the NASA space shuttle Columbia mission that concluded earlier this month. They were testing an application designed to provide them with graphical representations of their location in space and potential emergency landing sites. But althoug

Digital Government

Energy taps 11 for support

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) Dec. 12 awarded 11 vendors taskorder contracts to operate and maintain its mainframes and computer networks through 2002. Among the winners are incumbents Abacus Allied Technology Group Science Applications International Corp. Unisys Corp. and Z Inc. The

Digital Government

Eastman refines federal sales channels strategy

Eastman Software has launched a new federal business strategy designed to expand the reach of its small federal sales force by teaming with more integrators and resellers to market their imaging workflow and document management products. In an interview at the FedNet/Fed Imaging trade show in Washi

Digital Government

EPA sets goals, schedule for IT integration plans

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to spend up to $30 million over the next five years to expand electronic reporting for the industries it regulates and to set common standards for the data it collects and shares with states according to the agency's new information technology plan released

Digital Government

Group sues feds for nondisclosure

So even federal agencies including the Office of Management and Budget are violating laws that require them to disclose information about their major computer systems according to a lawsuit filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court. Public Citizen a consumer advocacy group has asked Judge Sta

Digital Government

NARA creates panel to rewrite records rule

While the National Archives and Records Administration has convened a panel to develop guidelines for managing electronic federal records federal agencies are left to decide for themselves how to handle electronic mail and documents in the interim. NARA's decision to convene the Electronic Records

Digital Government

Industry urges feds to set milestones

SAN JOSE Calif. he federal government has computing requirements that the information technology industry cannot satisfy and agencies need to set clear milestones for investing in research to meet these demands some of the nation's top computer scientists said at a trade show here last month. At

Digital Government

Five vendors lodge agency-level protests against ECS II

The National Institutes of Health expects to rule soon on five agencylevel protests from unsuccessful bidders on the $2 billion Electronic Computer Store II procurement. The vendors Severn Companies Inc. Sytel Inc. SMAC Data Systems Friendship Computer and Native American Sales would not comment o

Digital Government

NWS launches next super-CPU buy

The National Weather Service plans to replace its supercomputer with a faster system that would allow for more accurate forecasting of hurricanes tornadoes blizzards and other severe storms. The estimated $35.8 million acquisition would replace the existing 16processor Cray Research Inc. C90 compu

Digital Government

DOD'S HPCMP director loves the cutting edge

Kay Howell director of the Defense Department's High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP) has shaped her career around her love of cuttingedge technology and an appreciation of what users want from it. Howell took her first job out of college as a computer specialist with the Naval