Ideas
Crowdsourcing Contractor Misconduct
The Sunlight Foundation has a <a href="http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/09/22/crowdsourcing-a-legislative-oops/">post</a> today that combines several of our favorite topics: crowdsourcing, collaboration and contractor misconduct (try saying that five times fast):
Digital Government
Acquisition gives Dell entre into more profitable federal IT services market
Perot Systems' growing electronic health records business should offset shrinking margins in the personal computer industry.
Digital Government
E-Verify prepared for surge in worker eligibility queries
E-Verify successfully processes an increase in requests to verify employees working at companies that won government contracts after Sept. 8.
Ideas
Apps.gov is Live
Just ahead of Vivek Kundra's scheduled 1 p.m. announcement, the new cloud computing storefront, Apps.gov is live. The initial offerings include four categories of services currently offered by vendors on the GSA Schedules: Business Apps, Cloud IT Services, Productivity Apps and Social Media Apps.
Digital Government
Top CIO unveils cloud computing storefront in push to reduce IT costs
Site will help agencies hand off IT operations and service to vendors in the coming months.
Digital Government
Berry to elevate the role of chief technology officer at OPM
While the new CIO, likely to be a politically appointed position, will be part of senior management, a move that is rare in the federal government.
Cybersecurity
Lawmakers join forces on cybersecurity legislation
Senate committees coordinate on a comprehensive bill to strengthen protections against hackers.
Ideas
Next Week: Cloud Computing Storefront
You may have seen <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9137841/White_House_CIO_to_disclose_cloud_computing_plans">reports</a> today regarding a major announcement next week from federal chief information officer Vivek Kundra on the government's cloud computing initiative. The source of most of those reports is <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2009/M09-116.html">this release</a> from NASA's Ames Research Center in California, which says only that Kundra "will outline his vision for a new federal government cloud computing initiative". As the home of <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090828_3538.php">NASA's cloud computing initiative</a> (cleverly dubbed "Nebula"), Ames seems like a natural choice to reveal the government's new cloud strategy.
Ideas
Kundra: Transparency Will Take Time
Speaking at a Washington conference on government technology, the <a href="http://www.gov2summit.com/">Gov 2.0 Summit</a>, this morning, federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra acknowledged that to achieve the transparency the Obama administration has promised there would need to be upgrades to many agencies' antiquated IT infrastructures. Delivering those upgrades on the other hand, may be a task that outlasts both Kundra and the administration.
Digital Government
GAO: Pentagon must improve systems acquisition process
Defense has not fully complied with 2003 authorization provisions meant to facilitate better IT purchases, congressional watchdog finds.
Ideas
No Gmail in DC Government
On my post about <a href="http://techinsider.nextgov.com/2009/09/is_gmail_ready_for_government.php">Gmail and government</a> on Tuesday, two anonymous <a href="http://twitter.com/gnagesh/status/3764791877">commentators</a> informed us that District of Columbia government employees <em>do not</em> use Gmail accounts for official business, but rather the more common Microsoft Exchange email system.
Digital Government
CMS provides guidance to states on stimulus grants for health IT
Incentive payments would encourage providers to adopt electronic medical records.
Ideas
VA Touts Results for Telework Day
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine's office today promoted the results of the Commonwealth's <a href="http://www.teleworkexchange.com/teleworkdayreport/">Telework Day</a>, which took place on Aug. 3. According to Kaine's spokesperson Lisa Torphy, 95 percent of the more than 4,200 employees who took part in the event were Virginia-based employees, including more than 2,200 federal employees.
Digital Government
Administration issues solicitation to archive social media content
The White House wants to capture, extract and store information posted by its employees on publicly accessible Web sites, including Facebook and Twitter.
Digital Government
GAO: Technology can help secure Southwest border
Resources are distributed unevenly among checkpoints and some lower priority crossings have outdated equipment, watchdog agency finds.
Ideas
Is Gmail Ready for Government?
In case you've been out of pocket this afternoon (or don't have <a href="http://twitter.com/Nextgov">Twitter</a>), Google's popular free email service <a href="http://mail.google.com">Gmail</a> <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9137384/Gmail_hit_by_widespread_outage">has been down</a> for much of the afternoon. While it's fun to debate whether the outage (and the absence of the ubiquitous Gchat) has increased or decreased productivity for office workers across the country, the outage brings up a salient point about cloud computing and the wisdom of having the government rely on consumer technology.
Ideas
Crowdsourcing Court Records
Last week I made a visit to the District of Columbia's federal courthouse to look up some documents for a story I've been working on. Since I don't have an account for the federal court records database known as PACER, heading down to the courthouse was the only way I could download and print the records I needed at a cost of eight cents per page. I sat down and dutifully printed out the first lengthy set of documents, only to find that somehow all of the text printed out backwards on the page.
Digital Government
CBP to continue searches of travelers' laptops
Homeland Security's new policy does not require reasonable suspicion, to the dismay of civil liberties groups.
Ideas
DHS Announces Laptop Search Policy
The Department of Homeland Security today <a href="http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1251393255852.shtm">released</a> three new directives aimed at clarifying the agency's policies on Customs <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20080624_3037.php">searches of laptop computers</a> at the U.S. border:<blockquote>"Keeping Americans safe in an increasingly digital world depends on our ability to lawfully screen materials entering the United States," said Secretary Napolitano. "The new directives announced today strike the balance between respecting the civil liberties and privacy of all travelers while ensuring DHS can take the lawful actions necessary to secure our borders."
Cybersecurity
NIST awards $8.5 million contract to develop standards for smart grid
EnerNex will establish panel that includes utilities, IT companies, and state and federal agencies.
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