Acquisition

Navy hunting auction bargains

The Navy may be the first federal agency to use a reverse Internet auction in an effort to drive suppliers' prices down

People

NARA guidance under scrutiny

Guidance that the National Archives gave the White House on preserving presidential records is the latest item under scrutiny in the investigation of the White House email system

Digital Government

Navy lobs assault on DMS

The $1.6 billion global Defense Message System the military has spent years constructing is no improvement over its decadesold message system, contends a senior Navy official who wants to study whether the messaging system can meet military requirements.

People

Rethinking IT

In addition to addressing access to information, OMB's proposed revisions to Circular A-130 attempt to force agencies to exercise better oversight of their information technology investments.

People

EPA's Earth Day: Indoors, on Internet

The Environmental Protection Agency is conducting a 'virtual Earth Day' on Wednesday

People

Fed records for dummies

With a federal court ruling pending, the Office of Management and Budget has written new rules telling federal agencies to do a better job of making agency information including electronic documents available to the public.

People

OMB: No call for IT czar

As the notion of naming an information technology czar gains ground, resistance may be rising among the wouldbe sovereign's closest subjects.

People

OMB: No call for IT czar

The Office of Management and Budget's Sally Katzen does not think appointing a governmentwide chief information officer is a good idea

People

Feds losing paper chase

Congress wanted to know how well federal agencies are carrying out the 1995 Paperwork Reduction Act, so the General Accounting Office wrote a 20page report. You don't have to read between the lines to learn that results are not good.

People

Bold new bid

Caterpillar Inc., the bulldozer builder, decided to experiment with an online auction for buying hydraulic parts and watched with glee as the price of stainless steel connectors dropped from 30 cents to 22 cents apiece.

People

OMB issues A-130 revisions

In the midst of a lawsuit to force federal agencies to make public information more readily available to the public, the Office of Management and Budget has issued revisions to its Circular A130

People

Postal Service first to try online reverse auctions

The U.S. Postal Service has put its stamp of approval ? at least tentatively ? on online auctions.

People

Savings abound

For $1.3 million in fees, Pennsylvania reaped $8.5 million in savings in 1999 by using online auctions to make purchases ranging from coal for heating, aluminum for making license plates and salt for melting ice on roads.

People

On the Web, in the know

Rumble strips. So cool they have a World Wide Web site of their own.

Digital Government

CD scraper gets approval

While most compact disk users exercise care to avoid scratching them, Roger Hutchison has built a whole business on scratching and scraping CDs to the point that they are unreadable.

Digital Government

NASA plans knowledge database

In the wake of the Mars Polar Lander crash and recent space shuttle malfunctions, NASA is establishing a knowledge management team and plans a 'lessonslearned database' it hopes will head off such disasters in the future.

People

OMB fills IT policy post

Dan Chenok has been named chief of the Information Policy and Technology Branch of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

People

Paperwork elimination in reverse

As computers, online transactions and automation increased, so did the paperwork burden

People

Postal Service makes bid for Internet auctions

Joke about 'snail mail' all you want, but the U.S. Postal Service has just pulled ahead of other government agencies in the ecommerce race. The mail service has decided to start buying some goods and services through Internet auctions.

Digital Government

Senate stalls emergency funding

An emergency spending bill that included nearly $100 million in new funding for information technology has stalled in the Senate