TECHNOLOGY AND THE BUSINESS OF GOVERNMENT
03/31/09 06:42 pm ET
The job for the chief information officer at the Veterans Affairs Department still hasn't been filled. We had heard VA was supposed to announce it on March 26. But it didn't happen. Roger Baker, former Commerce Department CIO in the Clinton administration, is rumored to be the front runner -- and has been for nearly two months.>>
03/30/09 05:41 pm ET
Federal agencies worried that they might be infected with the dreaded computer worm "Conficker," which has infected more than 10 million computers worldwide, now have a tool to find out.>>
03/27/09 06:03 pm ET
At a event on Friday, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano had no kind words to say about Real ID, which was passed by a Republican-controlled Congress in 2005 to require states to issue new high-tech driver's licenses that incorporate a range of security features. Speaking to reporters following a press event this afternoon, Napolitano described the legislation as "enormously expensive," "containing a lot of uncertainly," and lacking adequate "constitutional governance.">>
03/26/09 03:39 pm ET
GSA sent out an update today to inform us that the $50 billion Alliant GWAC will be awarded on Friday, with the initial announcement coming on FedBizOps. Immediately after the award is posted, we should be bringing you the names of the companies who have been selected to receive awards.>>
03/26/09 11:36 am ET
For those of you who missed this, President Obama held his first online town hall meeting today and it was broadcast live on whitehouse.gov. According to the White House, almost 93,000 people submitted more than 104,000 questions, which the public voted on.>>
03/25/09 06:12 pm ET
As Government Executive Staff Correspondent Robert Brodsky points out in an article on the appointment of Edward DeSeve to implement the recently enacted economic stimulus package, DeSeve's technology experience will come in handy.>>
03/24/09 05:26 pm ET
A General Services Administration spokesman just told Nextgov that the agency is expecting to make the Alliant awards on March 30 and issue a press release the same day.>>
03/24/09 12:12 pm ET
This week marks the halfway point to a self-imposed deadline for the Obama administration to issue a directive outlining what agencies will need to do to make government more transparent, participatory and collaborative.>>
03/23/09 06:51 pm ET
Edward DeSeve, the deputy director for the Office of Management and Budget for about two years in the Clinton administration, has been named special adviser to the president, assistant to the vice president and special adviser to the OMB director for implementation of the Recovery Act. According to the press release sent out Monday evening:>>
03/23/09 10:19 am ET
In case you missed this on Friday afternoon, President Obama nominated Priscilla Guthrie to be chief information officer at the Office of Director of National Intelligence. Guthrie, currently director of the Information Technology and Systems Division at the nonprofit Institute for Defense Analyses, was previously deputy assistant secretary of Defense and deputy CIO in the Defense Department from 2001 to 2006.>>
03/20/09 05:20 pm ET
Agencies routinely say it needs information technology specialists, and with initiatives to follow stimulus spending and to make government more transparent, the need for technologists will only increase. Earl Devaney, Obama's stimulus watchdog, lamented on Thursday while testifying on the Hill about the IT challenges he faces.>>
03/19/09 05:31 pm ET
Bob Brewin reported on a House Armed Services Committee hearing held on Wednesday during which a consultant with the Council on Foreign Relations said the United States should pursue anti-satellite weapons that could disable foreign-operated satellites.>>
03/18/09 02:46 pm ET
President Obama posted his NCAA bracket on whitehouse.gov.>>
03/18/09 11:58 am ET
For those of us wondering why the White House did an about-face on Vivek Kundra over the weekend, reinstating him after putting him on leave last week, we may have our answer.>>
03/18/09 09:32 am ET
I am greatly heartened to see all the moral outrage that the AIG bonuses are bringing out in our politicians.>>
03/17/09 06:12 pm ET
Two doctors in a Washington Post Op-Ed today called into question President Obama's huge $50 billion investment in electronic health records for every American, which was part of the economic stimulus plan.>>
03/17/09 04:19 pm ET
Micah L. Sifry at techPresident is reporting that recently appointed federal CIO Vivek Kundra was seen at his desk today -- apparently back on the job after taking a leave of absence last week after former work colleagues were arrested for a contract kickback scheme. Nextgov is still waiting for the White House to confirm this information.>>
03/16/09 02:29 pm ET
For those of you who saw my story about the Office of Management and Budget directing agencies to update their grant management systems in preparation for a spike of stimulus-related applications, Jason Miller over at Federal News Radio has an update:>>
03/13/09 06:02 pm ET
One of the odd things about the FBI raid on the chief technology officer's office in the District of Columbia on Thursday -- and there are a lot of odd things -- is where was the FBI's communication with the White House?>>
03/13/09 10:59 am ET
Something light for Friday (and Friday the 13th, for that matter). A look at how the younger generation just doesn't understand how good technology has made their lives.>>
03/12/09 02:30 pm ET
Obama has made transparency a "touchstone" (his word) of his administration and promises to apply it to tracking stimulus spending. But more and more people are asking questions like, "Exactly what is it?" And, "How do you define it?">>
03/12/09 11:13 am ET
Ben Smith of Politico.com reports in his blog tat the FBI has raided the Obama federal CIO's Vivek Kundra's old chief technology officer office in the District of Columbia.>>
03/11/09 06:28 pm ET
How funny can data theft, data loss, fraud and identity theft be? Pretty funny, according to portable storage device (read flash drives) CoSoSys. IN a press release sent out this morning, the company said it launched "a series of comic strips intended to educate the public regarding the embedded threats of portable and lifestyle devices.">>
03/10/09 09:38 am ET
How should Vivek Kundra, the newly appointed federal chief information officer, approach his job? How can he bring about the change he talks about?>>
03/09/09 06:09 pm ET
The debate over who controls cybersecurity in government is heating up. The news that Rod Beckstrom would resign this coming Friday as director of the National Cybersecurity Center elevated the struggle between who will control cybersecurity in the federal government.>>
03/06/09 03:58 pm ET
TechAmerica, the technology industry association formed by the merger of the Information Technology Association of America and AeA, sponsored a luncheon today where they offered the industry's take on the estimated $100 billion set aside for IT in the recently passed economic stimulus bill.>>
03/05/09 01:12 pm ET
If you're still confused what the economic stimulus spending will look like, consider this "notice of intent" to issue a grant that the Energy Department posted on Thursday.>>
03/04/09 05:20 pm ET
Obama's economic stimulus package has nearly tens, if not hundreds, of billions of dollars worth of information technology spending in it, but don't expect that to help out the IT industry.>>
03/03/09 05:28 pm ET
Tech Insider cited yesterday a report that the White House had dropped YouTube as its platform for Obama's weekly addresses. "After taking some heat from privacy advocates, the Obama administration has switched from using YouTube to post President Obama's weekly addresses to Vimeo.">>
03/02/09 03:24 pm ET
After taking some heat from privacy advocates, the Obama administration has switched from using YouTube to post President Obama's weekly addresses to Vimeo, according to CNet's Chris Soghoian.>>
03/02/09 11:02 am ET
In this month's Government Executive magazine, Nextgov's Tech Insider blogger Robert Charette, a risk management expert who consults with federal agencies, argues that agencies would meet their missions better if they adopted risk management techniques as part of their strategic management plans.>>
