TECHNOLOGY AND THE BUSINESS OF GOVERNMENT

Some members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are expected next week to announce the formation of a bipartisan congressional transparency caucus, co-chaired by Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the panel's ranking member, and Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill.

The caucus will pursue a legislative agenda focused on free, online access to all government information, Issa aides said. The group also plans to conduct oversight of disclosures and educate lawmakers and citizens.

Specifically, legislative efforts will include mandating the release of data formats that any computer application can read and share with other apps and ensuring that bulk-downloadable documents are posted on permanent Web sites. The caucus also wants data-driven transparency incorporated into rulemaking, federal spending and agency performance.

Citizens who enter innovation contests that the government plans to launch this year could rake in cash on top of the prize money that agencies are allowed to award. The White House on Monday released a legal framework for giving away money and other incentives during competitions aimed at improving open government, spurring research and development and addressing national priorities.

In addition to collecting cash for their endeavors, winners also can make money from their intellectual property. Just because the government is entitled to use the winning ideas, the government does not have exclusive rights to the inventions, say some IT industry officials.

Guido Jouret, chief technology officer for Cisco's emerging technologies group, noted that the government's intellectual property guidelines are similar to the non-binding agreements Cisco uses during its own innovation competition. Cisco runs the I Prize contest, which challenges entrepreneurs to submit proposals that have the potential to become billion-dollar business ideas for the networking provider. The grand prize for the winning team is $250,000.

In return, Cisco gets a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to distribute the winning product. Because the terms of the agreement are non-exclusive, the winners retain the right to sell the application to other companies.

"A lot of the debates we had with our lawyers were around the intellectual property angle," he said. "We want to be able to come up with great ideas, but not exclusively."

Participants in the virtual online world of Second Life have proven that such free enterprise can unleash a flood of creativity in communities.

"Users control the intellectual property rights to whatever they build, giving them economic incentive to create things. And create they do," the Washington Post reported on Monday. "Newbies show up in Second Life without so much as 40 acres and a mule, so their avatars need hair, and fancy shoes for a concert or suits for business meetings, and a house, and art for the house, and maybe a waterfall for the living room -- virtual goods that cost real money."

The Washington Post also said that Second Life participants "cashed out $55 million of their Second Life earnings last year" in the real world.

The General Services Administration has approved universal sign-in applications for use on government Web sites, provided by Equifax, Google and Paypal, that will allow citizens who are securely logged in to one site to instantly and safely switch to another agency site without having to log in again.

The so-called Open Identity Exchange applications are expected to expedite access to government services by giving users a single ID credential that all privacy-protected federal sites will accept.

Watch Nextgov news for more details. . .

A senator chastised the social-networking service Facebook on Tuesday for refusing to attend his subcommittee hearing on global Internet freedom, while simultaneously seeking the government's help in resolving Internet blockages overseas.

Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., chairman of the Judiciary Committee's Human Rights and the Law Subcommittee, said that in a letter declining to testify, Facebook wrote that the company has no business operations in China or most of the other countries in the world. Durbin pointed out that Facebook has more than 400 million users, about 70 percent of which are outside the United States. Facebook also has not joined the Global Network Initiative, a coalition of technology companies committed to resisting censorship.

Despite its reluctance to participate in the hearing or GNI, Facebook recently asked the State Department for assistance when its services were blocked in Vietnam, Durbin said. Michael Posner, assistant secretary of State for democracy, human rights and labor, who testified at the hearing, responded, "It's fair to say that companies like Facebook and Twitter are certainly susceptible to the pressures that we've seen others face."

Durbin then observed, "If Facebook expects our government to help in resolving efforts to censor their services, it only seems reasonable that they accept some responsibility themselves for addressing human rights issues."

After the hearing, Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes (and a former writer for Nextgov and Government Executive) said that, while Facebook has a large user base, its global operations are still small.

"When we come to evaluate doing business in any country, we do so thoughtfully and are mindful of the rules, regulations, and customs," he added. "As Facebook grows, we'll absolutely be considering which groups we can actively participate in."

Noyes said the company welcomes a continuing dialogue with Durbin.

Recovery.gov, the Web site tracking progress of the economic stimulus package, is naming names when it comes to stimulus-funded tech companies that have twice failed to report on their spending.

On Thursday, the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which oversees stimulus spending, released a list of funding recipients who have not reported on the status of their projects, job creation, and other accountability measures since money started flowing last year. Under the Recovery Act, reporting is voluntary. Board Chairman Earl Devaney has not been shy about calling on Congress to amend the law to establish penalties for those who don't report.

Several tech companies are among the most-wanted list, including:

• Eyak Technologies, which was awarded $656,000 by the Homeland Security Department
• GE Medical Systems Information Technologies, which was awarded $14,622.20 by the Health and Human Services Department
• Technica Corp, which was awarded $24,763.11 by HHS