Transition Archives

Do you know a federal manager who recently took risks to push through a bold idea, policy or program that uses technology to make government work better or improve public services? If so, we'd like to hear your story by nominating your colleague for a Nextgov Award.

The Nextgov Award program, developed in partnership with O'Reilly Media Inc. and TechWeb, will recognize government executives who stepped outside their comfortable confines to think and manage differently. They acted boldly to push through an innovative program, policy or new management practice that relied on technology to move government in a new direction, to challenge employees to think and work differently, and that ultimately improved the lives of citizens.

We know there are many managers who have done just that, and we want you to tell us about them by nominating them for a Nextgov Award. The deadline is March 12, but we suggest you don't wait. Visit the nomination page and spend just a few minutes filling out the form. We'll tell the stories of the winners later this spring on Nextgov.

A panel of respected judges will make choose the winners, who will be honored at a luncheon on May 27 at the Gov 2.0 Expo at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The expo is co-sponsored by O'Reilly Media Inc. and TechWeb, and Nextgov is the premier media sponsor.

Nextgov has launched the Nextgov Awards, an inaugural program to recognize federal managers who have shepherded a program, policy or management practice that is not only innovative, but bold and brave.

Yes, we know, there are a lot of awards programs in government. But when we asked federal managers and industry executives what is missing, they told us unanimously: No awards recognize federal employees who took on risks -- personal, political and otherwise -- and boldly acted to see their idea to fruition. Or if their idea died, at least they took on entrenched bureaucratic interests in an attempt to make government better through the use of technology.

We invite you to visit our awards page to learn more and to nominate someone who fits the criteria. The technology isn't the reason for the award, but the bold idea must rely on it in some way. And we encourage you to tell us a story about the individuals you nominate. We want you to wow us because we know there are dozens of stories of federal employees trying to improve government and the lives of citizens, but they are up against big odds. Yet, they have acted bravely and with resolve to bring about change. We want to know about them, the drama they faced and the results they achieved. And, of course, the technology they used.

The winners of the Nextgov Awards will be honored at a luncheon at TechWeb's Gov 2.0 Expo in May. (Nextgov is a TechWeb partner for the event.) We'd love to see you there.

More to come.

Wednesday marks the one-year anniversary of President Obama's inauguration and it comes at a time when reports indicate the public is dissatisfied with his performance, especially with the overhaul of the health care system.

But when it comes to his management reform for the executive branch, Obama has received higher marks. At least that's the take from The Public Manager, a government management journal published by Bureaucrat Inc., a nonprofit, good government organization.

In its winter issue, which became available on Jan. 15, the journal took a look at 10 managerial topics, including two views on technology, human resources, younger workers, sourcing and executive management concerns. The key message: Obama has already made some significant changes that are on the right track.

"We see some real positive signs," said Alan Balutis, chairman of The Public Manager's board and director of the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group, a self-described think tank that does not sell Cisco products. "The initial appointments are very good ones. The signals are positive, and the approaches are good ones. The policy agenda is a strong one." Balutis served on a task force to advise the Obama administration during the transition.

Many of the management ideas and reforms the administration has instituted are similar to those the journal suggested in its winter 2007 and spring 2008 issues - as many as 20 recommendations. Those ideas were generated by a group of former government officials and private sector executives that Cisco brought together in the summer of 2007, months before the two political parties had nominated candidates for president.

"There was no reason, they argued then, that 'government cannot operate with as much speed, responsiveness, and resiliency as the private sector. In fact, there is no reason government should not be the leader when it comes to technology adoption, human capital management, and service delivery,'" Balutis wrote in the journal.

Many of the recommendations focused on technology to bring about needed management reforms and to improve government performance. More reliance on telework, relying on younger workers to infuse tradition-bound agencies with new technologies, greater transparency, and the use of Web 2.0 technologies and the changing role of the chief information officer were topics writers focused on.

The message the authors delivered were positive:

--Steve O'Keeffe, founder of the public relations company O'Keeffe and Associates and executive director of the Telework Exchange, which promotes the practice of working remotely within government agencies, wrote that the Defense Information Systems Agency, Patent and Trademark Office, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. the and General Accountability Office have increased their reliance on telework. And 43 percent of the employees at the General Services Administration say they work remotely.

--The Obama administration has embraced the use of social networking tools and called on agencies to reach out in with new technologies to encourage public input into policies. "Government presence on external social networks has exploded," wrote Dave McClure, associate administrator for the Office of Citizen Services and Communications at GSA, and Martha Dorris, deputy associate administrator at the same office. "Many federal agencies have established a presence on at least one of the mainstream social networks: Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube or Second Life. Government is learning that it needs to go where citizens
already are."

--The administration has signaled that technology is a key component in improving how government works and the CIO is the architect to make that happen, wrote John Sindelar, client industry executive at Hewlett-Packard Co.; Daniel Mintz is chief technology officer of the civil and health services group at Computer Sciences Corp.; and Tom Hughes, a director at CSC. "The Obama administration has identified technology approaches to solve government issues," they concluded. "CIOs now have responsibility for their agencies' business success and therefore must partner within their organizations to facilitate outcomes such as enhanced e-customer and Internet service."

Similar upbeat assessments were reached for executive management ("Rather than pretend that the executive branch is inhabited by aliens who operate on a separate planet, President Obama seems to be taking responsibility for the results of executive branch performance"), workforce reform (grades of A's and B's for employee relations, executive leadership, work life, performance and talent management), and overall government reform ("So far Obama's stealth revolution has the postbureaucratic vision.")

Balutis points out that the analyses avoided the traditional, big public issues such as what should b the size of government and even what is government's role. That may be because, as the journal points out, America faces the biggest challenges in its history - trying to create jobs after one of its worse economic downturns, climate change, two wars, new financial regulations, health care reforms, a huge federal deficit, and entitlement programs that are unsustainable yet popular. And most recently, humanitarian relief to countries like Haiti. The public has turned to its government for solutions, and they expect it to deliver.

"This is not an issue of the size of government," Balutis said in an interview. "We're looking for a government that works. So, I think as you look through this issue, and look at the way in which several people address them, . . . I think it is a nice contribution to the discussion of what we have to do."

Last night, the White House officially confirmed that Howard Schmidt, the former cyber adviser in the Bush administration, would be appointed to the much anticipated position of cyber coordinator. Since then, the comments have been flowing in. Below is just a taste of how the cybersecurity community is reacting to the pick.

James Lewis, director of the technology and public policy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies

I think it's a good move. The administration has started a lot of initiatives on cyber Defense Departmetn, Homeland Security Department, State Department -- and they need someone to make sure it all fits together. They also need to rewrite the National Cyber Strategy, and having someone to honcho that process and avoid recycling old ideas will be the big challenge.

Alan Balutis, director of the business solutions group at Cisco Systems and a former chief information officer at the Commerce Department

Howard is a good man and his name has been in the mix for a long time --
but his demands had been viewed as extreme and hence kept him out of the running. That said, he should do a good job and I think the appointment will be viewed positively around government and with the private sector.

Gregory Garcia, head of the information security consulting firm Garcia Strategies, and assistant secretary of cybersecurity and telecommunications at DHS during the Bush administration

Thumbs up for technical, political, and corporate experience; vision, energy and confidence in teamwork. If agency leads don't have a counter agenda, they'll step up and join Howard. There's no one better for the job.

Tom Talleur, forensic technologist and former federal criminal investigator

I'm glad to see Howard named as cyber security coordinator. The problem remains, however, that this entire issue has become a process for a problem that will never be solved. Howard does not have enough authority to address this challenge. The government could have stopped this problem 15 years ago but chose not to. Now, this issue has become a behemoth accountable to no country or person. The overall challenge for us in the 21st century remains: Unless and until we develop processes to manage the convergence of novel technologies with communicative properties soon we will face a digital wild west unimaginable by today's standards.

Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute

Howard is going to surprise a lot of people in Washington. He had extraordinary successes as CISO at Microsoft [and] has demonstrated that he can forge sufficient support to overcome resistance and get things done. Also, he's already been burnt badly by overzealous [staffers] from the White House Council of Economic Advisors when they emasculated the original draft of the [2003] National Strategy to Secure Cyber Space, so I expect he wouldn't have taken the job without getting some assurance that [the council's current director] Larry Summers will not veto any initiatives that ask industry to ensure the security of the products and services they sell or the security of the power and communications networks.

Dale Meyerrose, vice president for cyber and information assurance at Harris Corp. and chief information officer for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence during the Bush administration

Howard Schmidt is eminently qualified to be the national cyber coordinator and an excellent choice by the administration. He will need to draw on well-earned credentials in this yet-to-be-defined coordinator position in the White House. I see three major tasks facing Mr Schmidt:

• Help sort out the roles and missions among the major cyber players, namely Defense, Homeland Security, and Justice


• *Focus leadership on a small number of the forty-plus recommendations in the [administration's cybersecurity report released in May]


• *Outline the issues that need to be addressed in the fiscal 2011 budget process.

An annual report card on the Obama administration's secrecy track record found slight decreases in secrecy in the last year of the Bush-Cheney administration and a very mixed performance by Obama in upholding his promise of unprecedented transparency.

The report card, which was released on Tuesday and authored by Patrice McDermott and Amy Fuller Bennett of Openthegovernment.org, notes that there aren't yet enough quantitative indicators of secrecy in the new White House to compare the Obama administration to its predecessor. So, the study lists qualitative examples of President Obama's promising policies and, in some instances, "discouraging" practices.

Key tech findings:

• Classification Activity Still Remains High: In 2008, the number of original classification decisions decreased to 203,541, a 13 percent drop from 2007, but the numbers remain high.
• FOIA Requests and Costs Appear to Drop: Both the total number of public requests (506,471) and the total spent processing those requests ($338,677,544) dropped from 2007 to 2008. This is largely attributable to a change in how agencies classify Privacy Act (PA) requests for information about one's self: previously, some agencies had included PA requests in both their total number of requests received and their total of the cost of FOIA.
• FOIA Backlogs Slightly Reduced: The federal government processed 17,689 more FOIA requests than it received in 2008. The net improvement is in part the result of significant backlog progress on the part of a few agencies.
• More Than 25 percent of All Awards Are not Competed: In 2008, 26.6 percent ($140 billion) of federal contract dollars were uncompeted; slightly more than one-third of contract dollars were subject to full and open competition. On average since 2000, approximately 25 percent of all contract funding has not been competed, and full and open competed contracts have dropped by almost 20 percent.
• Scientific and Technical Advice Increasingly Closed to Public: In 2008, governmentwide 65% of federal advisory committee hearings were closed to the public; 17% of those not held by groups advising the three agencies that historically have accounted for the majority of closed meetings were closed. The same number of meetings was closed in 2008 as in 2007, but the total number of meetings fell--leaving fewer opportunities for public participation.

• On his first full day in office, Obama issued a memo that directed agencies to administer the Freedom of Information Act with a clear presumption in favor of disclosure.
• In June, the FDA formed a task force to develop recommendations for enhancing the transparency of the agency's drug approval process.
• Obama's open government directive process was an innovative experiment in soliciting public participation in the policy-making process: this first use has produced mixed results. A number of non-profit organizations are evaluating the process with the goal of helping the administration hone the "tools and rules" it uses to engage the public online.
• At the end of the Obama administration's participatory process of publicly brainstorming revisions to classification policy, the public had no sense of what would be included in the final recommendations.
• The government is working to overhaul Recovery.gov, the official Web site tracking the stimulus spending. Even after the redesign, however, there will be limitations to Recovery.gov that keep the stimulus program from being a model of fiscal transparency. This is because under the Recovery Act and current federal guidance not all subcontractors that receive stimulus money are required to report on the uses of the money.

Has time run out?

A coalition of public interest groups has yet to hear from the national security adviser about its request that he allow public comment on a review of classification policy before delivering it to the president next week.

More than twenty activists and organized groups signed an Aug. 1 letter to Gen. James L. Jones, the president's national security adviser, saying that they appreciated the opportunity to suggest revisions during a summer online forum but are concerned the general's final language may not accurately reflect their recommendations.

President Obama on May 27 requested a 90-day review of the executive order governing classified national security information to ensure information-sharing policies comply with transparency principles he outlined in an executive memo the day after inauguration.

"Soliciting input on the front end of the review process is commendable. However, the opportunity to comment on how that input is translated into policy is the true measure of transparency, participation and collaboration promised by the president on January 21, 2009. Furthermore, an opportunity for public comment will help improve the final product; in 1993, public disclosure of a near-final draft of the executive order on classified national security information elicited substantial public commentary and contributed to significant revisions of Executive Order 12958 prior to its formal promulgation by President Clinton.

We believe this recommended approach best serves the president and, most importantly, the nation. It is also consistent with, if not essential to, the president's commitment to make his administration the most open and transparent in history. Furthermore, we are pleased to note that in its letter to you of July 21, 2009, in endorsing this recommendation, the [Public Interest Declassification Board] recognized the importance of giving the public an opportunity to comment on the final draft of a new or revised executive order before it is signed by the president," the letter stated.

National Security Council spokesman Ben Chang on Thursday said, "The general is working on a response which we expect to have soon."

When Nextgov asked if there would be a public comment period before the language is due on Aug. 27, he said, "I'm going to let the letter speak for itself."

The co-signers of the Aug. 1 request include representatives from OpenTheGovernment.org, Federation of American Scientists, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

GSA just confirmed that they have named David McClure an associate administrator, heading up the Office of Citizen Services and Communications. OCS manages all of GSA's public outreach efforts, including the federal web portal USA.gov and the Federal Web Manager's Council.

McClure joined the analyst firm Gartner in January 2005 as research director in the Global Public Sector group. He previously served as vice president for e-government and technology at the Council for Excellence in Government, and for 18 years as director of information technology management issues at the Government Accountability Office.

From an email sent to GSA employees this morning by Acting Administrator Paul Prouty:

Good morning, everyone. Today, it is my pleasure to announce another addition to our GSA leadership team.

Next Monday, David McClure will join us as the new Associate Administrator of the Office of Citizen Services and Communications.

Dave has decades of experience in evaluating and implementing IT management policies within the government. He is coming to GSA from Gartner, Inc., where, as the Managing Vice President of their Government Research Team, he led their efforts in government IT management practices. His experience prior to that includes service on the Obama-Biden Transition Team, the Council of Excellence in Government, and 18 years at the Government Accountability Office.

His expertise and vision will be invaluable as OCSC continues to find new and innovative ways to connect the public to government.

Please join me in welcoming Dave to GSA, and in thanking Martha Dorris for her tireless work as Acting Associate Administrator during this period of transition.

We will announce this appointment both internally and externally later today through a news release and GSA Update.

Thanks,
Paul

The Wall Street Journal reported this afternoon that acting cybersecurity czar Melissa Hathaway has resigned from her post for personal reasons. Hathaway led the Obama administration's 60-day review of cybersecurity and was thought to be a leading contender for the permanent cybersecurity position, but reports emerged in June that she was no longer a front-runner. Hathaway told the Journal that she took her name out of the running for the job two weeks ago.

With Hathaway stepping aside, that leaves two names we've heard tossed around as leading candidates: Frank Kramer assistant defense secretary in the Clinton administration and Howard Schmidt, former White House cybersecurity advisor. The position has suffered a hit in terms of its profile as the ongoing turf war over which agency will oversee cyberspace has continued this summer. Some have even said "no thank you" to the job.

However, we hear an announcement may be coming in the next couple weeks.

A White House official confirmed that Hathaway would be staying on as acting senior director for cyberspace until Aug. 21. They also sent along the following statement:

We are grateful for her dedicated service and for the significant progress she and her team have made on our national cybersecurity strategy.

Cybersecurity is a major priority for the president, which is why shortly after taking office he directed his National Security Council and Homeland Security Council to conduct a top-to-bottom review of the federal government's efforts to defend our information and communications infrastructure and to recommend the best way to secure these networks and our prosperity. The White House released the report and announced the creation of a cybersecurity coordinator who will have direct access to the president and that the Obama administration is pursuing a new comprehensive approach to securing America's digital infrastructure. The President is personally committed to finding the right person for this job, and a rigorous selection process is well underway.

Bev Godwin, who helped bridge the digital divide between federal Luddites and Obama administration tech whizzes, is leaving her post at the White House's new media office.

Friday is her last day as the office's director of online resources and interagency development, White House officials said. Her detail to the White House from the General Services Administration has ended.

"They don't come any better than Bev Godwin," said Macon Phillips, director of the new media team. "Bev's combination of government experience and new media savvy proved invaluable for getting the White House online program going and building productive relationships with the federal Web manager community."

Godwin started her federal career in 1982 at the Health and Human Services Department. There she analyzed budgets and policies for social services and income maintenance programs that served children, families and senior citizens.

"Bev's tireless work ethic, positive attitude and dedication to the public interest represent civil service at its best," Phillips added. "We're a better team at the White House for the time she spent with us and she returns to GSA with my full faith in her ideas and vigor for the work ahead."

Before joining the White House, Godwin spearheaded an overhaul of the federal homepage USA.gov and aided Web managers, governmentwide, in adding social networking tools to their sites.

Update: The White House has announced it has sent Ferriero's nomination to the Senate for confirmation.

President Obama reportedly plans to appoint David S. Ferriero to the position of U.S. Archivist, a job that entails deploying a massive technologically-agnostic system to preserve and publish the historical record of the United States, according to the nonprofit National Coalition for History.

The post has been vacant since December, when former Archivist Allen Weinstein, who has Parkinson's disease, resigned, citing health reasons.

Ferriero brings with him some 30 years as an employee at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries and was its acting co-director of libraries before departing in 1996 to head Duke University's library.

He currently serves as director and CEO of the research libraries at the New York Public Library. In 2004, the library system helped pioneer the so-called "Google Print" Library Project, a controversial program that scans library print collections to show Google users actual text containing their search terms in context.

As the new chief of the National Archives and Records Administration, Ferriero would face the challenge of overseeing construction of the delayed Electronic Records Archive. The digital archive must be able to save federal and presidential records, regardless of their format, and make them available on whatever type of hardware and software people might be using in the future.

"He's an excellent choice," said Prudence S. Adler, the associate executive director of the Association of Research Libraries. "He has a long history of understanding technology and technology developments. . . . With this administration, coming from a library community, that has very strong interest in access to information issues. . . . He's just going to be excellent."

The White House did not return requests for confirmation.

Update: Later on Tuesday, the White House announced it has sent Ferriero's nomination to the Senate for confirmation.