Vivek Kundra Archives

The White House is releasing the software code for a website it uses to track the performance of big computing projects, as a way to fix program glitches and share the tool with other government bodies, according to the federal chief information officer.

The so-called IT Dashboard monitors the budget, schedule and functionality of systems under development that cost the federal government about $80 billion annually. But critics and federal auditors say ratings on the site do not always accurately represent the current status of projects.

Still, federal CIO Vivek Kundra says the dashboard has helped reduce IT costs by more than $3 billion and he wants "to tap into the collective talents and ingenuity of the American people, to enhance functionality, improve the code and address existing challenges," according to a post on the White House blog. "Software developers will be able to collaborate, identify errors, develop enhancements and recommend improvements to the dashboard, and find new uses for it that we have not even imagined."

CIOs throughout the nation and the world, such as Maarten Hillenaar of the Netherlands, Kyle Schafer in West Virginia and Jason DeHaan in the City of Chicago, are interested in deploying the accountability software in their respective governments, he writes.

The code underpinning the dashboard is freely available, through a format referred to as open source.

In addition, the Obama administration is publishing instructions on how to conduct "TechStat" sessions, which are in-person meetings Kundra typically holds with agency CIOs to decide what to do with systems at risk of failing.

He writes, "The TechStat toolkit provides a comprehensive guide for organizations to establish their own TechStats to improve line-of-sight between project teams and senior executives, increase the precision of ongoing measurement of IT program health, and boost the quality and timing of interventions to keep projects on track."

Last year, the Obama administration started producing a series of "White House Whiteboard" videos to highlight administration policies and initiatives. The latest edition features none other than federal CIO Vivek Kundra, discussing the ins and outs of the Federal IT Dashboard and the administration's TechStat review sessions:

You can't go anywhere in the federal IT world these days without hearing someone wax poetic about virtualization and cloud computing. Are you one of those people who nods your head during such conversations without knowing exactly what people are talking about?

Have no fear: Carolyn Marsan, a longtime technology writer and regular contributor to Government Executive and Nextgov, has patiently explained the concepts, how they are related and why they're so important right now, in a new Expert Dialogue right here on Nextgov. So stop by and get educated. We promise not to tell.

The Office of Management and Budget has given agency chief information officers new guidance on installing software to continuously monitor the security of their networks by the end of fiscal 2012, Federal News Radio reported Wednesday.

As part of the administration's annual IT budget passback guidance, which was obtained by FNR, agencies are also instructed to use the CyberScope reporting tool to submit standard data on the health of their IT systems by Sept. 30. Homeland Security is supposed to issue guidance for exporting data to CyberScope later this year.

Continuous monitoring, which requires security evaluations on an ongoing basis in real time or near real time, presents a major challenge for agencies, the report noted. Many agencies now conduct such monitoring only a few times a year.

White House officials on Friday sent agency chief information officers and senior procurement executives a memo directing them to weigh open source options when buying technology.

Open source refers to technology based on nonproprietary parts, which allow third-party developers to improve and modify the product without having to pay the technology's maker. Advocates have said a move toward open source in the government could save taxpayer dollars and bolster security.

For example, in planning software purchases, "agencies should analyze alternatives that include proprietary, open source and mixed source technologies," states the policy, co-signed by Federal CIO Vivek Kundra, Dan Gordon --- Office of Federal Procurement Policy administrator, and Victoria Espinel, U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator.

The guidance reminds agencies that, according to existing policies, buying decisions should "be free of preconceived preferences based on how the technology is developed, licensed or distributed."

Agency officials "should follow technology neutral principles and practices," which include selecting suitable technology on a case-by-case basis by considering factors such as performance, cost, security, compatibility, ability to share or re-use and availability of quality support, the one-page document states.

The National Archives and Records Administration just opened a door to what the agency expects will become a sort of time capsule containing U.S. historical materials that future generations will be able to access irrespective of innovations in technology.

A prototype of Online Public Access, which launched Monday, lets average citizens, as well as scholars, gain more comprehensive information on holdings that already are online, including card catalogs, digital representations of some records and multimedia from the agency's homepage, Archives.gov. Results for keyword searches play up the article images to appeal to eyes more familiar with social media layouts, like Facebook pages.

Each query retrieves a list of relevant records, archival data about the records identified, the source of the data and the physical or Internet location where the records are viewable. Next year, the site will offer a tool that allows users to zoom in and pan across the online materials, say NARA officials. In the future, people will have the ability to tag records with context based on personal knowledge -- as well as access audio, visuals and personal papers from presidential library collections, agency officials add.

The Archives does not have the resources to post all of America's artifacts. NARA's holdings include papers that would encircle the Earth more than 57 times; about 93,000 movies; more than 5.5 million maps, charts and architectural drawings; roughly 207,000 sound and video recordings; about 18 million aerial photographs; nearly 35 million still pictures and posters; and more than 3.5 billion electronic records.

But the agency is working on a project -- dubbed the Electronic Records Archives -- aimed at digitizing all records in a way that will make them accessible to the public even if the Internet no longer exists.

White House officials earlier this month announced a plan to accelerate the $994.9 million ERA program. The government has spent $425.2 million on the concept since 2002, but hardly any agencies are using the system, federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra said.

As of this month, 16 agencies are depositing electronic records at the Archives via ERA software, according to the latest status report. Under the expedited schedule, ERA will be the default conduit for transferring records by July 2011 and mandatory for agencies in 2012, the Archives says.

The Treasury Department launched a new website Monday that aims to increase communication with the public and includes the agency's first ever blog.

"The new Treasury.gov website is a major step forward in our efforts to improve the way citizens access the wealth of data and information Treasury produces on a day-to-day basis," said Dan Tangherlini, chief performance and chief financial officer of the agency, in a news release. "For the first time, [the site] will use advanced technologies like cloud computing, an official blog, and data visualizations to better communicate and connect with citizens."

The new site is hosted in a public cloud, uses a content management system and includes the agency's first ever blog.

Among other features are data visualizations, which support interactive data including interest rates and Recovery Act statistics.

The agency also is seeking feedback about the new site through an online portal.

During a webcast next Thursday morning, Office of Management and Budget officials will flesh out the Obama administration's recently-announced strategy to update the way agencies acquire and access information technology. The Dec. 9 Forum on IT Management Reform will be held at the White House at 8:30 a.m. and streamed live here, according to an administration official.

Federal Chief Performance Officer Jeffrey Zients and federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra will discuss detailed execution plans for the initiative and take questions from government IT managers and contracting officials, as well as IT vendors.

The thrust of the strategy -- which was unveiled Nov. 19 -- is to expedite the process of upgrading IT systems by moving equipment online to the cloud; matching the technology refresh cycle with the congressional appropriations cycle; cultivating a cadre of professional program managers; encouraging communication between agency managers and the IT community; and holding in-person meetings with senior executives and program managers to review projects.

The New York Times' Bits blog has a Q&A with federal CIO Vivek Kundra today. He doesn't break a lot of new ground, mostly giving his standard rundown on the administration's initiatives in the areas of transparency, cybersecurity, cloud computing, etc.

There's this great exchange near the end, though:

Are you the White House geek?
I think there are a lot of geeks in the White House. I'm definitely not the most geeky.

Kundra also reports that he keeps a brutal work schedule, reporting to the office at 4:30 a.m., and not leaving until 10 at night.

After conducting a rigorous inventory of federal data centers, federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra and Homeland Security Department CIO Richard Spiers have reported that there are 2,094 in operation. The number includes any room greater than 500 square feet that is devoted to data processing. It's the first peer-reviewed inventory of its kind, and updates previous government estimates that tallied 1,100 data centers.

The move to count data centers is part of a push to shrink server farms, which the Obama administration mandated in February as part of a push to reduce information technology costs, lower energy consumption, take up less real estate and bolster security.

According to the new counts, which are as of July 30, Defense has the most data centers with 772, followed by State with 361. The Office of Personnel Management has just one data center.

This post was revised for clarification.