Agencies ponder how to integrate buying reforms
Former AF exec Chip Mather says guides may help. Having developed policies to correspond with procurement reforms passed by Congress in the last few years, agencies are trying to apply them in a way that corresponds to their missions. The first step is integrating the policies, said William C. Greenwalt, senior staff member for the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, Restructuring and the District of Columbia.
Federal 2000 emergency funds are going, going, halfway gone
How much have civilian agencies received? The government is spending its emergency year 2000 funds too quickly and perhaps unwisely, a group of Capitol Hill lawmakers is contending. So far, the Office of Management and Budget has allocated nearly half of the $2.5 billion Congress allotted in fiscal 1999 for emergency 2000 needs by civilian agencies. OMB also is reviewing a request from the Defense Department to tap the $1.1 billion lawmakers granted for
Treasury service wants agencies to switch to improved payroll tax app
The Treasury Department's Financial Management Service has upgraded the system that lets agencies pay their payroll taxes electronically, and it has streamlined the process by making the application available via the Internet. Now FMS must persuade agencies to use the new app, said Paul Gist, director of FMS' Financial Services Division.
VPN devices show strength on security
VPN devices and software employ multitier encryption, authentication and access control to establish secure Internet tunnels between remote sites, field offices and headquarters LANs. VPNs reduce network support and hardware requirements, eliminate expensive dedicated lines and cut telecommuting costs. A single VPN hardware server attached to the office network removes the need for maintaining modem banks and remote-access servers.
IT's impact and year 2000 readiness top CIOs' worry lists
Top challenges for federal systems executives have changed little over the last three years, according to an annual survey. Measuring information technology's contribution to performance and dealing with year 2000 fixes continued to dominate the third annual survey by the Association for Federal IRM. AFFIRM said the results show that IT management and meeting the objectives of the IT Management Reform Act are also chief concerns among federal IT officials.
IT guru will leave OMB for new 2000 post
In his new job, Bruce McConnell will focus on international issues related to the year 2000. Bruce W. McConnell, who has led agencies through many an information technology policy change in the past 15 years from his post at the Office of Management and Budget, will now focus exclusively on year 2000 issues at a new job in a new administration office.
ON Technology's Jumpstart can apply remote fixes, upgrades to network PCs
ON Technology Corp. of Cambridge, Mass., has added a desktop year 2000 module to its ON Command Comprehensive Client Manager (CCM). The CCM remote desktop administration tool, called Y2K Jumpstart, runs on a server under Unix or Microsoft Windows NT and evaluates clients running Windows 3.x, Windows 9x and NT. The administrator can apply fixes to a client's BIOS, operating system, network operating system files, applications and data without having to visit each separate desktop.
NASA raises eyebrows with low outsourcing prices
Outsourcing its desktop PC operations will cost NASA less than it had anticipated. The cost of desktop PCs at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., through the Outsourcing Desktop Initiative at NASA, will run from $2,000 to $3,400 per seat annually, said Mark Hagerty, the agency's ODIN program manager.
Thrift Supervision boosts field support
With most of its year 2000 work and an overhaul of its information technology organization done, the Office of Thrift Supervision plans to start some new projects this year. Frank DiGialleonardo came on board last April to help consolidate IT functions at OTS. The agency combined the Office of IRM, Test Projects Office and Information and Management Services Department into the Office of Information Systems. In the fall, OTS made
At Leong-Hong's farewell fete, officials laud her DOD service
What will Belkis Leong-Hong do next? That was Topic A among the 200 people who attended the recent retirement dinner for the chief information officer of the Defense Security Service. Leong-Hong took the job last June, capping a 29-year career with the federal government that included 18 years at the Defense Department.
PROFESSIONAL CALENDAR
15-19 Applications of Software Measurement and Software Management Conference. San Jose, Calif. Contact the Software Quality Institute, 330 Corporate Way, Suite 300, Orange Park, N.J. 32073; tel. 904-278-0524. 17 FBI Academy Technology Expo Exposition. Quantico, Va. Contact the Federal Business Council Inc., 10810 Guilford Road, Suite 105, Annapolis Junction, Md. 20701; tel. 301-206-2940.
Program touts aid to agencies in dire straits
Comdisco Inc. has a year 2000 safety net for agencies that encounter unexpected year 2000 system failures. Comdisco's Y2K Ready Program offers special recovery facilities and other resources, said officials of the Rosemont, Ill., company. "The year 2000 date change is not an unanticipated problem and as such is not a declarable event under most disaster-recovery agreements," said Allan Graham, senior vice president.
GCN INTERVIEW
What's more Family: Married, two sons Car: BMW 635 CSI Last book read: Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng Heroes: William R. Hewlett and David Packard, co-founders of Hewlett-Packard Co. Dream job: Besides current one, being a physicist' GCN: What's the mix of federal, state and local governments that use your LaserFiche products?
Code glitch leads BLS to post data early again
For the second time in three months, the Bureau of Labor Statistics accidentally posted financial data on its Web site before it was set for official release. Last time, an economist posted the data early; this time the information technology staff erred. "A person who has been in our group for five years, has a sterling work record and has apologized profusely made a mistake," said Carl J. Lowe, associate commissioner for technology and survey processing.
BRIEFING BOOK
Early warning. The centerpiece of the Air Force's theater air control system is at risk of year 2000 problems because of poor management at two air logistics centers, the Defense Department inspector general concluded last month. The E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System, a modified commercial 707 aircraft from Boeing Co., provides Defense with early warning, air surveillance, combat identification, and command and control capabilities. The Air Force Materiel Command maintains 32 AWACs worldwide.
Army center enhances intranet with text-mining app
SemioMap can recognize HTML and Notes documents. Using SemioMap, the Center for Army Lessons Learned at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., has mapped 50,000 pages' worth of text onto a single intranet screen. The Web text-mining application from Semio Corp. of San Mateo, Calif., represents key concepts in large volumes of unstructured text data without any initial tagging.
No business would profit from government example
Let's imagine a retail franchise that's run like the federal government. The franchise operator cannot make product or service changes without central office approval. Complex plans must be made in anticipation of multiple funding scenarios and implementation time frames of three, six and nine months. The corporate office sets the budget each year well after its fiscal year has started. Each year the board of directors sets the annual budget; organizational and
IG: DOD agency's report of 2000 readiness incomplete
Only 25 percent of the Defense Special Weapons Agency's mission-critical systems were tested, the IG said in a new report, Management of the Defense Special Weapons Agency Year 2000 Program. IG auditors found that the weapons agency did not complete independent testing of three mission-critical systems before classifying them as ready.
Air Force will expand systems support with BPAs worth up to $500 million
The Air Force has negotiated a series of blanket purchasing agreements to give its command and control programs a range of systems support services. The Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., the contracting agency for the Information Technology Services Program (ITSP), in October issued an open-ended invitation to vendors.
Digital camera teams nicely with notebook
Pair Sony's 3-pound Vaio notebook with the 1-pound, easy-to-use Mavica digital camera, and what do you get? A field imaging system that beats the pants off the competition in the $3,000 range and leaves room in the briefcase for a clean shirt. The Vaio 505 is a tiny notebook, so it's ironic that Sony Electronic Inc.'s Mavica floppy-disk camera is so bulky.
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.
Manage Consent Preferences
Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies
Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link
If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.
Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.
If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.
Cookie List
A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:
Strictly Necessary Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Functional Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Performance Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Sale of Personal Data
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.
Social Media Cookies
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.
Targeting Cookies
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.