GAO says agencies must tie ROI to business planning
Weighing information technology projects against their expected return on investment is all the rage, but ROI estimates must be tied to agency business practices to be effective, a General Accounting Office official says. "ROI is a fad; ROI is a theme; ROI is a requirement that is being implemented right now," said David L. McClure, assistant director for GAO's Office of Information Management and Policy Issues.
Program aids agency's move to secure E-FOIA responses
One of the smallest federal agencies is taking some of the largest steps toward an all-electronic Freedom of Information Act request system. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. rolled out its Electronic FOIA system in May and eventually plans to move to secure, Internet FOIA responses. The E-FOIA system, built from commercial hardware and software, cost PBGC $83,000.
Network Associates creates subsidiary to sell CyberMedia security products
After buying CyberMedia Inc. for $130 million, Network Associates Inc. has created a software subsidiary to market CyberMedia's First Aid 98, Guard Dog, Oil Change and Uninstaller utilities as standalone products. Other packages Network Associates plan to push as standalones are the company's Nuts & Bolts and ViruScan products, said Pete Stewart, vice president and general manager of the Santa Clara, Calif., company's McAfee Software Division.
SmartSuite's price and variety of features balance software bloat
Pros and cons: + Year 2000-ready + Good program integration and very good price – Word Pro short on features common in its rivals – Speech recognition still not accurate Real-life requirements: Win9x or NT 4.0 or later; 16M of RAM; 150M free storage for default installation or 250M for full installation; CD-ROM drive
Donate computer gear, expertise to schools
There is a growing gap in U.S. computer literacy. The gap is roughly parallel to lines dividing our socioeconomic groups—our rich and poor. Homes with parents making lots of money often have two or three computers, including a fast one purchased within the year. But lots of homes have no computers, and kids are getting their only exposure to computers—if they get any exposure at all—in public schools.
ATF pioneers PC outsourcing
ATF used desktop PC outsourcing because it didn't have the budget to replace all its PCs, CIO Patrick Schambach says. The Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms launched desktop PC outsourcing long before the General Services Administration announced its Seat Management contracts. The bureau embraced the concept to keep up with rapidly changing technology, said ATF chief information officer Patrick Schambach. "It was a must for us," he said, because there was
Navy makes personnel moves with IT in mind
Navy secretary John Dalton this month named Dan Porter to take over as the service's chief information officer. Porter, the former assistant deputy chief of Naval operations for logistics, replaced Ann Miller and began work last week. Miller is now only the deputy assistant secretary for command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, electronic warfare and space programs, or DASN(C4I). She had held both posts.
AF factory develops software
IT will be key element in Air Force's deployment of expeditionary forces. MONTGOMERY, Ala.—A 9-month-old software factory at the Air Force's Standard Systems Group is helping the service cut the time and money it spends developing and maintaining software. SSG's factory at Gunter Annex has about 700 employees and develops, tests and maintains Air Force combat support applications.
Energy will boost supercomputer speed using latest version of HPPI switches
The Energy Department's Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative will turn to HPPI switches with an aggregate switching capacity of 512 Gbps to crank up a supercomputer to 3 trillion floating-point operations per second. Silicon Graphics Inc. is constructing the 3-teraFLOPS machine for Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The switches, from ODS Networks Inc. of Richardson, Texas, are based on the American National Standards Institute's High Performance Parallel Interface 6400 standard.
IT will be key element in Air Force's deployment of expeditionary forces
MONTGOMERY, Ala.—Information technology will play a central role in the creation of expeditionary air forces, said Gen. George T. Babbitt, commander of the Air Force Materiel Command. The Air Force recently announced plans to create 10 expeditionary forces—at least two of which will be on call at any time—capable of hitting targets anywhere on Earth within 24 hours.
SEC plans a major face-lift for its site
Sidebars Best and worst features Traffic statistics System details The trouble with Web pioneering is that time marches on. Pioneers have to keep pulling more tricks out of their hat to keep up with newcomer sites that flaunt shiny new technologies. That's how it stands with the Securities and Exchange Commission's once cutting-edge Web site.
What makes an IT team succeed? CIO Council spells out the skills
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va.—In the latest update to the core competencies required of a strong information technology program, the Chief Information Officers Council has created a separate category on information management. The update is the work of the council's Education and Training Committee. Last year, it developed the original guide on the skills it considers crucial to a systems organization's success.
Feds counsel CIOs on the future of government IT
Virginia Beach, Va.—After getting feedback from government employees, the Chief Information Officers Council crafted a final version of its 1999 strategic plan. "We want you to put on your imagineering hats and think about the future," James Flyzik, the council's vice chairman and Treasury Department CIO told attendees of the Interagency Resource Management and CIO Council Conference this month.
The Net makes news
At the recent Interagency Resources Management and Federal Chief Information Officers Conference in Virginia Beach, Va., White House technology adviser Tom Kalil asked those in attendance—mostly federal managers—to send him their favorite Web sites, "or government Web sites you'd like to see and why." A week later, independent counsel Kenneth Starr released his report to Congress, and within 48 hours a summary was to be posted to the Thomas Web site operated by the Library of
Hackers turn to stealth mapping for cyberattacks
Hackers are beginning to exploit unique conditions of the Internet's TCP/IP communications protocol to map and analyze sites for future attack. Two such stealthy mapping techniques were discovered this month by Scott Hoye, a college intern working for the Defense Department's Shadow intrusion detection team. The Shadow group recently released government-developed detection freeware [GCN, Aug. 3, Page 1].
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Stephen Ryan's column, "Should U.S. pledge not to make first cyberstrike?" [GCN, August 3, Page 32], looked back to the Cold War for useful parallels. It should have looked back much further. There are extraordinarily strong parallels between the rhetoric today on cyberwar and cyberterror and the rhetoric of strategic bombing in the 1920s and especially the 1930s.
OMB Watch says GILS implementation is poor
Most federal agencies have not implemented indexing programs for the Government Information Locator Service, according to the administration watchdog group OMB Watch. In a recent report, the nonprofit Washington organization found 33 agencies still have not posted online any records for the information indexing service. Among the agencies are two Cabinet-level departments, Justice and Transportation.
Feds can run high-end computer simulations at virtual reality lab
The RealityZone 3D Collaborative Visualization Laboratory in McLean, Va., gives federal users an out-of-body experience in high-end computer simulation. The simulation lab demonstrates virtual reality systems that would add up to $150,000 or $200,000 a pop if an agency bought the components through General Services Administration schedule contracts. The lab is a joint effort of EdgeMark Systems Inc. of Silver Spring, Md., MultiGen Inc. of San Jose, Calif., Pyramid Systems Inc. of Southfield, Mich., Silicon Graphics Inc.
SNEAKER.NET
Q. When can we expect Microsoft Windows NT 5.0 to arrive? Should I wait for it before upgrading systems? A. No doubt Microsoft Corp. representatives are tired of saying, "I don't know," but that's the answer they give. The second beta release of NT 5.0 came out last month, and it will stay in the field for an undetermined time to make sure the kinks are worked out. Remember, NT is in fact two operating systems—Workstation
Service ranks its IT priorities
Sidebars: Who's In Charge Cost estimate for 2000 on rise Major programs Top Contractors Ann Miller, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for command, control, communications, computers and intelligence, electronic warfare and space, has made the year 2000 problem and information assurance her top two priorities. Miller had been the Navy's chief information officer until earlier this month when Navy Secretary John Dalton reorganized the service's information technology shop. Miller retained the C4I job
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