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FedStats.gov Remains Rich Source Of Government Data For Citizens

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FedStats.gov provides links to government data at http://www.fedstats.gov/qf/

Data.gov has been around for about three years now and is touted as the prime example of the Open Government Data Initiative based on its growth in number of data sets and communities using them. However, there have been two activities that have been around much longer, with more high-quality data sets, and a larger community, namely FedStats.gov and FedStats.net, which deserve continued attention in the government data community.

I was part of the FedStats Team that built FedStats.gov and led the FedStats.net Team. (You can read more about that team in a related story.) We received the Gore Hammer Award for that work to “Reinvent Government.” While Data.gov has helped focus attention on available government data, I see trying to reinvent that reinvention without the expertise that we had across the government at that time. The Data.gov Agency Points of Contact are not the same as the Federal Statistics Community. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 26, 2012 at 11:20 AM

More With Less: Fiscal Quarter Nets $5.6 Billion In Real Estate Savings

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This is one in a regular series exploring how federal agencies are finding and implementing innovative ways to drive efficiency and cut costs.

Despite a lousy real estate market, the federal government has been able to sell off surplus government properties to reduce the deficit. Keep reading →

 /  Published June 7, 2012 at 12:00 PM

VanRoekel Argues For Government’s Mobile Opportunity

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The new digital government strategy released Wednesday by the Office of Management and Budget covers a wide range of initiatives that go beyond what Federal CIO Steve VanRoekel initially proposed at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, during which he declared that 2012 would be the year of mobility in government.

In the flurry of releases that accompanied this morning’s announcement of the new digital strategy was VanRoekel’s own take on the importance and role of mobile technology in government. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 23, 2012 at 2:31 PM

Federal CIO And CTO Invite Techies To Disrupt Government

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“We want to disrupt the U.S. Government and we want your help,” declared an ever-animated Todd Park, the chief technology officer for the federal government at a New York technology start-up event today.

“We’re looking for some bad-ass innovators to work on some game changing projects,” said Park, walking back and forth on a stage set inside a cavernous building on one of New York City’s Hudson River piers. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 23, 2012 at 12:04 PM

Testimony Points To Innovation As Remedy To Tech Challenges

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The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a field hearing on technology and the federal government Friday in Northern Virginia, where they heard testimony from large and small information technology companies and government officials about the top technology issues affecting government today.

The hearing was meant to provide access to extensive private-sector IT expertise within Northern Virginia and the National Capital region. It was also an opportunity for federal officials and state and local government partners to share best technology practices amid top technology challenges, including cybersecurity, cloud conversion and data center consolidation, and look at innovative ways to promote efficiency in government IT operations. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 11, 2012 at 2:00 PM

Swiss Army Knife Syndrome: The Ever-Expanding Role Of The Federal Sysadmin

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The Swiss Army Knife is a novel invention, a single pocket-sized device that includes everything from a standard knife blade and scissors to corkscrews and laser pointers. What it makes up for in versatility, however, it lacks in effectiveness – the functions themselves are never as good as actual scissors or laser pointers.

The same rule applies to federal systems administrators (sysadmins), who now serve agencies as a professional “Swiss Army Knives.” Thanks to budget cuts and decreasing staffing levels, federal sysadmins have been pushed into more and more roles, including security specialist, storage manager, virtualization manager and many more. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 8, 2012 at 11:47 AM

‘Myth-Busting 2’ Seeks To Further Improve Acquisition Process

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The Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) released a second “Myth-Busting” memo Monday addressing misconceptions about acquisition processes.

In the memo, Acting Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy Lesley A. Field states that federal agencies have taken significant additional steps to improve communications between federal agencies and the vendor community since the first “Myth-Busting” memo was released last year. OFPP has issued the second memorandum to continue that process. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 7, 2012 at 4:00 PM

White House CIO Office Issues Shared IT Strategy

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The White House Office of Management and Budget issued new guidelines to federal agencies Wednesday on ways to share information technology services.

The Federal IT Shared Services Strategy, provides federal agency Chief Information Officers and key stakeholders takes aim at IT services as way to eliminate waste and duplication and reinvest in innovative mission systems. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 3, 2012 at 9:52 AM

Spires Foresees Back Office Computing As A Service Within Next 5 Years

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One of the nation’s top government chief information officers predicted within the next five years, federal agencies will be able to begin procuring enterprise level back office information systems as a service rather than having to develop or maintain their own systems.

Richard Spires, CIO for the Department of Homeland Security, and vice chairman of the Federal CIO Council, said federal agencies–including DHS–are actively trying to reduce and standardize the number of commonly used information systems. Keep reading →

 /  Published April 16, 2012 at 6:32 PM

Federal CIOs: How To Gear Up For FedRAMP

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Federal CIOs say agencies and government contractors must become completely familiar with FedRAMP security controls and how they relate to each agency prior to the cloud computing service program’s launch this summer.

Richard Spires, CIO of the Department of Homeland Security, was one of several CIOs who spoke about FedRAMP at a trade group breakfast Friday. He told the packed breakfast meeting that contractors and agencies alike have to remember that FedRAMP is “not just an optional thing we can elect to do,” it’s mandatory. Keep reading →

 /  Published April 13, 2012 at 1:30 PM
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