David McClure


David McClure calls the General Services Administration’s Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies (OCSIT) “a little sparkplug igniting innovation all across government.”

Indeed, OCSIT’s just-released 2012 annual report, “More for Mission,” serves as a 51-page catalogue for the office’s multi-pronged push for innovation in technology in the federal government. Keep reading →

The federal government is on the brink of a perfect storm of management challenges. For better or worse, that also presents the nation’s leaders with an opportunity to dramatically reshape how it delivers services, in part by embracing digital technology in new and more powerful ways.

Either way, national leaders moving into new positions at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue in the coming few weeks will have to look seriously at real and “virtual” ways of reorganizing federal bureaucracies, say a group of public administration experts. Keep reading →


Two of the leaders of the Federal Cloud Computing Initiative, Dawn Leaf, NIST Senior Executive for Cloud Computing, and David McClure, GSA Associate Administrator of the Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies, said building trust between providers and suppliers of cloud computing is a top priority.

Speaking at the Quarterly Meeting of the Cloud Standards Customer Council Summit this week, they addressed members from consumer companies around the world who recognize that a common interoperable platform for the cloud is essential to meet corporate needs today and tomorrow. Keep reading →


Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel provided preliminary technology details that will support President Obama’s plans, announced earlier today, that call for merging the trade and commerce activities of six federal agencies and for making it easier for businesses to interact with federal agencies.

VanRoekel also elaborated on a series of new initiatives his office is taking to promote cross-governmental technology strategies in the coming year. Keep reading →


Calling it a “monumental first step in addressing security in cloud computing,” Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel announced the official launch of the long-awaited Federal Risk Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) today.

FedRAMP provides a standardized “do once, use often approach” framework for cloud security; one VanRoekel said will save money and reduce staff time needed to conduct security assessments, thus allowing the government to better purchase and leverage cloud technologies. Keep reading →

Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) predicted the chances that Congress will put together anything longer lasting that a string of continuing resolutions after the current continuing funding resolution runs out Nov. 18 are “fairly remote.”

Speaking at a conference on federal technology and innovation in Washington today, Connolly expressed concern about the intractable state of the federal budget debate. Keep reading →

A program begun on a shoe string a year ago to help federal agencies tap a broader universe of creative ideas to solve some of the government’s toughest challenges has spawned a surprising, if not revolutionary, wave of innovation in government – and at a fraction of the cost most agencies would traditionally spend to achieve similar results. Keep reading →