Two separate but related events took place in recent days that individually were important moments in the rapid evolution of the cyber threat domain. When you combine these two events, clearly you can see their significance.
Both events serve as strong indicators of the concern over cyber attacks, as well as a barometer for the current state of digital conflict. Keep reading →
UPDATED. President Barack Obama reached out across the Internet to engage directly with Americans and small business owners in a live virtual interview staged by The White House Monday. The virtual session, held at 5:30 EST, was hosted by Google and produced using YouTube in what was billed as a post State of the Union Google+ Hangout.
The online question and answer session were streamed live on WhiteHouse.gov, YouTube.com/WhiteHouse and on the White House Google+ page. Keep reading →
President Obama plans to ask Congress for the authority to merge six trade and commerce agencies in a move to pare redundant costs, according to a report in The Hill today.
The proposed merger is part of broader considerations to streamline government that have been under discussion by the Office of Management and Budget for a number of months, a senior administration told The Hill. Keep reading →
With the stroke of a pen, the Obama administration has ushered the federal government into the Digital Age. On November 28, the President issued a memorandum mandating new rules, procedures, and deadlines for overhauling the government’s record management system, kick-starting the federal government’s transition to a digitized recordkeeping environment.
In what the memorandum describes as “a 21st-century framework for the management of Government records,” 480 federal agencies will be required to begin the migration to electronic recordkeeping, creating better management systems for emails, social media, and cloud-based information.
President Obama expects the effort to start immediately. The memorandum gives agency heads 120 days to submit a report to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) detailing their plan to improve records management. The OMB will then have 120 days to review the plans and issue specific steps that each agency must take to reform recordkeeping. Keep reading →
Rather than toasting to the end of the federal financial wars as Congress heads into the Thanksgiving break, everyone might as well just relax and enjoy some time off from considering the implications of budget cuts as the next critical deadline in the ongoing saga now lies a year away.
Still, it appears the saga will probably heat up again as soon as next week. Now that the the so-called “super committee” has officially failed, Republicans are talking about rewriting the rules for across-the-board cuts to soften the blow for Defense, according to Government Executive. Obama has suggested he could veto such attempts. Keep reading →
President Obama signed an executive order today directing federal agencies to limit the number of electronic devices issued to federal employees, expand their use of teleconferencing in lieu of travel and reduce the volume of documents the government prints each year.
Agencies have within 45 days to develop plans to reduce by 20 percent the combined federal spending associated with these and other expenses, including what agencies spend on vehicle fleets and the production of “non-essential items” for promotional purposes. Keep reading →
Last week’s news that the Department of Veterans Affairs was expanding its efforts to promote its Blue Button personal health record system prompted me to research the Blue Button program for Personal Health Records (PHR) and make them easier to use by our readers not just our Veterans.
President Obama highlighted the Blue Button Initiative, as have many others in recent weeks. The program is just one of a series of successful government challenges to promote innovation in government.
This is similar to my efforts to make Traumatic Brain Injury information more accessible and useful in another story.
An authoritative online resource: Managing Your Health Information Online explains the difference between: Electronic Health Records (EHRs) (much in the news) and Personal Health Records (PHR) as follows:
The previously mentioned authoritative online resource: Managing Your Health Information Online answers:
My comment is: why not do it yourself for free, without the Internet (especially if you are not always connected or not able to use the Internet), and in a familiar environment like a spreadsheet, notepad, or word processing document.
So I am providing the “Blue Button PHR for All Americans” as an Excel spreadsheet (XLS) and Comma Separated Value (CSV) files that can be imported into most other softwares for the convenience of our readers and their family members and friends that need them but cannot afford a commercial service or use Internet services.
On August 2, 2010, President Obama announced the Blue Button capability that allows veterans and Medicare beneficiaries to download their personal health information by a simple click of a blue button.
So now you can just download the files, read the background information and do it yourself for free and with your own security. It can be on your iPhone, iPad, and/or laptop and desktop PC or Mac. Keep reading →
President Barack Obama took new action today on a growing crisis for patients unable to get certain prescription drugs, by directing the Food and Drug Administration Monday to take steps to reduce drug shortages across the USA, especially for those needing life-saving cancer drugs.
Obama signed an executive order intended to ease a problem that has been mushrooming in recent months, forcing delays in surgeries and cancer treatments. Keep reading →
The White House has issued an executive order today aimed at improving the security of classified networks and preventing the release of documents to organizations such as WikiLeaks that have compromised classified and delicate intelligence information.
The so-called “WikiLeaks Order“ issued by President Obama on Friday emphasizes the need for structural reforms by making agencies primarily responsible for the information they obtain and share. Keep reading →
President Obama’s executive order to establish a more diverse and inclusive federal workforce has sparked a debate among employees in, and out of, the public sector.
Some of the issues being addressed include: Keep reading →