Updated: Efforts by the Office of Personnel Management to rectify technical problems with its new USAJobs site may have made matters worse, according to a Federal Computer Week report, as agency officials continue to work around the clock to remedy the customer complaints.
Users trying to apply for jobs on the USAJobs search website have continued to encounter extended timeouts, lost data and incorrect results since the site was relaunched last week. Keep reading →
Four major solar companies, including Solyndra, filed bankruptcy in the last four months, yet the Department of Energy continues to aggressively promote and fund solar energy projects. The rationale behind how the DOE appropriates its budget to explore multiple alternative energies– with varying degrees of success–was the central topic of the latest episode of Federal Spending, an online analysis program broadcast Oct. 6 through a collaborative arrangement with Breaking Gov.
Despite our best efforts, China outpaces the U.S. in solar and wind equipment production, largely because its government provides low cost loans and quick approval of imports and construction, according to keynote speaker Jack W. Plunket, CEO and publisher of Plunkett Research, Ltd., a Houston-based provider of market research and industry information. Keep reading →
The congressional Super Committee has received several proposals to reduce the federal deficit with more pay freezes and less benefits for federal employees and a smaller federal workforce overall.
Specifically, there are proposals in both the House and Senate to eliminate benefits that help make federal jobs a magnet for good candidates – good pay, steady work, rare cutbacks and solid health insurance and pension benefits. Keep reading →
When the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs gathered last week to hear testimony about the state of information sharing across all levels of government, the committee leaders and even some of the expert witnesses pointed to the killings of Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki as two examples of how information sharing across federal agency boundaries has improved.
Wrong. Keep reading →
Ever been in an airport or city park with your laptop or other Internet-enabled device, and thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if there were free wireless Internet at this location?”
It’s that thought which sparked a discussion among government employees about whether Wi-Fi should be free, widely available to the public, and covered by the government. Keep reading →
I had the opportunity to attend the Amazon Web Services Gov Cloud Summit II on Oct. 18 in Washington, DC, which featured the new Amazon Federal and Gov Cloud (US) offering for architects, solution developers, and executives. The summit also featured senior federal agency IT executives talking about their use of those services. Keep reading →
As a person who works with both the federal government and private industry, I’m lucky to be able to see the recent focus on federal cybersecurity not only from the perspective of lawmakers and agencies, but also from the outside looking in. Unfortunately, the view from both perspectives isn’t very pretty. Throughout the lifecycle of federally-mandated cybersecurity, there is inconsistency, overlap, and contradiction across the spectrum, from legislation, to implementation, to awareness and communication.
The federal government clearly wants to lead by example in cybersecurity; but a leader without direction, focus or communication skills is no leader at all.” Keep reading →
The Department of Veterans Affairs has reached the final stretch of what’s been a long effort to employ technology that allows private hospitals access to veterans’ medical records that can be used to evaluate health history and deliver better care.
The move is one of many within the VA as it strives to overhaul its image and provide the best care for America’s veterans and protect the security of their records. Keep reading →
Behind the IT systems that support civilian and defense agencies are a corps of administrators and information security specialists charged with operating those systems securely.
And behind them are organizations that help train and certify them and, as one organization did last night, recognize their efforts. Keep reading →
This is the fourth installment in a series of columns by Recovery Board Chairman Earl Devaney on the lessons he has learned from his work on the Recovery Board, which oversees the Recovery program.
Good government can mean a lot of different things to different people, but to the 13-member Recovery Board the idea pretty much boils down to this: Are we delivering the services that you, the taxpayers, expect us to
deliver? Keep reading →