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U.S. Government CIOs: Doomed to Fail?

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U.S. government CIOs have been hogtied by bureaucracy, unable to effectively do their jobs because they do not consistently have responsibility for what they are legally mandated to do or are critical for effective information technology (IT) management. Additionally, while law mandates that CIOs report directly to the head of their respective agency, only about half do, further hindering their effectiveness, according to a Government Accountability Office report issued yesterday.

“CIOs have not always been empowered to be successful,” concluded the report. “Despite the broad authority given to CIOs in federal law, these officials face limitations that hinder their ability to effectively exercise this authority, which has contributed to many of the long-standing IT management challenges we have found in our work.” Keep reading →

 /  Published October 18, 2011 at 1:30 PM
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Management

GAO Report: Opportunities Exist To Improve CIO Role in IT Management

Source: GAO

Social Media Use Jumps Dramatically Among Federal Employees

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Social media is approaching main stream adoption in the federal government, with 41% of federal workforce respondents polled in a new survey having begun using social media in the past year. That’s in addition to 51% who had begun using social media more than a year ago, leaving only 8% of federal employees who say they do not use social media.

Perhaps more significantly, the distinction of where federal employees use social media–once clearly confined to home or controlled office use–has begun to dissolve. While 92% of federal respondents said they use social media at home, 74% use it at work, and 70% use it via mobile devices, the study suggested federal agencies are demonstrating a new level of comfort in using social media. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 18, 2011 at 11:18 AM
Innovation

Social Media In The Public Sector – Survey Presentation

Source: Market Connections

Census Data – What Is Coming And Going

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Census Director Robert Groves blogged recently about the consequences of budget cuts and “determined that Census needed to terminate a number of existing programs such as the Current Industrial Reports program, the Statistical Abstract, and our foreign demographic analysis program to mention a few, in order to fund higher priority programs.”

So recently the Census Bureau announced it is “terminating the collection of data for the Statistical Compendia program effective October 1, 2011. The Statistical Compendium program is comprised of the Statistical Abstract of the United States and its supplemental products — the State and Metropolitan Area Data Book and the County and City Data Book.” Keep reading →

 /  Published October 18, 2011 at 10:02 AM

Four Ways Governments Use Social Media for Disaster Response

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How are government agencies using social media to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters?

The Federation of American Scientists recently posted on its Web site a CRS report, “Social Media and Disasters: Current Uses, Future Options, and Policy Considerations,” by Bruce R. Lindsay. The report argues that social media may be used in a “systematic” way as “an emergency management tool.

Systematic usage might include:

  • “using the medium to conduct emergency communications and issue warnings”;
  • “using social media to receive victim requests for assistance”;
  • “monitoring user activities and postings to establish situational awareness”; and
  • “using uploaded images to create damage estimates, among others.”

Of these four prospective uses, the first can be applied both to pre-event planning and inter-event communication. The second two can be understood as inter-event response activities, and the last for recovery efforts after the event has ended.

In each phase, agencies are turning to a different mix of tools to help them achieve their goals. Of course, all government agencies at every level should adhere to the roles and responsibilities laid out in the National Response Framework, which lays out the responsibilities of the federal and state governments as:

  • “Coordinating with private-sector and nongovernmental organizations involved in donations management and other recovery activities.”
  • “Establishing Disaster Recovery Centers. Federal, State, tribal, local, voluntary, and nongovernmental organizations determine the need for and location of Disaster Recovery Centers.”
  • “Coordinating with the private sector on restoration and recovery of CIKR [Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources]. Activities include working with owners/operators to ensure the restoration of critical services, including water, power, natural gas and petroleum, emergency communications, and healthcare.”
  • “Coordinating mitigation grant programs to help communities reduce the potential impacts of future disasters. Activities include developing strategies to rebuild resilient communities.”
Planning Keep reading →

 /  Published October 18, 2011 at 9:02 AM

Federal IT Spending Forecast To Flatline Over Next Five Years

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After five years of steady growth, information technology spending by the federal government is expected to decline about 1 percent a year over the next five years in inflation-adjusted terms, from $81.2 billion in fiscal year 2012 to $77.7 billion in fiscal 2017, according to a new forecast being released this week by the TechAmerica Foundation.

By most measures, IT budgets are expected to stand up to some of the most intense budget pressures in years, in part out of the belief that IT is critical to streamlining government operations. Moreover, a number of forces are accelerating federal IT demand in government, including: Keep reading →

 /  Published October 18, 2011 at 8:01 AM

Cyber Intelligence: A Very Dangerous Attitude

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COMMENTARY:
Writing, blogging and speaking at conferences exposes you to a very broad base of viewpoints and also opens you up for non-constructive criticism.

Recently, I received some feedback on a position I have consistently taken on the subject of cyber attack and cyber attribution. This week I will address one of the two issues. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 18, 2011 at 7:01 AM

U.S. Intelligence Budget Faces ‘Double Digit’ Cuts: DNI Clapper

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After a decade of enormous budget increases the American intelligence community’s budget will probably decline by billions of dollars, Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper said here.

Clapper told more than 3,000 people at the annual Geoint conference that the intelligence community’s budget had been handed in to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. “We are all going to have to give at the office,” Clapper said. The bulk of the cuts will come from accounts labeled information technology, he said. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 17, 2011 at 4:34 PM

McCaskill Plan Would Overhaul Small Business, NAICS Industry Classification System

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When is a small business not a small business? When it’s a large business. Confused? So is Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.).

McCaskill thinks the classification standard used by the government to categorize businesses for statistical purposes “simply doesn’t make sense” when applied to the federal small-business contract-award process and wants to do something about it. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 17, 2011 at 4:28 PM
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