U.S. Navy

People To Watch : Ian Kalin

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Ian Kalin was selected as a Presidential Innovation Fellow for Project OpenData as part of the new White House Presidential Innovation Fellows program. The program pairs top innovators from the private sector, nonprofits, and academia with top innovators in government to collaborate on solutions that aim to deliver significant results in six months.



The Open Data Initiatives program aims to “liberate” government data and voluntarily-contributed corporate data to fuel entrepreneurship, improve the lives of Americans in many tangible ways, and create jobs.

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This is one in a series introducing 18 Fellows working on five initiatives that are part of the White House Presidential Innovation Fellows program.

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Kalin is passionate about energy and empowering people through data. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 17, 2012 at 10:00 AM

Mobile, Secure Platform Is Possible

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New austerity is here to stay – coupled with more demand for user-friendly citizen engagement from our government workforce. And cybersecurity concerns are growing as well, as our enemies become more sophisticated and inventive. How can Federal agencies meet all three pressures – lowering costs while improving services and keeping data safe?

More than ever before, innovative technologies are needed across government, to keep the government workforce engaged while also helping them to effectively deliver support for the mission. Government is working hard today to implement the infrastructure needed to deliver more services, increase and enhance interaction and enable greater workforce mobility and citizen engagement. Mobility is growing in importance, even as cybersecurity becomes a bigger issue. Despite the promise of mobility to bring greater productivity and flexibility, 78 percent of federal IT professionals said mobility also brings greater security risks, according to a recent VMware survey. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 27, 2012 at 3:00 PM

How the Navy Is Nearing Clean Financial Audits

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Interest in preventing waste, fraud, and abuse runs high in the federal government these days. Yet fraudulent contractors and healthcare providers continue to get paid so financial functions within agencies are always looking for a better mousetrap. For instance, The Association of Government Accountants released a study this May of best practices for scanning large data sets using the latest data analytics technologies for identifying potential improper payments.

Health and Human Services and the Defense Department account for most of the federal government’s annual improper payment tab. The 2011 figure was down a little, to $115 billion, thanks to some concerted agency work and prodding by the Office of Management and Budget. Keep reading →

 /  Published June 6, 2012 at 1:00 PM

Navy Proves Waves Can Help Power Maritime Security Operations

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When the surf’s up on the New Jersey coast, U.S. Navy officials are stoked. The waves are helping the Navy harness the power of the ocean to generate electricity for a sea-based radar and communications system that supports maritime security operations.

The Navy and Ocean Power Technologies Inc. recently completed successful testing of an autonomous buoy, called the PowerBuoy, (similar to one tested off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii, pictured above). The PowerBuoy taps the almost constant wave action on the ocean’s surface to produce the electricity that runs an on-board radar and communications payload. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 13, 2012 at 9:01 AM