Todd Park, the newly-appointed U.S. Chief Technology Officer for the White House, will attempt to address questions about Big Data in 140 characters or less during a live Twitter chat scheduled today at 2. p.m ET.
The 30-minute Twitter chat is expected to give Park an opportunity to highlight the White House’s new Big Data Research and Development Initiative, and more specifically, efforts supporting the use of big data in the health sector. Keep reading →
COMMENTARY:
It’s hard to fault the Administration for wanting to make a big splash with it’s new “Do Not Pay” website, aimed at trying to reduce the federal government’s decades old challenge in reducing duplicative and improper payments. Keep reading →
The Obama Administration is launching a new aggregated database and online tool intended to help federal agencies identify and prevent duplicate or improper payments.
Called Do Not Pay, the new tool will attempt to make it easier for agencies to avoid sending funds out to dead people or entering into contracts with companies who have attempted to defraud the government. Keep reading →
First Todd Park, former Department of Health and Human Services chief technology officer, bet on health data in a big way; got his upcoming Health Data Palloza, and then became our new Federal CTO.
Then Gus Hunt, CIA CTO, bet on big data for the Intelligence Community and got its budget increased by Congress, reflecting a governmental shift in IT priorities, from a Defense Department style network-centric focus toward the IC’s big data-centric focus.
Now the Defense Department is in the big data game with their big bet to the tune of $250 million announced Thursday at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s Big Data Research and Development Initiative.
The assistant secretary of Defense, in a letter released yesterday, said “We intend to change the game and plan to be the fist to leverage big data across the full scope of military operations in new and unconventional ways.”
There are five other agencies who were present at the AAAS Auditorium event which are contributing much smaller (or non-disclosed amounts) as follows:
I think it leaves us with a disconnected federal big data program between the science and intelligence communities with the former considerably behind the latter.
The report, “Designing a Digital Future: Federally Funded Research and Development in Networking and Information Technology,” prepared by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), said: “Every federal agency needs to have a “big data” strategy.
I did not hear that today either from every agency or across all the agencies. The recent 2012 Big Data Government Forum provided a much more comprehensive view of best practices around Big Data technology, trends, and issues from senior government executives, data scientists, and vendors.
As Professor Jim Hendler, RPI Computer Scientist, commented during the meeting: “Computer scientists like us have to move to the social science side of things to really do big data.”
This new White House Initiative needs Todd Park’s entrepreneurial spirit, Gus Hunt’s experience, and DoD’s new money, spent in a coordinated way with the IC and civilian agencies to make big data across the federal government a reality.
White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt has announced three priority areas where federal departments and agencies “need to focus their cybersecurity activity” –and a new set of cyber security goals to be reached by 2014.
Schmidt, in a White House blog posted Friday, said his office has recognized “the challenge of knowing which (types of technology and talent) will be most effective when dealing with advanced adversaries, especially in a limited budget environment.” Keep reading →
This story was updated March 23 to reflect additional reporting.
The White House may finally get what the rest of the nation has grown accustomed to at any Starbucks: Access to WiFi. Keep reading →
The Obama Administration has adopted a number of initiatives to promote smart, cost-justified regulation, according to a White House blog post today.
The president ordered an unprecedented government-review of existing rules in January, the post states, resulting in ambitious reform plans from more than two dozen agencies. The plans outline hundreds of cost-saving reforms, some of which will save more than $10 billion over the next five years, the post states. Keep reading →
White House officials confirmed that President Obama today is appointing Todd Park as the new U.S. Chief Technology Officer, stepping into the position formerly held by Aneesh Chopra.
Park will have “the important task of applying the newest technology and latest advances to make the Federal government work better for the American people,” said John P. Holdren, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the man who will be Park’s new boss, in a White House blog posted just after 1:00 p.m. this afternoon. Keep reading →
The White House launched a new website today devoted to government ethics practices, fulfilling the President’s campaign promise to create a single website for searches related to executive branch ethics and influence data.
The new website is part of the administration’s Data.gov website, and can be found at Explore.data.gov/ethics. The site provides the public the ability to enter a name and search government data, to see available records on individuals in government-“including campaign finance, lobbying, and White House visitor records,” according to the site. Keep reading →
The American Red Cross, borrowing an approach used successfully by Dell, launched what’s being billed as the first social media-based operations center devoted to humanitarian relief.
The Digital Operations Center, located in the Red Cross National Disaster Operations Center in Washington, D.C., expands the Red Cross’ ability to engage with the public during emergencies. The new operations center, which Dell help fund and design, is modeled after Dell’s Social Media Listening Command Center, where Dell personnel monitor what customers are saying online about Dell and try to remedy customer issues proactively. Keep reading →