GSA gives technology service a face-lift
FTS' Charles Self says sellers have a personal interest in a contract instead of in customer needs. GSA will change that. Just eight months after a major reorganization, the General Services Administration is again tinkering with its Federal Technology Service. This time the effort focuses on streamlining FTS operations.
DOD begins certifying records management apps
The Defense Department has certified two products under its records management standard and could certify several others in the next few months, a DOD official said. The standard, known as DOD 5015.2-STD, lists the specifications for a product to be certified for use within DOD. The National Archives and Records Administration is considering recommending the DOD standard for governmentwide use [GCN, Feb. 23, Page 57].
Be businesslike about archiving electronic records, NARA says
NARA is not going to tell agencies in detail what to do, Miller said. The National Archives and Records Administration is recommending that agencies use an electronic record-keeping system only if it makes business sense. NARA last week published in the Federal Register its latest proposal on archiving electronic records. The proposal is a revision of the initial recommendations that NARA issued last month [GCN, June 29, Page 67].
Federal CIOs need more authority, IT official says
Elected officials are often not equipped to make IT decisions, says Donald W. Upson, Virginia's secreary of technology. IRVINE, Calif.—Federal chief information officers need more decision-making power, an information technology manager told a gathering of IT professionals at the recent Management of Change conference. Elected officials are often ill-equipped to make IT decisions, said Donald W. Upson, Virginia's secretary of technology, at the Federation of Government Information Processing Council conference.
CIOs set IT framework
Alan Proctor, agency liaison, says the council expects compliance. The Chief Information Officers Council has issued a draft governmentwide systems architecture that its members expect agencies to adopt after a final plan is issued this fall. "Whether you call it best practices or guidance, … in fact, it's what we would expect agencies to do," said Alan Proctor, the CIO Council's liaison to agencies. The model represents the council's statement on
CIO Council wants IT execs to learn skills in school
In the hopes of providing government information technology executives the skills to oversee their multifaceted tasks, the Chief Information Officers Council is working to create a virtual CIO University. Online classrooms will only be one element of the CIO University, as the project has been named. Program officials want to include a number of universities and colleges as well as the public and private sector. Late this year, the CIO Council will issue a solicitation to
IRS hires IT consultant—is he the next CIO?
"This is a complicated position where you have to keep a lot of balls in the air." As Congress was putting the final touches on a bill to reform the IRS, which lawmakers passed July 6, the agency was tapping a consultant to help it with systems modernization.
House lawmakers feud over date code monies
A Capitol Hill power struggle has put proposed emergency year 2000 funds in limbo. A group of conservative House Republicans want lawmakers to offset proposed emergency monies with budget cuts. But House lawmakers are at odds over what constitutes an emergency. Under House rules, emergency funding requests don't require budget cuts. The fight has the overtones of a partisan battle, some industry analysts said, adding that some Republican lawmakers might be trying to use the year 2000 issue
Date code fix bollixes predictions on federal IT budgets, analysts say
The cost of fixing date code is still a wild card when predicting federal spending on information technology, an industry analyst said. "It's obvious the government estimate is below the actual cost to fix this problem," said Michael D. Groneck, an analyst with Input Inc., a Vienna, Va., research company. The Social Security Administration, for example, started fixing its systems in the late 1980s and still isn't finished with date code remediation, he said. Agencies that
Education office smokes out its stovepipe systems
The systems design will focus on individual services, Russomano said. IRVINE, Calif.—The day of the stovepipe system is dead—at least in the Education Department's Office of Postsecondary Education. The office is moving away from separate systems to a modular environment that will increase integration and vendor competition, said Jerry Russomano, director of program systems service for the postsecondary office. Russomano is overseeing the reorganization of the division's systems.
Verification system sniffs out false subsidy claims
The Housing and Urban Development department is using a system to crack down on residents who receive housing subsidies illegally. The Tenant Eligibility Verification System (TEVS), rolled out nationally this year, collects recipient eligibility records filed with local housing authorities and checks them against Social Security Administration and IRS records, said David L. Decker, supervisory auditor for HUD's Office of Public and Indian Housing Controller. It also lets local housing authorities and HUD exchange the information
CIO Council at odds over goals
Infighting in the federal Chief Information Officers Council has led at least one member to charge that the council is failing to show leadership on information technology issues. A division among council members over mandating agency use of the Information Technology Investment Portfolio System (I-TIPS) mirrors a broader debate over whether the council ought to set IT standards governmentwide.
NARA group outlines archiving alternatives in a new proposal
Federal agencies need to establish specific schedules for saving and destroying electronic records, a National Archives and Records Administration workgroup said. The recommendation is part of a document outlining possible archiving alternatives for electronic records. NARA distributed the document to government agency chiefs earlier this month. The Electronic Records Workgroup recommended NARA adopt a three-pronged approach for archiving electronic copies of records that NARA previously let agencies delete under General Records Schedule 20.
Navy prepares outsourcing pilots that bring IT architecture to Web
IRVINE, Calif.—The Navy is running three outsourcing pilots that focus on Web services, a Navy technology manager said. Outsourcing has been seen as a panacea for the problems of rapidly changing technology and personnel turnover, said Patsy Gates, director of strategic planning for the Navy's chief information officer. But the Navy hopes the pilots will provide a working model by which to measure such contracts, she said.
Horn: Agencies will get funds for code work
The chairman of a newly formed House year 2000 task force said last week that Congress will give agencies whatever funds they need to fix their systems. Rep. Steve Horn (R-Calif.) and other Republicans also chided the Clinton administration about the government's progress on year 2000 work during a hearing of the House Government Reform and Oversight Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology.
Govt. IT managers call for united systems front
IRVINE, Calif.—Cooperation among government organizations is essential because technology is leading citizens to demand a single government face, information technology managers said. IT managers at the Federation of Government Information Processing Councils' annual Management of Change conference this month pushed for more intergovernmental cooperation. But federal chief information officers ranked intergovernmental relations low on the list of concerns in a recent survey.
GAO: 2000 czar must be stricter with agencies
The Clinton administration's year 2000 czar must rein in agencies' year 2000 work if critical systems are to be ready in time, a report from the General Accounting Office said. GAO praised the administration for creating the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion and appointing a 2000 chief. But if the council is to be effective, the report said, it must use its influence to make sure agencies prevent disruptions to critical services.
Defense wants PKI now
To jump-start development of a public-key recovery system, the Defense Department plans to require its vendors to use strong encryption, deputy Defense secretary John Hamre said recently. Because it wields significant buying clout, Defense's more stringent requirements should boost government and industry efforts to build systems for managing encryption keys, Hamre said last month at an Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association event in Washington.
SSA's Vince Pianalto lassos trail boss of the year award
WILLIAMSBURG, Va.--The Social Security Administration's Vincent Pianalto last week received honors as trail boss of the year at the annual Trail Boss Roundup. But Pianalto, director of the Resource Management and Acquisition Division in SSA's Office of Telecommunications and Systems Operations, refused to take all the credit for improving systems buying at SSA.
With ACES, GSA will set up a baseline PKI
In its recent draft request for proposals for a digital signature infrastructure, the General Services Administration said the program would provide "the public with the ability to do business with the government electronically." Through the Access Certificates for Electronic Services buy, GSA intends to build a public-key infrastructure using commercial products. GSA's Federal Technology Service will issue the final RFP next month and award several ACES contracts later this year.
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.
Manage Consent Preferences
Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies
Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link
If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.
Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.
If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.
Cookie List
A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:
Strictly Necessary Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Functional Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Performance Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Sale of Personal Data
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.
Social Media Cookies
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.
Targeting Cookies
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.
Help us tailor content specifically for you: