Author Archive
Frank Tiboni
Digital Government
Capt. Jeffrey J. Arsenault: Deployable comms aid supply effort
Hurricane Katrina tested Arsenault's leadership, but his personality and training helped him overcome obstacles to supporting Air Force relief efforts.
Digital Government
DOD to update Wi-Fi policy
The new directive focuses on interoperability and security.
Digital Government
Air Force pursues new storage
The Air Force wants to build new storage-area networks and data warehouses, a key part of the service's new Enterprise Information Technology Services Strategy.
Digital Government
DOD wants joint radio fix
Boeing could lose deal if it fails to provide improvement plan.
Digital Government
Microsoft s new market
Software giant wants a piece of DOD interoperability dollars.
Digital Government
Betis, CDW land Air Force work
Officials at CDW's Government business unit announced earlier this week they will work with Betis Group to provide hardware, software and information technology services to the Air Force's Air Education and Training Command.
Digital Government
Satmax extends Air Force phones
Officials at Eagle Broadband announced today that officials at the Air Force's Air Mobility Command will use the company's unique non-line-of-sight satellite communications technology at Scott Air Force Base, Ill.
Digital Government
Battlefield communications
Joint Network Node gives soldiers voice, video and data in mobile unit.
Digital Government
USDA nears completion of comm phase of its service upgrades
The Agriculture Department next month will complete its $130 million LAN and WAN Voice project—the first component of the $3 billion Service Center Initiative, USDA officials said. LAN and WAN Voice provides a common telecommunications infrastructure for approximately 2,500 consolidated USDA service centers across the country. The infrastructure consists of new cabling, routing and switching equipment, telephones and private branch exchanges, and Internet access software for PCs, said Rich Roberts,
Digital Government
Tax agency plans a well-earned upgrade for form imaging system
The IRS this summer will begin upgrading the Service Center Recognition Image Processing System, its imaging workhorse. "I feel good about the upgrade," said Judy L. Thomas, SCRIPS program manager. "It was not a Y2K decision; it was a business decision." The IRS in January 1995 went online with the $88 million SCRIPS at five of its 10 service centers. The system uses optical character recognition and image processing to collect and store tax data from some
Digital Government
Commerce delays contract award to sort through a pile of bids
Overwhelmed by the number of proposals it received to a solicitation for its first governmentwide acquisition contract, the Commerce Department has delayed making an award until later this month. "We got more than 200 proposals for the Commerce Information Technology Services contract, more than twice the number under our very-best-case scenario," said Alan Balutis, Commerce's deputy chief information officer.
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Digital Government
Stillman retires as GAO chief scientist
The Dragon Lady who wielded her Mont Blanc black fountain pen over reports for 15 years at the General Accounting Office will breathe fire no more—at least, not on the job. Rona Stillman, chief scientist for computers and telecommunications in GAO's Accounting and Information Management Division, retired last month after 33 years of federal service.
Digital Government
FAA: Test indicates all systems are go
A successful year 2000 air traffic control test at the Denver International Airport this month convinced the Federal Aviation Administration that all of its systems will perform A-OK on Jan. 1. "The test went flawlessly," said Timothy Gilbert, technical director of FAA's Year 2000 Program Office. FAA on April 10 and 11 split air traffic systems at the Denver International Airport tower; the Denver Terminal Radar Control Center; the Colorado Springs, Colo., Terminal Radar Control Center; the
Digital Government
CDC's database project pays off in fast, paperless searches
In not much more time than it takes to read this sentence, an employee at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can find a record using the agency's records database. In the past year, the agency turned the corner on a seven-year effort to improve records management. It saw the time it takes an employee to find a record, or figure out if it even exists, drop from three days to 20 seconds, CDC officials
Digital Government
AID creates electronic maps of Balkans
To give relief workers assisting the thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees displaced by the conflict in Kosovo a clear picture of the region, the Agency for International Development this month issued detailed electronic maps created with a geographic information system. The agency's disaster assistance response teams are working at refugee camps at Kosovo's borders with Albania and Macedonia. The teams are armed with color maps made with ArcView GIS 3.1 from Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc.
Digital Government
AF makes quick work of patch to B-1 software
The Air Force equipped its storied B-1 bombers with new radar-tracking software in less than four days—a task that usually takes months—so the service could use the aircraft for NATO's Operation Allied Force in Yugoslavia. The 53rd Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., spearheaded the effort late last month to build what the service calls Emitter Identification Data files that give the B-1 Lancer bomber situation awareness, said 1st Lt. Victor Falsone, a B-1 defensive
Digital Government
Cost analyst reviews systems support bids, speeding Energy procurement by 3 months
The Energy Department estimates that buying reforms helped it shave three months off procurement of systems support services for its nuclear weapons stockpile program. Energy for the first time used a government cost analyst to review the contractors' best initial offers, and a five-person team to evaluate bidders' two-hour presentations, said Ray Greenberg, a program analysis officer in Energy's Defense Programs Office.
Digital Government
FAA inches toward modernization with new Host
The Federal Aviation Administration last month unveiled a central component of its air traffic systems modernization. Since February, FAA has been overseeing an upgrade of its Host air traffic control systems. Into the fall, the agency plans to take down its old IBM Corp. systems at 20 en route centers nationwide and replace them with IBM 9672 Model RA4 parallel-processing servers.
Digital Government
Gracey brings IT to the fore
Harold Gracey has worked in the Veterans Af-fairs Department for 16 years. He was chief of staff until July, when he became acting assistant secretary for information and technology. As the VA's first chief information officer, he has pushed for compliance with the Information Technology Management Reform Act of 1996.
Digital Government
Interior ponders seat management but will let other agencies try it first
The Interior Department may try seat management at its headquarters to see if it reduces the burden of running desktop PC operations, an Interior official said. The concept has appeal because it allows an agency to issue a request for proposals and lets vendors decide how to meet the specifications. Then the agency picks the best proposal to meet its needs, said Daryl White, Interior's chief information officer.
