Route Fifty

NASA puts Logicon in the cockpit at Ames center

NASA has turned over the operation of the flight simulation facilities at the Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., to Logicon Syscon Inc. under a six-year, $91 million contract. Under the contract, awarded late last year, the Falls Church, Va., company is running the simulation systems that support the center's Crew-Vehicle Systems Research Facility (CVSRF) and the Vertical Motion Simulator (VMS).

By Frank Tiboni
April 5, 1999

USIA uses Web and e-mail to get out its Kosovo story

When the Serbian government expelled the media from Kosovo as NATO began its Yugoslav bombing raids last month, U.S. officials turned to the Web and a list server to communicate with journalists. The U.S. Information Agency is using a list server to deliver NATO and U.S. policy information via e-mail to journalists and human rights organizations, said Jonathan Spalter, USIA's chief information officer.

By Frank Tiboni
April 5, 1999

Census Bureau will count on EDS to run telephone network in 2000

The Census Bureau has taken the first step in preparing for the onslaught of telephone calls it will receive from people with questions about the 2000 Decennial Census. The bureau recently awarded the two-year, $100 million Telephone Questionnaire Assistance contract to Electronic Data Systems Corp. EDS and eight subcontractors will build and run a multilanguage telephone assistance network supporting 30 call centers across the country. EDS will supply the staff members for the centers.

By Frank Tiboni
April 5, 1999

FAA, unable to meet OMB deadlines, keeps its own schedule

The Federal Aviation Administration will meet its own March 31 target date for completing year 2000 testing, FAA's year 2000 czar said. But that is three months past the Office of Management and Budget's deadline. And FAA also will miss OMB's final readiness deadline of March 31.

By Frank Tiboni
March 29, 1999

Energy secretary orders offices to screen e-mail

In the wake of the espionage scandal at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M., the Energy Department is taking steps to more closely analyze and screen sensitive e-mail sent by workers at its facilities. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson this month told the Senate Select Intelligence Committee that his department wants an additional $8 million added to its fiscal 2000 counterintelligence budget to implement a cyberinformation security program.

By Frank Tiboni
March 29, 1999

Commerce seeks small businesses for GWAC

The Commerce Department next month will award a governmentwide acquisition contract that targets small, disadvantaged, minority and women-owned businesses. The Commerce Information Technology Services GWAC will likely reach $500 million and possibly up to $1.5 billion in five years, said Alan Balutis, Commerce's deputy chief information officer. "We plan to use it a lot internally," CIO Roger Baker said.

By Frank Tiboni
March 15, 1999

Baker will move swiftly on e-commerce

The Commerce Department's chief information officer last week vowed to treat electronic commerce the same way government has dealt with the year 2000 problemas an emergency requiring a swift response. Roger Baker said he expects Congress soon will mandate e-commerce use within government. The year 2000 problem was a good exercise in project management, he said at the GCN Forum luncheon in Washington. Government needs to reapply those skills to the development of e-commerce applications, Baker said.

By Frank Tiboni
March 15, 1999

Funding hold up delays joint patient record effort

Funding setbacks have pushed the Government Computer-Based Patient Record program off schedule by three to four months. Funding hit a snag last fall when the Defense Department reviewed its $10 million share for the program, said Peter Groen, GCPR project manager and deputy assistant chief information officer at the Veterans Health Administration.

By Frank Tiboni
March 15, 1999

FAA plan for modernizing en route centers has Greek flavor

When Federal Aviation Administration officials had to choose a name for their five-year, $450 million en route modernization program, they wanted an ambiguous one. Then they learned about Eunomia, the goddess warden of the sky in Greek mythology. "Eunomia moved all the clouds and directed the chariots," said Cindy Skiles, FAA's Eunomia team leader. "Her name also means harmony in the sky. We thought it was a perfect fit."

By Frank Tiboni
March 15, 1999

LAN project forces agency, vendor to meet in middle

Hardball negotiations between Social Security Administration and Unisys Corp. officials kept the Intelligent Workstation/LAN contract from careening off track during the last year. A year ago, "the contract was in a mess," said T.J. Miller, Unisys vice president and general manager of information technology solutions and federal systems.

By Frank Tiboni
March 8, 1999

State and USIA integrate their e-mail for overseas offices

The U.S. Information Agency and the State Department in the next few months will roll out a common e-mail system that will serve as a model for all USIA and State overseas offices. "E-mail historically has been unreliable and slow between the two agencies," said Jonathan Spalter, USIA's associate director for information and its chief information officer. "The e-mail system is an important first step that shows federal agencies can work together."

By Frank Tiboni
March 8, 1999

Treasury begins modernization of its HR systems

The Treasury Department has begun an agencywide modernization of its human resources systems with the rollout of common software at two of its bureaus. The department has installed human resources software from PeopleSoft Inc. of Pleasanton, Calif., at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

By Frank Tiboni
March 8, 1999

GAO tastes agencies' pain as it upgrades its PC net

The General Accounting Office, which hunts down systems inadequacies governmentwide as Congress' junkyard dog, found out last year how painful a minor systems upgrade can be when it replaced its own aging PC network. "We had our pain period," said Tony Cicco, director of infrastructure operations in GAO's Office of Information Management and Communications, describing the three-month cutover that took place between October and December.

By Frank Tiboni
March 8, 1999

USIA calls in the FBI after hacker hits Web site a second time

The U.S. Information Agency has asked the FBI to investigate a hack of its Web site. "We have received allegations from USIA for the alleged hacking to its Web site," said Susan Lloyd, FBI special agent and spokeswoman for the agency's Washington field office. She would not say whether the office will look into the matter.

By Frank Tiboni
March 8, 1999

NASA IG looks into Internet services buy

NASA's award of a $2.9 million Internet services contract to a vendor that last year gave the agency free Web site service has prompted a review of the buy by the NASA inspector general. NASA last month awarded PSINet Inc. of Herndon, Va., the five-year Managed Internet Services contract to maintain Web sites and Net services at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

By Frank Tiboni
February 22, 1999

Software changes delay rollout of FAA satellite navigation system

The Federal Aviation Administration recently delayed by more than a year the deployment of a $475 million satellite navigational system because it wants to further refine the system's fourth and final software module. FAA originally wanted to roll out the Wide Area Augmentation System in July, but it has pushed the deployment back 14 months to September 2000.

By Frank Tiboni
February 22, 1999

NWS vet will get systems up to speed

Computer issues will demand a lot of attention from the new director of central operations at the National Weather Service. "We are in the first phase of installing our new supercomputer and ensuring that every part of the installation is year 2000-ready," Carl Staton said. "We're also busy migrating weather models from the Cray C90 to the new IBM supercomputer."

By Frank Tiboni
February 22, 1999

For now, SSA will keep issuing PEBES off line

The Social Security Administration has no immediate plans to make Personal Earnings and Benefit Estimate Statements available online again. "I think we're going to keep PEBES the way it is," said Kathy Adams, SSA's assistant deputy commissioner for systems, in a speech this month at the GCN Forum luncheon in Washington.

By Frank Tiboni
February 22, 1999

FAA begins upgrade project on its controller-pilot comm system

The Federal Aviation Administration has taken the first step in rolling out a next-generation communications system for air traffic controllers and pilots. FAA last month awarded a two-year, $6.1 million contract to Computer Sciences Corp. to build the first component, known as Build 1, of the Controller Pilot Data Link Communications System.

By Frank Tiboni
February 8, 1999

As new IT chief at NPR, Hirning will push public access

The new computer chieftain of Vice President Gore's National Partnership for Reinventing Government said she wants to continue the work of her predecessor by using information technology to streamline government. Katie Hirning succeeds Greg Woods, who left the post in December to take a new chief operating officer post in the Education Department's Office of Student Financial Assistance. He had been NPR's deputy director for IT, customer service and regulatory reform since 1993.

By Frank Tiboni
February 8, 1999

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