Author Archive

Thomas R. Temin

Digital Government

Tom Temin | Editor's Desk: A new Hill view

With Democrats gaining control of Congress, liberal Rep. Henry Waxman, will likely chair the House Committee on Government Reform, replacing the peripatetic Tom Davis (R-Va.).

Digital Government

Tom Temin | Editor's Desk: Brave New World

One thing about Lurita Doan: She doesn't mince her words. Or actions. The new administrator of the General Services Administration has clear marching orders.

Cybersecurity

Agencies claim readiness on HSPD-12

It remains to be seen whether Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 is one of those mandates that the government actually meets.

Digital Government

Tom Temin | Editor's Desk: Software's moonshot

When Lockheed Martin Corp. recently won a major competition to build a new generation of to-the-moon spacecraft, or Crew Exploration Vehicle, all I could think was: Lord, the software.

Digital Government

HP rolls out new products

Hewlett-Packard, its boardroom leaks apparently not affecting its product development, spilled out several new computers at a New York press briefing yesterday.

Digital Government

Tom Temin | Editor's Desk: How 9/11 recalls days of Sputnik

Sergei Korolev, I'll bet, isn't a name you can place. Yet this Soviet engineer's work sparked a huge wave of fear and recrimination in the United States almost 50 years ago, equal in some ways to that caused by Osama bin Laden five years ago.

Digital Government

Editor's Desk | Technology's limits

Watching the war between Israel and Hezbollah ought to have U.S. military leaders reviewing their net-centric warfare doctrine.

Digital Government

Tom Temin l Editor's Desk: Baseball lessons

The proposed construction of a federal spending database is technically possible, wouldn't do much to change spending patterns or habits.

Cybersecurity

Editor's Desk | Unwanted bounty

The government's table is straining from the weight of security lapses. The State Department got an old-fashioned hacking. A Veterans Affairs computer laden with data was stolen. NIH called in the cops on an identity theft ring. Agriculture, the IRS, Social Security and the Navy have joined the crowd.

Cybersecurity

Poor data 'governance' underlies security lapses

Inadequate governance policy is the common thread running through events ranging from theft of a data-laden laptop to granting disaster housing money to prison inmates, according to the Data Governance Council.

Digital Government

Editor's Desk | Smart use of new tools

The Huffington Post it ain't. So if you're looking for a titillating, gossipy blog, you won't see it from Dale Meyerrose, CIO of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Digital Government

Doan starts tenure at GSA with splash

Lurita Doan promised one thing in her first public address since taking the reins at the General Services Administration last month'change. Her first big one was bringing in Jim Williams, the program manager for one of the government's highest-profile, politically toughest challenges'the U.S. Visit project at the Homeland Security Department.

Digital Government

Tom Temin | Editor's Desk: Good help deterred

For every technology company that participates in the federal market, there are probably 12 that wouldn't touch it. Those who master the ins and outs of the federal market find their efforts rewarded with profitable business. Successful contractors can command premium prices in the merger and acquisition markets.

Digital Government

EDITOR'S DESK: Meet the elite

This issue honors the elite of government career workers. The 12 profiled in this special issue have shown they can get things done. Important things that move the missions of their agencies and affect the lives of their constituents and fellow workers, done in an environment typically written off as impossibly bureaucratic.

Digital Government

EDITOR'S DESK: Fear of outsourcing

Outsourcing is high on both private industry's and government's lists of concerns. No credible economic or social argument can be made against outsourcing. The difference in service doesn't depend on who's doing the work, but on who specifies and oversees it.

Digital Government

EDITOR'S DESK: When to fold 'em

You've got to credit the beleaguered Homeland Security Department for yanking the contract on its Emerge2 financial systems program.

Digital Government

EDITOR'S DESK: Resolve to let go

Here is a list of things the government should resolve not to do in 2006.

Infrastructure

The finer points of searches

Searching is all the rage right now, with pitched battles among Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc.

Digital Government

EDITOR'S DESK: Better searches still need good data

Do burgeoning search technologies less-en the need for discipline in structuring databases?

Digital Government

HUD, other agencies worked around Katrina's telecom conundrum

It's no surprise that the scale of destruction from Hurricane Katrina exceeded every agency's worst-case predictions.