Digital Government

NASA JPL hooks into SuperNet

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., will be the first organization outside the San Francisco Bay area to hook up to a new network that is being touted as the forerunner of the Next Generation Internet. Federal officials announced last week that JPL would connect to the National Tran

Digital Government

Justice report scolds INS over automation programs

Immigration and Naturalization Service officials have not adequately managed programs for automating the agency's business processes, according to a blunt report from the Justice Department's inspector general. The report, released earlier this month, criticizes INS for failing to manage its major

Digital Government

Disaster maps put online

In an effort to provide the public with more information to prepare for natural disasters, the Federal Emergency Management Agency last month added an electronic mapping feature to one of its educational programs. The public can access the electronic maps on the World Wide Web to view the history o

Digital Government

FBI turns on new crime-fighting system

FBI officials announced today that they have successfully rolled out a massive new computer system that state and local law enforcement officials will use to fight crime.

Digital Government

White House asks Hill for more IT research funding

President Clinton's top technology adviser told a House committee today that Congress must beef up funding for federal information technology research and development programs.

Digital Government

Greystone unit eases hard drive transfers

Greystone Peripherals Inc. next month will begin shipping a handheld device that can copy data from one hard drive onto another, a capability that company officials hope will be welcome among whitecollar crime investigators as well as average systems administrators. The device, the DataFast D101,

Digital Government

Justice eases access to community programs

As the debate on school violence and possible solutions continues, the Justice Department recently unveiled a World Wide Web site that may prove useful to parents and educators trying to attack the problem at its roots. DOJ's Building Blocks for Safe and Healthy Communities site promotes itself as

Digital Government

DOD taps two vendors for technology advice

The Defense Department's Health Affairs office early this month tapped two small businesses to replace the department's homegrown computer systems with offtheshelf products under a potential $500 million program. The awards to Planned Systems International Inc. and Puma Systems Inc. are part of

Digital Government

Most agencies not complying with Results Act, officials say

Agencies still have much to do to comply with a 6yearold law that requires them to show what they accomplish with the money they spend, according to federal officials speaking at a congressional hearing last week. Many agencies still have not complied with the Government Performance and Results A

Digital Government

DOD Health Affairs awards Lot IV of D/SIDDOMS II

The Defense Department Health Affairs office late last week awarded contracts to Planned Systems International Inc. (PSI) and Puma Systems Inc. under a potential $500 million program that seeks to replace the agency's homegrown computer systems with offtheshelf products.

Digital Government

Hill gives $35M for initial IRS modernization

Congressional leaders today gave the Internal Revenue Service the goahead to spend $35 million on the first phase of its mammoth computer modernization project.

Digital Government

Feds submit access plans for disabled

Federal agencies last week submitted to the Justice Department reports that explain how the agencies plan to comply with a law that requires them to provide disabled workers with access to computers. The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 requires agencies to ensure that federal employees who are bli

Digital Government

Clarke leaves IT legacy at DOD

This weekend, as Army Col. John Clarke begins to ease out of federal service and into civilian life, he'll be doing something that he finds very familiar: building and repairing things. In this case, the things will be houses in Appalachia. Clarke will be pitching in for an entire week on a service

Digital Government

HCFA joins desktop outsourcing ranks

The Health Care Financing Administration last week awarded a task order to Boeing Information Services Inc. to provide turnkey desktop computer services, adding momentum to the federal government's fledgling seat management initiative. The $50 million, threeyear pact, awarded off the Outsourcing D

Digital Government

Spatial data plan gets Interior boost

In an apparent aboutface on a proposal to revamp the way federal, state and local governments collect and share geographic data, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt last week told a House subcommittee that it should consider key points of the plan. The proposal, issued by the National Academy of Publ

Digital Government

INS taps Logicon to assess development projects

Logicon Inc. last month landed an estimated $61 million deal to act as an independent auditor of work performed under a sprawling Immigration and Naturalization Service contract. The fiveyear blanket purchase agreement covers independent verification and validation (IV?#038; Amp;V) services for INS' Service

Digital Government

Education expands data center outsourcing

The Education Department takes another step closer to completely outsourcing the operation of its mainframe systems this week as it turns over the management of another of its major mainframe systems to Computer Sciences Corp. The 10year, $97 million deal for management of the Central Processing S

Digital Government

Wireless net boosts shuttle operations

Before the space shuttle Discovery rocketed into space late last month, scores of NASA workers used a wireless computer network to track the thousands of pieces of equipment needed to launch the craft. Using a wireless localarea network built with technology from Intermec Technologies Corp., NASA

Digital Government

House urges upgrade

The inspector general of the House of Representatives last month released a report that concludes that upgrading computer systems that track information on lobbying activity and congressional members' financial holdings would help eliminate security risks and human error, but advocacy groups said t

Digital Government

Feds seek IT cure for fire

In trying to determine when to let wildfires run their course and when to put them out, two federal agencies are working together on technology projects to monitor fires and smoke on federal lands. The Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service manage about 450 million acres of land, and each