SDFM The Business of Defense
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The National Archives and Records Administration has picked its first Wikipedian in Residence. The new position is designed to serve as a liaison between the archives and the volunteer editors of the free, online encyclopedia. Archives officials say their new Wikipedian, Dominic McDevitt-Parks, will help them collaborate with users and editors of the site to make the government\'s permanent record holdings available through Wikipedia, rather than just through the Archives\' own site.
June 03, 2011 -
The departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs will take one of their first major steps toward a single, joint electronic health record next month. The system\'s prototype graphical user interface will go online at a few selected clinics in Chicago. VA officials say they designed the interface by putting six clinicians in a room with a blank slate, and asking them what an ideal system would look like. The chief information officers of the two departments are meeting twice a week to plan the new system, which will take four to six years to fully develop.
June 03, 2011 -
The USDA\'s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service it taking data that used to be available only through Freedom of Information Act requests, and moving it to an advanced, free online searchable database. The Animal Care Information System holds all of the agency\'s records on the people and companies it licenses to breed animals for commercial sale, research or public exhibition. USDA says the tool allows users to make highly detailed, customized queries and export the results to a standard spreadsheet.
June 03, 2011 -
The Library of Congress is using the Internet to provide free, online access to thousands of the nation\'s oldest sound recordings. The National Jukebox went online this month. It hosts more than 10,000 historical music and spoken word recordings made between 1901 and 1925. Users can select and stream the recordings at LOC.gov/jukebox. For the time being, the recordings are from the catalogs of Columbia and Victor, the two oldest record companies in the world.
June 03, 2011 -
The Army says long, repeated overseas deployments often get in the way of continuing education for soldiers, and hurts their chances for promotions. To help solve that problem, they\'ve started deploying portable, electronic schoolhouses to Iraq and Afghanistan. The Deployed Digital Training Campus comes with laptops, Internet access, voice over IP, and customized Army digital learning courses. The units have been deployed to six overseas locations so far. The Army plans to have 50 by 2015.
June 03, 2011 -
The US Postal Service is using technology to make what many people would call junk mail a little more eye-catching to tech-savvy consumers. In what it\'s calling \"interactive mail\", the Postal Service is giving postage discounts to commercial mailers who print QR barcodes on their mailpieces. The codes can be scanned by a smartphone, which then takes users to a mobile website with more information about the product or service. USPS says it\'s part of a long term strategy to keep mail relevant as an advertising platform.
June 03, 2011 -
The Pentagon wants to better understand how military service affects those who employ members of the Guard and Reserves. The Department of Defense is surveying about 80,000 employers of all sizes across the nation. Guard and Reserve members currently comprise about 50 percent of the military\'s total strength, according to the Pentagon. Defense officials say they generally receive strong support from companies who employ Guard and Reserve members, who sometimes must be away from their families and their jobs for extended periods of time.
June 03, 2011 -
The white head stones and Arlington and Punchbowl and at many other cemeteries just sit there today, silent but proud monuments to the sacrifice that this country was built upon. Originally called Decoration Day, this is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation\'s service. Several cities lay claim to observing the first memorial day but on this day, from California to the New York Island, from the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters every town village and hamlet honor those who proved Freedom is free but it ain\'t cheap.
June 03, 2011 -
The eight year sentence for Omar Khadr will stand. He is the youngest detainee at the Guantanamo bay detention facility. He was taken there when he was 15 in 2002. On Oct. 25, 2010 he pled guilty to charges that included murder for throwing a grenade that mortally wounded an American soldier in Afghanistan. A military jury at the U.S. base in Cuba recommended a 40-year sentence. But a pretrial agreement limited him to no more than eight years. The Pentagon official in charge of war crimes tribunals upheld the eight-year sentence on Thursday.
June 03, 2011 -
Senior Executive Association President Carol Bonosaro will talk about the work being done by the organization. June 3, 2011
June 01, 2011 -
Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) David Borer AFGE General Counsel Don Hale Chair, AFGE Defense Conference Nate Whiteman Director of Recruitment and National Events, Union Sportsmen\'s Alliance
June 01, 2011 -
May 30th and June 1st A Conversation on \"An Open Government Implementation Model: Moving to Increased Public Engagement\"
June 01, 2011 -
Remember the idea of a stipend to help pay for the technology you REALLY want?
May 30, 2011 -
Who will be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff? The Associated Press indicates \"Two people familiar with President Barack Obama\'s search\" indicate he\'s chosen Army Gen. Martin Dempsey. Pentagon officials asked about it declined to comment on it way or the other. Dempsey would be an interesting choice because he just started a four-year term as Army chief of staff on April 11. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen\'s term ends Oct. 1.
May 26, 2011 -
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is trying to prepare the defense industry for a huge decline in defense spending. Fiscal concerns could cause the Pentagon to abandon some military missions, and reduce the size of the armed forces. He\'s preparing to retire next month and in one of his last speeches, he told the American Enterprise Institute, that the days of post 9/11 unchallenged defense spend are numbered. He said neither the money nor the political support are there.
May 25, 2011