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Loren Thompson, CEO of the non-profit Lexington Institute, says this year was a disaster for DoD acquisition and offers five ways for the agency to improve.
January 04, 2011 -
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DoD\'s Paul Yaroschak explains efforts at the agency to make products more green.
January 04, 2011 -
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The New York Times reports that budget problems have states turning to curb the influence of unions, especially ones representing government workers.
January 04, 2011 -
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Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) said his efforts to limit parking at the Alexandria administrative center were not part of the new defense authorization bill.
January 03, 2011 -
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The Pentagon\'s Warfighter Capability Demonstration Center (WARCAP) is making a big move in 2011 to implement more nimble, flexibly-configurable video teleconferencing solutions. In an average month, WARCAP\'s VTC team supports one major exercise and two or three demonstrations of emerging technology. End users and subject matter experts join in classified and unclassified briefings and conversations with top military leaders. \"Warfighters themselves can talk to the leadership. Guys on the floor of an Air Operations Center brief capability of the technology and its value -- or lack thereof.\" Anna Santos de Dios, Director of the Air Force\'s Warfighter Capability Demonstration Center (WarCap) told us more. \"Using VTC for exercises lets us bring the field experience right into the Pentagon. Senior decision-makers based here, who often lack the time or budget travel to event, can get in one room or on the same call, and bounce ideas around about what they\'ve just seen.\" WARCAP offers its clients three VTC options. DISN VIDEO SERVICES GLOBAL (DVSG) uses Tandberg systems to link multiple sites but each participating site is a fixed conference room and must be equipped with DSVG-specific hardware. AT&T schedules the VTC and allocates bandwidth. Internet-Protocol (IP)-Based VTC is about to get a lot more popular. This approach is used between two points that each connects their Tandberg MXP-IP coder/decoder (Codec) or similar gear (like the Polycom VSE-7000 IP-based Codec) to connect to the network used to conduct the military exercises and demos. \"Even some guy in the field with a webcam and internet access can be on the call,\" said Santos de Dios. \"We\'ve had guys doing VTC\'s standing next to their HUMVEE\'s talking about how systems perform, and that\'s much more powerful and memorable than someone briefing from a PowerPoint.\" But WARCAP wanted the flexibility to arrange those calls itself, to multiple points, and do it more quickly. So, WARCAP\'s NCO\'s collaborated with team from SAIC to come up with the solution. By April of 2011, General Dynamics IT and its subcontractor, PPI, will have installed a Multipoint Control Unit (MCU), the Tandberg MCU-4150 to improve service by bridging multiple locations. Finally, WARCAP uses Defense Connect Online (DCO), a software-based VTC system, for informal meetings and document sharing that doesn\'t require high bandwidth or ultra-high resolution video that the military exercises do. Once a computer has the software installed, plug in a USB web cam, and they\'re good to go. \"The people we support -- those running exercises, and those advocating more resources for work in the field -- feel that VTC helps them reach audiences they wouldn\'t have access to any other way,\" said Santos de Dios. \"The senior leaderships appreciates the opportunity to see exercises or evaluate technologies without disrupting their schedules with additional travel. \"The big challenge is that, with constant turnover in personnel that simply part of military life, we always have to keep educating people that this resource is available, so we\'re always doing outreach about WARCAP\'s VTC capabilities.\"
January 03, 2011 -
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The Office of Personnel Management sent a memo to agencies explaining who the pay freeze applies to and how it will be implemented. OPM answers several questions about performance increases, step increases and collective bargaining raises.
January 03, 2011 -
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Teleworkers are learning exactly what citizens need.
January 03, 2011 -
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Dr. Jacque Gansler gives his assessment of the DoD recommendations on acquisition reform.
December 29, 2010 -
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Best of interview with TSA Administrator John Pistole shortly after he joined the agency.
December 29, 2010 -
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President Obama has signed an executive order that replaces the controversial Federal Career Intern Program with three consolidated \'pathways.\' Administration officials say the old hiring system put agencies at a competitive disadvantage with private sector employers.
December 27, 2010 -
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NASA is one of the federal pioneers of video teleconferencing systems (remember the first broadcasts from space?)…so it\'s no surprise that this agency\'s program managers continue to rely on video conference technology to meet its daily demands for high-quality audio and visual communication among diverse public and private sector communities. \"At NASA, teams at varied locations need a way to engage in timely, technical conversations and collaborate remotely to meet mission-critical goals,\" said NASA\'s Deputy Chief Information Officer Deborah Diaz. NASA -- both Headquarters and its major centers around the country -- uses video teleconferencing for everything from meetings, seminars, major international conferences and face-to-face meetings to quick conversations on pressing issues. The payoff is obvious: more cost-efficient and -effective operations, with savings on facilities as well as meeting planning and logistics. At an Open Government Summit hosted by NASA in the fall of 2010, nearly 60 percent of the participants used electronic tools to \"virtually attend\" the summit. Organizers faced twin challenges of being efficient but also inclusive, while juggling video streaming, cooperative note-taking, online teleconferencing and adapting conversational practices in the room, to bridge the gap between physical and virtual participants. What are they using? NASA Headquarters maintains video teleconferencing systems (ViTS) in multiple configurations, with equipment from vendors including Tandberg, Polycom and LifeSize. The typical ViTS stack includes the ViTS components themselves, additional recording units, PCs and in some cases SmartBoard capability. NASA is in the process of migrating all of its ViTS to have High Definition, digital sign control, and MP3 audio recording capabilities Latest capability improvements include Flash and Windows Media Video streaming via the Web. Users who have a small portable streaming system can view transmissions via computer from anywhere in the world. Some configurations offer MP3 recording capability that lets NASA burn CDs to distribute audio recordings; in others, NASA can use full audiovisual recording capability to capture entire events on Digital Video Disc (DVD) or Blu-Ray. NASA has begun implementing a Voice-Over-IP (VOIP) phone system, too. That will speed the delivery of IP-based desktop video conferencing as the agency phases out ISDN-based systems and will increase ViTS availability to NASA employees while reducing overall costs associated with equipment maintenance, operations, and logistics typical of larger ViTS facilities. \"Technology enables and supports one to thousands of conversations,\" said NASA\'s Chief Technology Officer for IT, Chris Kemp. \"We\'re finding that if we don\'t stand in the way of that conversation, incredible things can happen.\"
December 27, 2010 -
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OPM\'s Nancy Kichak explains how the cyber internship works.
December 27, 2010 -
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The Post reports that a draft executive order will kill the 10-year-old FCIP in March.
December 27, 2010 -
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The agency is using service level agreements to help ensure hiring managers are involved in all parts of the process. VA cut the amount of time it takes to hire a new employee by 20 days. VA hopes to get the average time down below the governmentwide goal of 80 days in 2011.
December 27, 2010
