Fostering innovation in the federal government

Federal Tech Talk

Fostering innovation in the federal government

Kerry Long, program manager, IARPA, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, joins host John Gilroy on this week's Federal Tech Talk to discuss the leng...

December 25, 2016 4:46 pm

1 min read

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(This show originally aired on November 15, 2016)

Today’s interview is with Kerry Long, program manager, IARPA, Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).

Head shot of Kerry Long — Kerry Long, program manager, IARPA, Office of the Director of National Intelligence

Just about everybody knows that the Internet originated from a project from the Advanced Research Projects Activity (ARPA). Not many know that there is also a project called Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity or IARPA.

Their task is to engage in high risk, high payoff research. For example, Kerry Long is trying to solve a basic business problem for the federal government. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is a way to standardize an interface. It is increasingly popular with the federal move to the cloud.

One weakness is that basic VDI does not allow for dynamic log collection among other weaknesses. Kerry’s VirTUE( Virtuous User Environment) is an attempt to alleviate this problem. Right now they are searching for companies who would like to partner with IARPA in this project. This is an open source project where all the results will be published to GitHub.

Listen to the interview to understand the lengths the federal government is taking to foster innovation. If you are a creative software developer, you should contact IARPA and learn more about the funding for this innovative project.