<FONT SIZE=2>Warfighter Information Network - Tactical</FONT><FONT SIZE=2>Army Communications Electronics Command</FONT><FONT SIZE=2>Value: </FONT><FONT SIZE=2>$6.6 billion</FONT><FONT SIZE=2>Awarded: </FONT><FONT SIZE=2>Lockheed Martin Corp. and General Dynamics Corp. both won contracts Aug. 9 that will develop the architecture and start initial production of systems for testing. The Army will then pick between the two for full production.</FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>If integrators want to look at the future of network-centric procurement, a good starting point is the Joint Vision 2010 and Joint Vision 2020 documents, said Louis Ray, president and chief executive officer of Matcom International Corp., an IT and engineering services provider in Alexandria, Va., that does work in military tactical data links. </FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>"Decision makers aren't paid to be data collectors," said Douglas Barton, director of technology for the missions systems division of Lockheed Martin Corp. "If they have 10 minutes to make a decision, they shouldn't spend nine and a half minutes gathering data."</FONT>
The Justice Department has approved a plan for a group of private-sector companies to form a consortium under the direction of the Internal Revenue Service to offer free, online tax preparation and filing services to qualified citizens.
Whatever the White House's new draft cybersecurity plan lacked in specific requirements for the private sector, it more than made up for in proposed spending to improve security at federal agencies.
<font SIZE="2">Even though Congress has failed to agree as of this writing on any of the 13 spendingbills for fiscal 2003, lawmakers are expected to approve the president's $52 billionspending request for information technology products and services.</font>
<font SIZE="2">Cybersecurity strategy</font><font SIZE="2">The White House Sept. 18 released a draftwith a 60-day comment period. The plan sets out security recommendations for home computerusers, businesses, industries and government agencies. The plan pushes the philosophy thatthe federal government cannot act alone in protecting against cyberattacks. </font>
The government sector is going to be the single largest vertical market for biometric technologies through 2007, when spending is expected to reach $1.2 billion, according to International Biometric Group LLC, a New York-based research and consulting firm. IBG estimated the government market for biometrics in 2002 would be $217 million. The global market for biometrics will hit $4 billion by 2007, according to IBG's annual forecast released last month. The largest biometric market segment will continue to be fingerprint technologies, followed by facial recognition and iris scanning, said Mike Thieme, director of special projects for IBG. IBG's forecast is based on vendor revenue, which it defined as sales of hardware and software that are related to the core biometric technology, with adjustments made based on a variety of economic and political factors, Thieme said.
<font SIZE="2">When Americans next year begin the ritual of completing annual tax forms, the nation'sblind and visually impaired citizens will be able to fill out 50 of the most-used formsonline for the first time. </font>
The number and size of bundled contracts issued by federal agencies has reached a 10-year high, to the detriment of small business, according to a new report issued Oct. 2 by the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Federal agencies are making much greater use of governmentwide agency contracts, or GWACs, to meet their information technology requirements. Technology-related orders from GWACs have more than doubled over the past four years, from $1.1 billion in fiscal year 1997 to $2.4 billion in 2001, according to Input Inc., a Chantilly, Va. market research and consulting company.
City governments have made dramatic gains in putting information and services online in the past year, but they tend to rely too heavily on user fees and premium services that ultimately may limit user access, according to a new report.
Over the next four months, Mark Forman and his colleagues at the Office of Management and Budget expect to launch up to 21 first or second iterations of the 24 Quicksilver e-government initiatives.
On Sept. 11, 2001, Steve Cooper, then chief information officer for Corning Inc., was speaking at a CIO forum aboard a ship sailing under a British flag in New York harbor. After the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Coast Guard asked the ship, because it was under a foreign flag, to go out to open sea. One day and 200 hundred miles later, Cooper and the passengers disembarked in Boston. Angry, Cooper -- who had served in the Navy during the Vietnam era -- tried to figure out what he could do personally to make a difference in the new national situation.
<FONT SIZE=2>Although e-government remains one of the most prominent technology initiatives within the state and local government marketplace, the nature of its projects continues to evolve. Government-to-citizen applications are still politically popular, but government-to-business and government-to-government projects are also emerging as key e-government areas.</FONT>
The Bush administration is applying a full-court press to the House to authorize its request for a $45 million e-government fund. Mark Forman, the Office of Management and Budget's associate director for IT and e-government, Sept. 18 told lawmakers that the fund was "critical to achieving the promise of e-government."
<FONT SIZE=2>Both houses of Congress are working on legislation that would tighten security loopholes in the way states issue driver's licenses, but the bills may have a hard time passing this year because of concerns about privacy.</FONT>
National Defense University's Information Resources Management College has introduced a new e-gov certificate program, geared to helping agencies comply with the Office of Management and Budget's e-gov initiatives.
Mark Forman and his colleagues at the Office of Management and Budget expect to launch up to 21 first or second iterations of the 24 Quicksilver e-government initiatives during the next four months.
