March 17, 2004

Department of Interior websites shut down for security reasons

A federal judge in Washington yesterday ordered the Interior Department to shut down most of its employees' Internet access and some of its public Web sites after concluding that the agency has failed to fix computer security problems that threaten millions of dollars owed to Native Americans.

Internet Cutoff Ordered at Interior: Judge Says Money Owed to Indians Is Still at Risk

Posted by michael at 5:43 PM

Feedback on NARA eGov policies saught

The Electronic Records Policy Working Group is inviting interested persons to provide their written views on issues relating to implementing section 207(e)(1)(A) of the E-Government Act of 2002. That section calls for ``the adoption by agencies of policies and procedures to ensure that chapters 21, 25, 27, 29, and 31 of title 44, United States Code, are applied effectively and comprehensively to Government information on the Internet and to other electronic records.''

The Working Group is seeking feedback on the following topics in their meetings and this notice.


1. The definition of "Government information on the Internet and other electronic records.'' The operating definitions currently used by the Working Group are as follows:

A. Government information on the Internet includes:
** Information posted on Government web sites,
** Information exchanged between Federal agencies,
** Information exchanged between Federal agencies and the public,
** Information exchanged between Federal agencies and other governments,
** Government-enabled web services,
** Standard government forms,
** E-government business transactions.

B. Other electronic records--electronic information meeting the definition of a Federal record per 44 U.S.C. 3301. Records include:
** All books, papers, maps, photographs, machine readable materials, or other documentary materials,
** regardless of physical form or characteristics
** made or received by an agency of the United States Government,
** under Federal law or
** in connection with the transaction of public business,
** and preserved or appropriate for preservation by that agency or its legitimate successor,
** as evidence of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations or other activities of the Government or,
** because of the informational value of the data in them (44 U.S.C. 3301).

2. Perceived barriers to effective management of ``Government information on the Internet and other electronic records.'' The operating definition of effective management currently used by the Working Group includes:
** managing through the life cycle,
** providing for accessibility and retrieval,
** providing sufficient security,
** ensuring consistency (ability to reproduce record),
** providing for the integrity of records over time,
** ensuring no loss of records,
** ensuring compatibility with standard formats,
** managing format changes over time,
** providing for long-term record storage and migration of formats,
** managing the location of records over time,
** appropriate long-term custodianship.

3. Guidance tools for Federal agencies that would assist in overcoming the identified barriers.

In order to solicit the opinions of those stakeholders who could not attend the focus group or public meetings, this message is being sent to relevant lists. Any comments concerning this topic should be sent to ERPWG@nara.gov no later than April 5.

Posted by michael at 5:27 PM

December 23, 2003

GSA books tickets for Gov eTravel

E-Travel is basically a portal/software exchange that provides a centralized location for all organizational travel to be planned, booked, and managed. The GSA is requiring that all Federal agencies move to E-Travel. The agencies have until March to submit their migration plan, and until 2006 to complete the transition. The GSA is requiring agencies to choose between three approved software packages.

This is a great idea, and will can save much time and money. The only more significant travel savings would be from a distributed workspace system, but this is a start.

Still, having worked on a corporate E-Travel migration (that would be probably be similar in size to even some of the larger of Executive agencies), I have to say that this transition should take months, not two years.

Posted by michael at 1:22 PM

April 29, 2003

It is staggering to hear,

It is staggering to hear, but US portal FirstGov does not currently use a Content Management System (CMS). Each page on the site is hand-coded, but not for much longer. the General Services Administration recently signed a half million dollar contract for use of Vignette's CMS software.

To illustrate why a CMS is so important, here is a quote from M.J. Jameson, s GSA associate administrator:
"When the Columbia shuttle tragedy happened, we took 24 hours to get up what we needed to get up," Jameson said. "If we had had this content management system, the people who do that for FirstGov could have done it from home within 20 minutes."

Not only do CMSs save time and money, they allow the technically illititerate to update without calling in tech support, the dynamic generation of content, and easier changes to design/site architecture. I'm really shocked they would still be hand-coding.

The license is governmentwide, which is also pretty amazing. Any government agency that is still hand-coding is wasting money, and should be strongly encouraged to make the move to Vignette as soon as possible (not that I have any pull in that regard).

Posted by michael at 1:13 PM