The Army wants more flexibility in technology purchasing; what do we do with all that data; HHS and EPA take the lead on implementing FITARA, and the president Tweets. These are the stories we’re keeping an eye on this week at Federal Technology Insider.
Top Army Contracting Official Wants Flexibility in Tech Buys
Heidi Shyu, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisitions, logistics and technology is looking to shake up the procurement process, she revealed at a recent event. Shyu wants to do away with multiple review cycles, burdensome documentation procedures, extensive development and operations testing and enormous layers of oversight make it difficult to innovate and get the best solutions for mission delivery to warfighters. Ms. Shyu is looking to the Department of Defense and Congress to ease the burden of oversight in order to boost the opportunity to equip the warfighter with the tools they need to meet the mission.
Data, Data Everywhere, But to What End?
Government agencies produce, collect, and collate terabytes of data each day, but to what end? Federal government and private sector IT leaders have, in recent weeks, sat down to discuss what the point of data collection is if nothing is being done with it, save taking up storage space in already stretched-thin data centers. At this week’s Management Change conference, Tomorrow CEO, Mike Walsh, shared examples from state and local governments with federal IT leaders to demonstrate the return on investment that can be gained from creating data sets and applying that information to the core mission of an agency.
HHS and EPA take the Lead on FITARA Recommendations
While the comment period for FITARA, the Federal IT Act Acquisition Reform, is just closing, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are already working out how FITARA, the government’s new x, y, z will affect their organizations and how they will handle implementation. The HHS has convened a twenty member working group to create recommendations for implementation while the EPA is examining how their existing review board meets the new FITARA requirements and what changes may need to be made.
Agency Leaders and the President Embrace Social Media
There has been a lot of caution, understandably, from agency leadership about embracing social media to share agency updates and engage with citizens. Slowly but surely, however, agencies have taken strides to embrace next generation communications technologies. Commerce Secretary, Penny Pritzker, used a new app to live-stream Michelle Lee’s swearing in ceremony via Twitter from Austin at the South by Southwest Interactive Conference. And, just this week, President Obama finally received a presidential Twitter account, @POTUS, which will become the official Twitter handle for future presidents.
