The Department of Homeland Security's IG office is planning a comprehensive investigation into FEMA's IT management practices due to concerns it was misled by FEMA leadership about progress on IT management goals.
In a management alert to FEMA Administrator Brock Long, OIG is reporting that based on field work in January and February, it has found FEMA has made "limited progress" on improving IT management issues dating as far back as 2005. OIG states these issues "remain unchanged," and have an "adverse impact on day-to-day operations and mission readiness."
Given FEMA's responsibility in disaster response, these IT issues "can hamper disaster response efforts."
"Having reliable and efficient IT systems and infrastructure is critical to support increased disaster relief efforts in the wake of the 2017 hurricane season," the notice states. OIG states according to FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund Monthly Report, as of the end of 2017, Congress had appropriated over $24 billion for disaster recovery.
Read full story at FCW…
first published week of: 03/05/2018
When the General Services Administration launched the Artificial Intelligence for Citizen Services pilot in October 2016, its goal was to study systems like Amazon Alexa or Microsoft Cortana to see what these AI-driven tools could offer to government.
Justin Herman, the leader of GSA's Emerging Citizen Technologies Program, has guided federal pilots to see what AI can offer agencies. GCN spoke with him about what these technologies mean for the future of government.
Read full story at GCN…
first published week of: 02/05/2018
The wait continues as the Pentagon works to issue a final solicitation for its potential $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud computing contract.
Although the release slipped past the expected deadline at the end of May, that delay may work in the Defense Department's favor if it is to build a consensus for not just JEDI but any emerging next-generation technology from the commercial marketplace, according to a June 4 report from IT market intelligence firm Technology Business Research.
Traditional technology procurement models are being disrupted by innovations outside government-backed research-and-development initiatives.
That shift is “elevating consensus-building into a prerequisite for embarking on disruptive technology adoption” for desired government outcomes, according to the report from TBR Public Sector IT Analyst Joey Cresta and Principal Analyst Geoff Woollacott.
Read full story at Government Cloud Insider…
first published week of: 06/18/2018
It’s official: Kaspersky can’t do business with the federal government.
A nearly year-long saga to stop the federal government from banning a Russian antivirus software from its networks ended Friday in the U.S. Court of Appeals in D.C.
A federal triumvirate upheld a congressional ban prohibiting the sale of Kaspersky products to the Defense Department, General Services Administration and NASA, ending the appeals process.
The ban—enacted last December as part of the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act—was spurred by intelligence community reports that Kaspersky antivirus software was being used by Russian intelligence agencies to collect information. Reports later surfaced of a National Security Agency contractor, Nghia Hoang Pho, who stored classified documents on his home computer that were detected by his Kaspersky software and later picked up by Russian agents
Read full story at Nextgov…
first published week of: 12/03/2018
The Web Based SaaS Uses, GIS Technology To Simplify The Sharing of Important School Boundaries, Directions, Bus Stops and Contact Information
LocateMySchool™, a web-based, interactive, software-as-a-service developed by Planware, a division of Educational Data Systems, now provides 24/7 access to important school boundary information, directions from an entered address, and contact info in one application.
“LocateMySchool boosts school communication and simplifies the sharing of pertinent information with parents and the community that may not be easy for them to obtain otherwise,” said Caroline Fahmy, the CEO and president of Educational Data Systems. “Maps, boundaries, data points, and contact information often change, causing static PDF school boundary maps to go out of date fairly quickly. With LocateMySchool, our geographic information systems (GIS) staff checks in with district users on a quarterly basis to ensure that data is current. It’s one less thing districts have to worry about updating.”
After a quick implementation process, LocateMySchool provides:
Read full story at NIBLETZ…
first published week of: 03/26/2018
Anyone located in Manchester who calls or texts 911 from a mobile device will now be connected directly to the town’s emergency dispatch center, police Chief Edward Conley has announced.
Conley said testing of this new service began Tuesday with full implementation scheduled for Thursday, March 8. Manchester is only the 26th public safety access point within the Commonwealth to join the program, he added. It joins Gloucester police dispatch, and Rockport, which was part of the state’s pilot program.
“So far its been excellent,” the chief said Friday afternoon. A 911 call came in earlier from Manchester Essex Regional High School student having a medical issue, and it came straight through to Manchester’s police dispatch, just as the system is supposed to work.
When all phones were landlines, the 911 system used the phone number to look up the caller’s address in a database and identify and route the call to the nearest public safety access point. With the advent of mobile technology, Manchester’s 911 calls were initially answered by Essex County Regional 911 Center in Middleton then transferred to the local dispatch.
“The current system has been in use since mobile phones could dial 911,” Conley said. “It would become a three-way call” between the regional dispatcher, Manchester’s dispatcher, and the caller. “Often everyone talked over each other; it was not very efficient.”
Read full story at Gloucester Times…
first published week of: 03/19/2018
(Center for Digital Governement)
The Unmanned Aerial System Integration Pilot Program will give the administration insights into how it might relax drone restrictions in the future.
The Federal Aviation Administration has a lot of restrictions on drone use that prevent, or make it very difficult, to use them in ways that would be helpful to government. Operators can't fly drones over groups of people, they can't fly at night and they can't let the machines go beyond their line of sight.
But the agency is taking steps to relax those restrictions. Last week, the FAA announced 10 projects that will participate in its Unmanned Aerial System Integration Pilot Program, where federal, state, local and tribal governments will work with private-sector and nonprofit partners to test drones under some of those restricted conditions. Eventually, the administration wants to use its observations from the projects to change up the rules and make it easier for drone users to operate under more conditions.
Here's what the 10 projects will entail:
Read full story at Government Technology…
first published week of: 06/18/2018
Payments company Mastercard and location platform provider HERE Technologies announced Tuesday (Jan. 9) would partner to create a payment experience for people on-the-move.
In a joint press release, the companies said they will work together to meld digital payments and mapping technologies and enable the ability to make payments while in motion via a connected car’s dashboard.
“With more users than ever moving between different places and devices, enterprises need to work more closely together to curate experiences that put people, not things, at the center,” said Hany Fam, executive vice president of enterprise partnerships for Mastercard, in the press release. “By combining our expertise and our reach, Mastercard and HERE Technologies have the opportunity to empower mobile lifestyles in the most secure, informed and inclusive way.”
In addition to advancing connected vehicle payments, the two companies will explore additional uses cases for mobility-as-a-service (MaaS), demand management and location-based services. Solutions for these use cases will rely on data analytics from both companies.
Read full story at PYMNTS.com…
first published week of: 01/15/2018
Laura Hubbs, 13, of Hiawatha poses for a portrait at Guthridge Park in Hiawatha on Monday, July 23, 2018. Hubbs recently won a state mapping award and moved on to the national competition for her mapping of parks
( Hannah Schroeder/The Gazette)
Laura Hubbs, an eighth-grader from Hiawatha, won first place in the middle school division of the second annual Iowa Map Contest.
For her contest entry, Hubbs, 13, compiled information about 27 different public parks in the Cedar Rapids area. She then used ArcGIS Online, a web-based geographic information systems (GIS) program, to create an online interactive map of the parks.
Her map includes recent pictures of each park and descriptions with information on their facilities and amenities.
Hubbs is home-schooled but participates in classes offered through the Cedar Rapids Home School Assistance Program. It was while learning to use ArcGIS Online in one of those classes — 21st Century Skills taught by Wilson Middle School teacher Wayne Fritch — that she heard about the Iowa Map Contest.
The Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) is a company specializing in mapping and spatial analytics software. ESRI developed ArcGIS Online and helped sponsor the Iowa Map Contest, along with the Iowa Department of Education social studies division, the Iowa Geographic Information Council and William Penn University.
This year the contest required participants to create interactive story maps of their favorite places in Iowa using ArcGIS Online.
Read full story at The Gazette…
first published week of: 07/30/2018
It seems like a basic concept: count every person living in America once and only once. If only it were that easy.
“We all really move around so much,” said Minnesota State Demographer Susan Brower. “That’s the issue here.”
The next census is two years away. But work happening now by Brower, civic groups, businesses, local government employees and others stands to have a big bearing on how the population count goes in Minnesota. Preparations are ramping up because the state has a lot riding on the federal headcount’s accuracy.
There are plenty of considerations feeding the Minnesota efforts to get moving, from a census budget some see as too tight, to a move to make more of the count digital, to concerns about how the data might be used.
“When census time comes around people will be missed either because they are difficult to find, they have some unusual or mobile housing situations,” Brower said. “But also, there are groups of people who are hard to count because they don’t want to be counted necessarily, so people who maybe who don’t trust the government.”
The census determines how many members of Congress represent each state. Because of population changes, Minnesota is on the cusp of losing a House seat. And federal money coming to states is often tied to population. Each person can mean as much as $1,500 gained or lost per year just in the largest 16 federal assistance programs.
That’s why Brower and others across Minnesota have made the 2020 census a priority even though it is a federal initiative.
This month, Brower embarks on something of a census tour across Minnesota. It starts in Rochester and by April will take her to nine cities, including Fergus Falls, Mankato and Mountain Iron.
Along the way, she’ll hold workshops to enlist local leaders in promoting the census and provide them tips on reaching hard-to-count residents. She’ll urge them to set up complete count committees.
Marcia Avner is doing similar work for the Minnesota Council on Foundations.
“The only way Minnesota is going to get a good count is if we have an excited, enthusiastic, very well organized on-the-ground operation,” Avner said.
Avner said philanthropic organizations feel compelled to step up because they fear the federal government hasn’t devoted enough money to census operations. The Census Bureau is planning to open regional offices in Duluth, Rochester and the Twin Cities.
Read full story at LaCrosse Tribune…
first published week of: 01/08/2018