IRS Has Some of the Oldest Tech in Government — It’s Trying to Change That

by  Natalie Alms

Agency leadership views the “historic funding” provided under the Inflation Reduction Act as an opportunity to get out from under the list of needed tech improvements that have long plagued the IRS. 

One year into his tenure as commissioner of the IRS, Danny Werfel says that the digital transformation of the tax agency is a “generational imperative.”

“With historic funding through the [Inflation Reduction Act], we’re building an IRS where all taxpayers can meet all their responsibilities, including all interactions with the IRS — from questions to payments to resolutions — in a completely digital manner if they choose,” he said during a speech at American University on Monday. “It’s how most taxpayers want to interact with us in the 21st century.”

 Read full story at Nextgov/FCW…

Commerce Dept. Seeks Input on AI-Ready Open Data Assets

by Jose Rascon

The Department of Commerce (DOC) is looking for input on the development of AI-ready open data assets and data dissemination standards, according to a new request for information (RFI) posted on April 17. 2024. 

The new RFI is seeking comments from industry through July 16 on producing and disseminating high-quality public data that can help the department enable U.S. scientific discovery, innovation, and economic growth.

“Thus far, Commerce has made efforts to expose its public data through structured [Application Programming Interface] (API)s and is developing enriched metadata standards for describing its data assets,” the Commerce Department said.

 Read full story at Meritalk…

How USAID Kicked Off Its First Enterprise-Wide CRM Program

by  Stuart Lauchlan

As the Salesforce World Tour hit Washington, some learnings about tackling endemic data issues across government, both in the US and overseas. 

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the United States Government that administers civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $50 billion, it's one of the largest official aid agencies in the world, accounting for more than half of all US foreign assistance.

“We're not technology folks. We think about programming. We reached out and engaged with our CIO office, and it has been an absolutely fantastic engagement. I think it's very unique. In our agency, typically, if you need a technology solution, you go tell your CIO shop to fix it...We're equal partners in this and our CIO shop has been with us every step of the way, from the design, and they'll be with us every step of implementation. We not only got a better product, we got a faster product…just break down those walls, reach out across agencies. From programs to operations, you're all in it together.” Michael Metzler, Executive Director, Private Sector Engagement Hub at the Agency

 Read full story at diginomica…

5 Steps We Can Take to Address the Cyber Skills Shortage

by  Leonard Kleinman

The cyber skills shortage is not going away anytime soon, despite the progress we are making as an industry to attract new talent. Per the latest “ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study,” we added more than 460,000 warm bodies over the past year, yet the talent gap still has grown more than twice that of the workforce. 

Depending upon which research report you read, we have a shortage of somewhere around 3.4 million or 3.5 million individuals worldwide2. But we are not the only industry with a talent gap. The medical industry, for example, is facing a shortage of more than 10 million physicians worldwide3. The skills shortage creates challenges, of course. According to ISACA, 60% of organizations are struggling to retain individuals, and 62% say their teams are operating at a talent deficit.4

 Read full story at CIO…

Google Raises Privacy Bar with Its Crowdsourced Tracking Service

by  Glenn Fleishman

Google’s new Find My Device network works nearly identically to Apple’s Find My network with a few exceptions: Google’s design offers more anti-stalking and privacy features than Apple. 

Google will raise the ante for privacy-preserving and anti-stalking features with the launch of its long-expected Find My Device network service in May 2024. Like Apple’s almost identically named Find My network, Google’s Find My Device network crowdsources device locations by relaying encrypted identity signals through supported Android phones and tablets. The search giant’s Find My Device network supports Android devices and compact trackers from companies like Chipolo and Pebblebee . Google has three distinct privacy improvements that aren’t found—yet—in Apple’s Find My network approach.

 Read full story at TidBITS…

YouTube Cracks Down on Ad-Blocking Apps

by  Meara Isenberg

 Avoiding ads with YouTube Premium costs $14 per month.

… The move is the latest development in YouTube's efforts to prevent ad blocking. The video giant said last fall it had "launched a global effort to urge viewers with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium for an ad free experience," according to a statement first shared with The Verge. On its support site, YouTube says it may block your video playback if you use ad blockers.

 Read full story at CNET…

U.S. Lawmakers Introduce Bill Aimed at Accelerating Nuclear Fusion

by  Kevin Clark

he Fusion Energy Act would enable the development of regulatory framework under the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

… The Fusion Energy Act would enable the development of regulatory framework under the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, aimed at supporting the growth of commercial fusion. It would also require the NRC to report to Congress within a year about licensing commercial fusion plants.

A similar bill has already passed in the U.S. House of Representatives.

 Read full story at Power Engineering…

Are Utilities Getting Enough Value From Smart Meters?

by  Abhay Gupta

Although the standard approach to grid planning is a functional model, it’s not necessarily a scalable model—and, it doesn’t account for the mass deployment of DERs underway at homes across the country.  

… The method in which utility grid planners and data analysts carry out load forecasting has become a standard approach for the last several decades. However, two very large megatrends are intersecting in the utility industry right now: 1) distributed energy resources (DERs) like EVs, solar, and battery storage are adding a new layer of complexity to supply and demand; and 2) millions of smart meters have been deployed across the country, giving utilities new access to minute-by-minute energy consumption data.

 Read full story at Forbes…

California’s Exploding Rooftop Solar Cost Shift

by  Severin Borenstein

 In 2024, residential PV will shift nearly $4 billion onto others’ bills, more than double the 2020 amount.

There’s a lot of anger in California right now about rising electricity prices. Since 2020, residential rates of the two largest investor-owned utilities – PG&E and Southern California Edison – have risen, respectively, by 38% and 40% after adjusting for inflation. Inflation adjusted rates of San Diego Gas & Electric, the third largest, have only risen 11% during that time, but SDG&E was already the most expensive in 2020. The prices of all three are now more than double the national average. (There are going to be a lot of numbers in this post. If you want the details behind them, this link has a data appendix with the data and code for my calculations.)

 Read full story at Energy Institute at Haas…