Summaries for April 1, 2009

WEB MANAGER ANTUNES LAUNCHES SOCIAL NETWORK SITE AT NASA GODDARD
Her title, “web manager,” doesn’t begin to describe Emma Antunes of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Md. She is in fact the keeper of Goddard’s 1,100 web sites, public and internal, and an enthusiastic believer in what social network can accomplish for a government agency.  This week Antunes, who works within Goddard CIO Linda Cureton’s organization, is beta testing an exciting new project called Spacebook. -> Read More

WHY THE MILITARY OUTLOOK IS A PUZZLE
With each passing week, the future of the Defense Department becomes a little harder to figure out. If you examine juxtaposed facts coming to light in recent weeks, you might conclude DOD staff will need to think about, plan and shape programs differently, including to what degree DOD will use contractors in the next several years. -> Read More

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Vivek Kundra

Vivek Kundra to Speak at IRMCO 2009
The U.S. General Services Administration welcomes Vivek Kundra, Federal Chief Information Officer and Director, E-Government and Information Technology, Office of Management and Budget, and Beth Noveck, Director, Office of Open Government, Office of Science and Technology Policy, as they discuss the 13 Technology Innovation and Government Reform (TIGR) Team Recommendations at IRMCO 2009 on April 19-22.

Other IRMCO 2009 speakers include:

• Michael J. Howell Jr., Deputy Administrator, E-Government & Information Technology, Office of Management and Budget
• Emma Kolstad Antunes, IT Specialist and Web Manager, Office of the Chief Information Officer, NASA
• Gene Dodaro, Acting Comptroller, Government Accountability Office
• Barnaby Brasseux, Deputy Administrator, GSA
• Robert "Moose" Cobb, Inspector General, NASA
• Sallyanne Harper, CIO and CFO, Government Accountability Office
• Peter Bruce, Deputy CIO, Canada
• Rob Carey, Chief Information Officer, Department of the Navy
• Laurence Millar, CIO, New Zealand
• Van Hitch, Chief Information Officer, Department of Justice
• John Suffolk, CIO, United Kingdom

Plan now to attend IRMCO on April 19-22, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay in Cambridge, Maryland, a quick trip up Route 50.  The conference fee of $1,195, includes hotel accommodations, conference fee, and meals.  Register now at www.irmco.gov.

STIMULUS IS PROVING TO BE A BRACING ACTIVITY FOR AGENCY MANAGERS
How do you spend half a trillion dollars? How about responsibly. Accountably. Fast. If those sound like incompatible goals, well, tough. Figure out how to do it.  At least, these are the marching orders agencies are getting from the Office of Management and Budget. -> Read More

FLUX IN THE TECHNOLOGY VENDOR WORLD WILL MEAN DIFFERENT CHOICES
A recent visit to IBM’s U.S. home page displayed a picture of cattle grazing in a huge pasture, with electrical transmission towers along the distant horizon. The headline: From farm to store, Norwegians want to know where the beef is. Microsoft.com and Cisco.com are also showing new market focuses on their websites.  Clearly, the actions of these influential technology suppliers show the IT industry is fundamentally changing. -> Read More

• Web Manager Antunes Launches Social Network Site at NASA Goddard

  Emma Antunes

  Her title, “web manager,” doesn’t begin to describe Emma Antunes of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Md. She is in fact the keeper of Goddard’s 1,100 web sites, public and internal. She is also lead for the NASA Web Managers working group, which includes web keepers at 10 other sites, including headquarters.

  But talk with her for a few moments, and you realize she is also an enthusiastic believer in what social network can accomplish for a government agency, an empathetic observer of the needs of the various constituencies in NASA who use the web resources she oversees, and a cheerful can-do who makes-do with limited funds.

  This week Antunes, who works within Goddard CIO Linda Cureton’s organization, is beta testing an exciting new project called Spacebook. Spacebook will let Goddard’s 10,000 employees find expertise within the ranks, form online groups with which to share files and write wikis, and even help locate or dispose of surplus gear.

  Spacebook rolls out just after a major upgrade of GSFC’s intranet completed by Antunes’ team. It was a process in which few details were overlooked. At the macro level, for example, what was once a single home page many screens deep is now a much simpler, tabbed interface. At the small-but-annoying detail level, the searchable phone directory can now help a user locate a person even if the user isn’t sure how to spell the name.

  In developing the social network project, Antunes said she sought no additional funds. “There is no additional money anyhow,” she chuckled. She said her team, including contractor employees from Indus Corp. and eTouch Systems, worked out Spacebook within the existing budget. But Antunes finds ways to economize, for example, moving the hosting of Goddard’s intranet to NASA’s data center to lower costs.

  More important, Antunes and her team sought as much input about what would make the system appealing to a wide range of users.

  “This will prove our competitiveness in sharing information. Social nets allow people to talk and share; it really helps our business,” Antunes said. To that end, the development group talked with everyone from human resources to the sometimes not-so-social scientists and engineers. “For some of them,” Antunes joked, “they are very engaged if they look at your shoes when you’re talking.”

  To help ensure uptake of Spacebook, Antunes said, the site is made accessible under the same login that users employ for the main GSFC network. That will make it easier for users to incorporate it into their daily work. The team also used Forrester Research usability metrics, including its social “technographics,” and it consulted with the famed Intellipedia team in the federal intelligence community.

  Antunes said the site will roll out across Goddard group by group, with lots of meetings.

  She joined NASA Goddard in 1994 as a contractor employee, and became a civil servant seven years later.

  “I’ve seen the webmaster position grow into a policy and communications position.” As web sites gained sophistication and became important to the public and to internal communications, she said, their creation, updating and maintenance required a project management approach. “We talk about web project management, which applies to Web 2.0. If it is tied to a business goal, it will work.”

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• Why the Military Outlook Is a Puzzle

  With each passing week, the future of the Defense Department becomes a little harder to figure out. Consider some of the juxtaposed facts coming out in recent weeks:

  • The 2010 DOD budget promised by the Obama administration increases the base budget by 4 percent, to around $533 billion, in contrast to the double-digit increases proposed for the rest of government.
  • Systems once thought to be sure bets are on the table for possible discontinuation, among them the F-22 fighter, Future Combat Systems (FCS), the European missile defense, replacement aerial refueling tankers and a long range bomber that is still mostly a concept. Just last week, Army FCS leaders opted out of testifying before the House Armed Services Air and Land Forces Subcommittee hearing.
  • At a mere $4.5 million apiece, unmanned aircraft are not problem-free, but they are showing their mettle in Afghanistan. They are particularly effective at surveillance and highly selective lethality. A New York Times article last month noted their need for refinement in flying characteristics and the Air Force’s need to train more joystick jockeys to operate them. What does this mean for the future of expensive fighter fleets and the huge tail of logistics that support them?
  • DOD leadership is buying into the notion, at least in public statements, that they reduce dependency on contractors and find ways to do more things in-house. They are under pressure. Just last week, Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to suspend public-private A-76 competitions.
  • Defense acquisition is at the bottom of a near universal pile-on for use of sole-source and cost-plus contracts, and for not keeping costs and schedules under control. A confirmation hearing for  President Obama’s pick for DOD acquisition chief, Ashton Carter focused on whether Carter, even with his formidable DOD experience, was up to the job of leading this troublesome function.

  It is at this juncture that President Obama came out with his strategy for Afghanistan.
   
  While elements of Obama’s plans aren’t so different from those of President Bush in Iraq – notably the insertion of 17,000 more troops – a key difference is distilled in this paragraph from his speech:

  “So to advance security, opportunity, and justice, not just in Kabul but from the bottom up in the provinces, we need agricultural specialists and educators, engineers and lawyers. That's how we can help the Afghan government serve its people and develop an economy that isn't dominated by elicit drugs.” That is, the president plans a large increase in the number of civilian, particularly State Department, personnel to do much of the nation-building required for a stable Afghanistan; an Afghanistan whose government is reasonably free of corruption and can dominate the Taliban and Al Qaeda elements now controlling much of the country. Right now, the governments of both Afghanistan and Pakistan are corrupt and weak.

  An emerging theme in all of the president’s initiatives is the coupling of them to governmental processes and practices that root out waste, fraud and abuse. Obama put it this way:

  “As we provide these resources, the days of unaccountable spending, no-bid contracts, and wasteful reconstruction must end. So my budget will increase funding for a strong inspector general at both State Department and USAID, and include robust funding for special inspector generals for Afghan reconstruction.”

  I go into all this in some detail because it all has implications for the broader questions of how and to what degree DOD will use contractors in the next several years, whether its contracting mechanisms are up to the support tasks needed for Afghanistan, and whether current and planned systems map to future warfare in which the U.S. will engage.

  The upshot: DOD staff will need to think about, plan and shape programs differently. For at least the past decade, the armed services have been shedding people who do software coding in favor of contractors. The acquisition staff size is smaller than 10 years ago, and since then DOD expenditures have doubled. So, many software-intensive systems, FCS being the poster child, have gone off the rails in terms of schedule and budget, to say nothing of the lack of requirements discipline. And when they do, their value as programs in the first place is questioned. In an interview on Federal News Radio retired Army Col. Doug Macgregor, now a consultant, called FCS a disaster. His voice is one of many.

  Answers to manpower needs and priorities won’t come from the ranks of career employees in DOD. Those decisions must come from the political leadership.

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• Stimulus Is Proving To Be a Bracing Activity for Agency Managers

  How do you spend half a trillion dollars? How about responsibly. Accountably. Fast. If those sound like incompatible goals, well, tough. Figure out how to do it.

  At least, these are the marching orders agencies are getting from the Office of Management and Budget. There’s an old axiom engineers like to trot out, when asked to make a system better, faster and cheaper. They answer, “Pick any two.”

  Unfortunately, agencies receiving stimulus money don’t have that rejoinder to fall back on. Neither do they have sufficient staff to carry out the spending guides accompanying the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 – especially not when they are enmeshed in the details of the 2010 budget planning, are working with many political positions still unfilled, and under pressure not to outsource.

  Vice President Joe Biden can do all the finger-wagging he wants, but you can’t push a string uphill. So, what is the state of stimulus spending?

  My queries to half a dozen departments and agencies found no one willing to talk about their plans. Even the big contractors who help agencies with program execution haven’t really had time to develop stimulus specialists, in part because promised, deeper detail on rules and regulations still haven’t come out of OMB. And who wants to stick their neck out, now knowing what changes might come, for example, to circular A-123?

  GovExec reported earlier this month that in a group of 11 initial contracts using stimulus money, several were flawed, including some that might have been awarded without competition.

  On the progress front, nearly all agencies now have stimulus buttons on their home page to tell visitors about their stimulus activities, as required. And most have appointed stimulus overseers.

  But the money is not flowing in a big way for the most part. One reason is that stimulus spending must tie into an overarching Obama administration litmus test for all government programs: Can the results be measured and proven to further the goals of the program? Under stimulus, agency managers face the added requirement that funded projects fulfill the goals of the ARRA itself – helping economic recovery, creating jobs, and investing in priorities of the future. It’s a tall order.

  Still, agency managers have some guidance that works in their favor. Stimulus money can be spent on existing programs, so long as the other criteria are met and the money can be tracked separately. And it can use existing contracting vehicles, as long as they are used in a competitive fashion. Housing and Urban Development used existing programs and grantees for its $13 billion in stimulus money. Commerce is using some of its money to make more money available for digital television converter boxes.

  Do these projects create or save jobs? Invest in the technological future? That’s for others to judge. But they do get the money out fast and in an accountable fashion.

  Like the engineers say, you can pick two.

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• Flux In The Technology Vendor World Will Mean Different Choices

  A recent visit to IBM’s U.S. home page displayed a picture of cattle grazing in a huge pasture, with electrical transmission towers along the distant horizon. The headline: From farm to store, Norwegians want to know where the beef is. Subhead: “Find out how traceability makes for smarter food supplies.”

  Whether the photo was a big Photoshop concoction or a real picture, I couldn’t quite tell. (I’d put my money on Photoshop. Clue: The shadows are wrong.) But the impression was startling. This is IBM?

  Then I went to Microsoft.com. It showed three cell phones running Windows Mobile. The headlines over the phones: “Lost again?” “All thumbs?” “Work remotely?” I also found links to Microsoft Virtualization and Office Live Workspace, its cloud computing offering.

  Over at Cisco.com, I found a video about the Cisco Unified Computing System, partly an elaborate announcement of the company’s foray into, yes, Intel-based servers, but also a way of describing what Cisco sees as the future of enterprise computing.

  Well, IBM still makes mainframes, Microsoft still publishes Office, and Cisco still churns out networking hardware.

  But clearly, the actions of these influential technology suppliers show the IT industry is fundamentally changing.

  What’s going on in the IT vendor base? Its business models are shifting as more computing tasks move to networks and away from desktops or server rooms. In a sense, the PC revolution is coming full circle, to where the last thing the average knowledge worker needs or should want – whether in the office or at home – is a hard drive holding local software. By full circle, I mean back to the mainframe, only to a mainframe concept that is radically more flexible than ever before.

  The federal government, in its ongoing process of server consolidation at one level and data center consolidation at a level up, is partially in tune to what is going on.

  Users don’t need computers. They need information. The appeal of cloud computing is that someone else worries about the complexities of storage, security, scalability, access management and software maintenance. Microsoft senses the end of days when organizations will want to buy thousands of copies of office suite software. IBM senses the need for organizations to buy solution services rather than complicated software development projects. And Cisco wants to capitalize on the economies that will flow from consolidating clusters of servers and nests of network hardware into computing utilities that simplify service delivery for customers.

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