Corey McCarren's Blog Posts Tagged 'tech' (85)

With the creation of the 'Texts from Hillary' photoblog on tumblr, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received a massive public relations boost this past week. The images show a hip Clinton texting celebrities and politicians, from Jay-Z and …

Library use is blooming in the US – but not necessarily because of books. As a tough economy makes jobs scarce and amenities like Internet too pricey for some, the resources libraries offer becomes a blessing. DorobekINSIDER’s Chris Dorobek spoke with Larry Eichel, Project Director…

To promote open government, students at the Honors College Think Tank on Transparency and Privacy at the University of Utah recently studied 16 local governments in Utah to determine best practices for keeping local government open. The results of the study will be officially released at a press conference on Wednesday, April 11th. Their work was supported by organizations such as the Sunlight Foundation, which promotes open government by …

New data from the Sunshine Review suggests that the Internet is helping increase transparency in government. Just four years ago, in 2010, only 41 public organizations out of over 5,000 which were part of a study received an A grade in terms of web transparency. Today, 214 government websites can say they have an A grade. The grade is reserved for websites which meet at least 9 out of 10 requirements on a transparency checklist. Kristin McMurray, Managing Editor for the Sunshine…

The second session I attended at FOSE 2012, Anytime, Anywhere: Expanded Opportunities for the Workforce, featured panelists Darren Ash from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Rob Burton from Venable LLP, Woody Hall from General Dynamics Information Technology, and Bill Kilgore from Savanah River Nuclear Solutions.

This panel focused on the bring your own device (BYOD) phenomenon and how to bridge the gap between it…

Today I attended FOSE 2012. The first session I attended, What the Research Shows: The Future of Mobile, featured panelists David Metcalf from the University of Central Florida and Aaron Smith from the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Both had interesting ideas on where mobile is - and where it's headed.

According to the panelists, smartphone owners currently comprise roughly half of all cell-phone owners, with the rest of the mobile population owning "dumb" or feature…

On GovLoop I've read plenty of anecdotes about cities getting involved in social media, from a local Department of Transportation that responds to inquiries on Twitter to a local power authority dealing with its namesake being used on social. But what cities are best at social media? A study by the University of Chicago recently took charge of answering this question by releasing a study ranking the top social cities. The top ten ranking cities were:

1. New York — 93.33…

Statistically, 2011 was the year of the hacktivist according to a Verizon report. The report, which analyzed 855 databreaches worldwide that occurred in 2011, concluded that more than 100 million of the 174 million records compromised was the work of hacktivists rather than those seeking profit. In contrast, only 3% of the attacks were traceable to known hacktivist groups, meaning hacktivism is responsible for the vast majority of compromised data. An executive summary of the report…

An article on Mashable reports that Facebook has decided that it's time to take a stand against employers who insist on logging into applicants Facebook accounts. The practice is against Facebooks Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. Chief Privacy Officer for Facebook Erin Egan, who released the statement affirming Facebook's commitment to fighting this practice, had this to…

Consolidation of services and streamlined systems are a good thing, and usually cut costs. But what if the project costs billions? New York City has consolidated its emergency call-taking system, a project that began in 2004, and was implemented this month, 7 years behind schedule. It was also $1 billion over-budget. Contract managers for the project allegedly took kickbacks and overbilled the project, leading to a $500 million dollar settlement to avoid a criminal complaint from the U.S.…

With new technology constantly emerging, I often find myself Googleing what exactly the latest hi-tech term means, and I'm certainly not alone.  The Global Language Monitor, a media analytics company which tracks language trends,determines a yearly list of the most confusing hi-tech jargon, which is presented at the SXSW Conference. The list is determined using an algorithm they created, and the list of the most confusing terms since 2010, presented at this years SXSW, is as…

Hacktivist collective Anonymous has been a persistent pain to government agencies and private companies alike for the past few years; after a 2011 full of attacks, that trend doesn’t appear to be slowing. To learn more about how Anonymous works, we spoke with Rob Rachwald, Director of Security Strategy at Imperva.

Attacks by Anonymous are often simple Distributed Denial of Service Attacks (DDoS) where they overload a server with requests, causing it to either crash or slow to the…

California Assemblyman Mike Gatto, while looking for ways to ease the hassles of life on Californians, has authored a bill allowing for proof of insurance and auto registration to be presented via mobile device when pulled over. If signed into law the bill would make life easier because many young Californians, according to Gatto, pay for insurance on a monthly basis; that means a renewed proof of insurance every month. Instead of needing the physical documents handy, Californians could just…

Technology and the courts are clashing in a big way. At the same time that we see court systems trying to take advantage of technology to increase transparency, we also see that same technology eroding the process. Karen Eltis, a professor at the University of Ottawa Law School and author of Courts, Litigants and the Digital Age, gave more insight into this growing…

Carbon Motors, a company looking to create the ideal police car from scratch, was denied a loan by the Department of Energy to fund the continued development of the vehicle. It stands apart from police vehicles currently seen on the road as it is not now, nor was it ever a passenger sedan. Instead, the car is designed explicitly for police business. The company, which has shown its concept vehicle at shows, has already had 500 orders for the cars.…

In order to have a strong cyber-security team, government agencies need experts with the skills and education that are up to the task, right? Not so, said several panelists at the AFCEA Homeland Security Conference in Washington, D.C. Olivia Carroll, Director of the Cybercrime Lab for the U.S. Department of Justice said she believes that government must look beyond social stigmas and norms to find the best people for cybersecurity. That includes high school and college…

Driverless cars are quickly becoming more of a reality, with some car makers already employing technology such a assisted parallel parking into their vehicles. It is becoming so much of a reality that California State Senator Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima) introduced legislation Thursday (3/1/2012) that would regulate autonomous vehicles in the state. About why the bill is necessary now, Padilla said:

"We’re living in an era of Moore’s Law (…

Estimates in a new report by federal IT professionals are that tablet use for government work will almost triple by 2013. That would be an increase from 7% of federal workers using tablets for work to 19%. The report claims that the increased use of tablets could add $2.6 billion worth of labor hours in productivity. Also, use of smartphones for federal work is projected to rise from 35% to 43%. These numbers imply that the government will have to supply 533,000 tablets and 355,000…

There's been a lot of talk lately on GovLoop about potential federal pay freezes, employee reductions, and increases in the amount workers must pay into retirement funds. To increase awareness about the proposals, the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) has compiled a list of bills aimed at accomplishing the goals listed above. According to the NTEU, most of the bills are sponsored by Republicans. Because of this, the union plans to back Democrats running for Congress this election…

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