Tech

GovBytes: Students Learn Civics from an Online Game

I remember learning two things from video games in the classroom: how to sell lemonade and make it through the Oregon Trail. Today, students are learning about civics with a new game called Counties Work, designed to increase knowledge of county government. In the game, players act as an elected county decision maker, choosing howRead… Read more »

Follow the money — federal government style. An inside look at the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act

Do more with less — but how do you get there if you don’t know what you’re spending in the first place. That is one of the big challenges facing federal agencies. In fact, they’ve been facing that challenge for some time.
The House of Representatives has approved a bill requiring the government to clearly showRead… Read more »

Free Yourself from the Tyranny of Sharepoint

Sharepoint is a plague upon the American workforce. This ubiquitous piece of collaboration software has taught millions of people that Intranets are destined to be places where you can’t find anything. It doesn’t have to be this way, despite what Microsoft may have you believe. There are alternatives to Sharepoint that actually work in waysRead… Read more »

Update on Splunk Live DC: 15 May 2012

Splunk Live DC will be held Tuesday 15 May 2012 at the Ronald Reagan center in downtown DC. This will be a great event to exchange lessons learned on the use of Splunk capabilities for Big Data analysis. Lessons learned and use cases on government related topics will be a key feature. The agenda includesRead… Read more »

CTO Security Weekly

This week Ustream gets an injection of political reality, Apple fixes a critical encryption blunder affecting some of its users, FBI documents are leaked detailing their worries over Bitcoin digital currency, and Anonymous takes down more Governmental websites as part of its ongoing operations. UStream Targeted by Advanced Distributed Denial of Service: UStream was theRead… Read more »

Possible China Connection in Cyber Attacks on Pipelines, Defense Industrial Base Pilot Made Permanent, and More

Here is today’s federal cybersecurity and information technology news: Current attacks against the networks controlling US natural gas pipelines are similar to earlier attacks believed to be by China. More here. The Department of Defense is making its trial program to work with Internet service providers to protect defense firms against foreign data theft permanent,Read… Read more »

Jennifer Pahlka: Coding a Better Government

Jennifer Pahlka of Code for America has a brilliant TED discussion. Can government be run like the Internet, permissionless and open? Coder and activist Jennifer Pahlka believes it can — and that apps, built quickly and cheaply, are a powerful new way to connect citizens to their governments — and their neighbors. Filed under: Bureaucracy,Read… Read more »

Big Data: Are You Ready?

We love buzz words in government. Cloud, SOA, and now Big Data. There is certainly a lot of hype around the buzz. “Keeping Afloat in a Sea of ‘Big Data”, ITBusinessEdge, “The promise of Big Data” Intelligent Utility, and “The challenge-and opportunity-of big data” are just a few of the headlines contributing to the bigRead… Read more »