Government Executive - Authors - Luba Vangelova

Agencies Paying for PC Power

Luba Vangelova — Mon, 01 Jun 1998 00:00:00 -0400

he federal government's desktop computer purchases are as varied as the government offices that make the purchases. "There's no typical configuration" for federal desktop computers, says Ashok Mehan, president of SMAC Data Systems, a computer maker based in Gaithersburg, Md. "Each agency has different needs and a different information technology infrastructure." The differences depend less on whether the customer is from the defense or civilian sectors, or from a large or a small agency, and more on their particular workload requirements, vendors report.

Thanks in part to the growing popularity of purchasing desktop computers from General Services Administration schedules instead of through IDIQ (indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity) contracts, federal customers are more in line with commercial buying trends. In the past, "if something was popular in the commercial sector six to nine months ago, it might just now be catching on" with the government, says Felice Liston, executive director of federal sales for Micron Electronics Inc. of Nampa, Idaho. "But with the way purchase vehicles are structured now, we're seeing [government customers] buy newer, fresher technology much faster."

Federal spending per desktop computer has "remained fairly constant over the years," says Phil Kennett, general manager for Digital Equipment Corp.'s Federal Personal Systems Group in Greenbelt, Md. But because computer prices have decreased so much, he adds, "the user can now get a lot more capability for that expenditure."

The federal government spent about $1.2 billion on desktop computers in fiscal 1996, according to IDC Government, a Falls Church, Va., market research firm. That figure will remain almost constant through fiscal 2001. "It's a pretty flat market," says Payton Smith, an IDC Government research analyst. "Everyone in the federal government who wants a desktop PC already has a desktop PC, so the only computers being sold are computers that are replacing existing computers," he says. Meanwhile, federal downsizing is reducing the government's workforce and therefore shrinking the number of potential computer users.

According to IDC Government, the top PC brands in the federal marketplace in fiscal 1996 were Dell Computer Corp., Gateway 2000, Zenith Data Systems, Compaq Computer Corp. and IBM Corp.

Buying Patterns

Although many vendors report that federal purchases reflect their entire range of offerings, some buying patterns have emerged. For example, there is an overwhelming preference for mini-tower computers that can sit on the floor as opposed to desktop models that take up valuable desk space. Government Technology Services Inc. (GTSI), a Chantilly, Va., reseller, reports that 95 percent of its federal desktop computer customers choose mini-towers.

Paradoxically, despite their complaints about shrinking desk work areas, federal buyers are opting for larger monitors with higher resolutions. This is especially true for customers who use graphics-based software applications, according to Kennett. Partly due to a drop in monitor prices over the last couple of years, most units sold to the federal government-up to 90 percent in the case of some vendors-measure 17 inches.

The preferred hard drive storage capacities are also increasing, due both to significant price drops and increasing user expectations. "The federal government is demanding as much as we can deliver," Kennett says. "We can't make them bigger fast enough."

"Three- to six-gigabyte [hard drives] seem to be the standard," adds Mark Thoreson, a GTSI sales manager. Vendors report that their more power-hungry users are ordering hard drives with as much as eight or nine gigabytes of storage. The buyer sentiment seems to be, "Make sure I don't run short," Thoreson says. This despite the fact that most users are connected to networks that provide massive storage on their servers, he adds.

The cost of RAM (random access memory), used by software applications while they're running, has also decreased. Although today's standard computer configurations include 32 megabytes of RAM, many users are choosing to upgrade to 64 megabytes. And buyers planning to work on high-end graphics are adding even more memory, bringing their RAM up to as much as 128 megabytes.

In the processor arena, Intel Corp. has the federal market cornered. The company's Pentium II chips are supplanting its regular Pentium chips in popularity. SMAC's Mehan cautions that "regular Pentiums are a dead-end investment because the Pentium IIs use all new technology." Typically requested chip clock speeds (a familiar, though not the only, measure of performance) fall between 233 and 333 megahertz.

The customer's budget may drive buying decisions, but the preference is clearly for high-end systems. "Federal government users are in the business of manipulating vast amounts of data, so they have a huge requirement for speed and power," says Rocky Mountain, Dell's federal marketing manager. "Their choice will be to get the latest, greatest technology."

"They'll buy the most they can for the amount of money" they've allotted, says Micron's Liston, "even if they don't necessarily at this point need all [of that machine's] capabilities. They understand that technology moves so fast that if they get as much as they can for their money now, it will hopefully decrease their total cost of ownership in the future. They won't have to turn that machine around so quickly because it won't become so outdated." Among federal agencies, the Defense Department in particular tends to have a higher interest in acquiring the newest, fastest technology, according to several computer vendors.

Popular Add-Ons

Some peripheral devices such as CD-ROM drives have become so popular they are now automatically included in most machines. Other items that are frequently requested as add-ons are modems (especially internal 56-kilobytes-per-second modems), PC-card readers, graphics cards, video cards and network interface cards (if a computer is to be part of a network). Some companies also report a growing interest in DVD (digital versatile disk) drives. Customers "want to order everything they need from day one," says Digital's Kennett.

Many federal buyers are also buying pre-installed software-operating systems such as Microsoft's Windows 95 or application software such as one of the Microsoft Office suites. Customers "seem to be telling us that they want the information technology industry to perform some of the preparation activities and that they're looking for an operable system when it comes in the door," Kennett says. "They don't want to tie up their manpower" with such tasks, he adds.

SMAC's Mehan says that for price reasons, some of his company's customers, most notably the Navy, are buying all their software directly from software companies. "I haven't seen that [buying pattern] proliferate widely in the civilian sector, but I see that's the order to come, at least for commercial, off-the-shelf software," he says. In some cases, customers who buy software separately are nevertheless asking hardware vendors or systems integrators to load that software and custom-arrange their computer desktops.

In addition to insisting on year 2000 compliance, federal computer buyers also increasingly ask for Desktop Management Interface (DMI) compliance, to make it easier for remote systems administrators to perform desktop support tasks without having to visit each individual machine on a network. "Information technology shops continue to shrink, so there are less people to support more machines," says GTSI's Thoreson. "It's a convenience they're willing to pay for."

Warranty policies and other support services are also factored into buying decisions, as federal users increasingly look at the total cost of ownership rather than just the initial purchase price of a machine.

PC Alternatives

Network computers-bare-bones machines, sometimes without hard drives, that rely on other computers on their networks for most software and storage needs-have had little impact on the federal desktop computer marketplace. Buyers are instead taking advantage of decreasing prices that allow them to purchase robust systems for about $1,500. Most federal sales fall in the range of about $1,200 to $2,000 per PC.

Portable computers, on the other hand, have made a dent in the desktop computer marketplace. IDC Government predicts their numbers in the federal sector will increase 10 percent annually between fiscal 1996 and fiscal 2001. "One reason is that people are using them as desktop replacements," says IDC Government's Smith. "They're not very much more expensive, they're just as capable, and they have the added bonus of portability. They've reached the price point where the portability factor becomes worth the extra money."

The price difference between roughly comparable desktop and portable computers is now less than $1,000, according to Jim Connal, Gateway 2000's director of federal sales. "Price is one function of the value equation, along with functionality, power and the screen [quality]," Connal says. "No one wants to go to a desktop replacement and lose anything." Gateway 2000's top-of-the-line portable computer features up to six gigabytes of storage on the hard drive, up to 192 megabytes of RAM and a 14.1-inch screen.

Increasing worker mobility and higher numbers of telecommuting employees are also driving sales of portable computers. Gary Newgaard, Compaq's director of federal sales and marketing, has also noticed interest in using portable computers as desktop computer replacements among mid- or upper-level managers who either travel long distances or frequently move around their facilities or attend meetings elsewhere in town. The availability of portable computer docking stations-which usually provide a regular-sized keyboard, a larger monitor, a mouse and network connectivity-also is driving the market. About 65 percent to 70 percent of Compaq's federal portable computer buyers also purchase a docking station.

Future Outlook

"A trend I see coming is the LCD flat panel monitor," says Lawrence Hamm, vice president of marketing and contracts for Intelligent Decisions, a computer manufacturer, reseller and systems integrator in Chantilly, Va. "Now they're probably still price-prohibitive, but we'll see users' [preferences] moving" in that direction. Hard drive prices will also continue to drop, according to industry representatives. By the end of the year, users will be able to purchase five- or six-gigabyte hard drives for the same price as today's three- to four-gigabyte hard drives, according to SMAC's Mehan.

Processors are changing too. Intel's recent release of faster Pentium II processors (with clock speeds of 350 and 400 megahertz) and a new bus technology are bound to change buying trends, says GTSI's Thoreson, creating two "distinctly different classes of computer . . . whose parts won't necessarily interchange. There will be lots of heartburn when it comes to upgrade time."

The computers at the low end of the spectrum will sell for less than $500, according to industry observers. And prices across the range will continue to drop. "Whatever yesterday sold for $1,200, today will sell for $1,000 and tomorrow for $800," Mehan says.

Luba Vangelova is a Washington-area freelance journalist.

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Imaging Tools Cut the Paper Trail

Luba Vangelova — Mon, 01 Dec 1997 00:00:00 -0500

he new millennium's first major census will take place in 2000, and for the first time in its history, the Census Bureau will rely on technology to read entire survey response forms. The bureau's ambitious goal is to process 1.4 billion forms in 100 days, with an accuracy rate of 98 percent.

High-speed scanners will convert the forms into electronic images. The images then will pass through a gantlet of software applications that will extract data by reading bar codes, check marks, handwriting and printed text. Finally the data will be automatically filed as database records.

Proponents of imaging technology,hardware and software that convert paper documents into computer-compatible digital versions,see a lot riding on the $49 million Data Capture System 2000 project, which will tackle one of the country's largest paper processing tasks. "We're all hoping that a success story like Census will help convince the nonbelievers" that software can effectively and accurately interpret handwriting and process forms, says Tom Polivka, director of government sales for Associated Solutions Inc. of Dallas, which will provide the forms processing software for the census project. The Census Bureau expects that automating the process will help reduce the time and cost of data capture and increase accuracy.

Regardless of that project's outcome, the paperless office that marketers describe is very likely a pipe dream. "We seem to be a society that likes paper," says William Bass, a project manager at SRA International Inc., an Arlington, Va., systems integrator. Paper remains popular thanks to its portability and ease of use. But imaging technology and the applications it enables,most notably electronic document management and workflow systems,are helping many government agencies handle so-called paperwork tasks more efficiently: some Veterans Affairs hospitals now rely on electronic medical charts; organizations such as the Immigration and Naturalization Service process Freedom of Information Act requests electronically; the Air Force, the Customs Service and others are publishing and distributing some documents on CD-ROM instead of paper; and the Defense Technical Information Center relies on an electronic filing system for its reports, just to name a few examples.

Such applications are becoming more common, and analysts expect growth in federal imaging use to continue. Input, a Vienna, Va., market research firm, projects that the federal imaging market, which it estimated to be worth $970 million in fiscal 1996, is growing by 15 percent a year. (By comparison, it says the total federal information technology budget is growing slightly more than 4 percent a year). At this rate, the federal imaging market will reach almost $2 billion in fiscal 2001.

Technology Is Improving

Imaging technology can be implemented on a variety of scales, from a scanner and software used with one personal computer to multimillion-dollar custom-designed systems for an entire agency. A growing acceptance of commercial, off-the-shelf solutions is bringing costs down. A prevailing trend is to bypass custom-built systems in favor of integrating best-of-breed components, which fall into four categories: document capture, storage management, document management and workflow.

The document capture component encompasses the conversion of printed materials into usable electronic data and the loading of the data into databases or other software applications. Image-enabled forms processing systems such as the one Census will deploy fall into this category.

A scanner often is used to digitize paper documents, although faxes and digital cameras also can capture some types of information electronically. Scanners often come bundled with image processing software that cleans up images (de-skewing them, for example) or that converts images of type or handwriting into editable text. Optical character recognition and intelligent character recognition software has become better at recognizing printed type and various handwriting styles, respectively.

Low-end scanners from companies such as Visioneer Inc. sell for less than $200, and price-to-performance ratios continue to improve. Hybrid machines called multifunction peripherals combine scanning, faxing, copying and printing and are expected to become even more capable, managing documents and incorporating features such as videoconferencing, for example.

To make employees working with electronic documents more comfortable and productive, many organizations supply them with large (17- to 21-inch) monitors that offer better resolution than standard monitors and that allow employees to view one or two entire documents without the need to scroll. Such displays, made by Cornerstone Imaging Inc. and other companies, have become less expensive and take up less desk space than in the past.

Electronic documents inevitably require less storage space than their paper counterparts, and electronic storage options are becoming cheaper and offering higher capacities. The most popular image storage choices are nonerasable WORM (write once, read many) optical disks and erasable magneto-optical disks, collected in jukeboxes. CD-ROM technology is gaining in popularity as an inexpensive way to store and distribute documents, thanks to inexpensive recording hardware. DVDs (digital versatile discs) are another optical storage medium that some analysts expect to gain acceptance and drive down storage costs. Magnetic hard disks offer the fastest possible access. Falling prices are making RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) storage popular.

Storage management software tracks files and moves them among storage media.

Electronic Filing

Most federal imaging users apply the technology to electronic filing and retrieval systems. Electronic filing can improve productivity and reduce costs. It takes less time to find, handle, re-file and route electronic documents, because the software does much of the work. Also, electronic document images can be sorted, cross-referenced and reconfigured into new documents.

The Transportation Department realized many of these benefits when it implemented an image-based docket management system. The agency had stored legal dockets in "huge, heavy binders" for about six decades, says Charlotte S. Boeck, administrative officer in Transportation's Office of General Counsel. The binders had to be stored on-site for five to 10 years. "We had ceiling to floor paper," she says.

Today, those same documents are scanned and stored on optical disks, and the paper is sent to a cheaper off-site storage facility. Boeck says the lawyers aren't yet willing to throw out the paper copies. "In five years, when we scan, we'll throw away [the paper]," Boeck says. "People just have to get comfortable" with the idea.

The new system has made the documents staff more productive, reducing the number of employees from 25 to 14. The agency also has improved its public service by posting documents on the World Wide Web. The Transportation Department allows other agencies to use its image-based system on a fee basis.

An Enabling Technology

More and more organizations are seeking larger productivity gains than electronic file-and-retrieve or forms processing systems can offer, coupling imaging with software that allows them to manage documents or to make entire business processes more efficient.

"We see a change in the model away from an imaging system to imaging as a capability," says Nathaniel Palmer, a consultant with Delphi Consulting Group Inc. in Boston. Agencies are increasingly using imaging technology as part of business process reengineering, rather than stand-alone functions, according to Input's 1996 study of the federal market.

Document management systems allow organizations to automate document storage, tracking, version control, indexing and searching. These systems offer better document protection and management, plus faster access to documents. They can also provide an audit trail of document use and alteration.

Workflow technology, on the other hand, helps automate the routing of documents. Some systems on the market combine imaging, document management and workflow. Document management or workflow software, or both, are available from such companies as FileNet Corp., PC Docs Inc. and Eastman Software Inc., among others.

Future Direction

Organizations may realize even more impressive productivity gains with software that successfully integrates all their computer-based document systems. "A lot of vendors are saying they have this, but no one has really done it yet," says Mason Grigsby, a partner at Imerge Consulting in San Francisco. Imaging companies also are rushing to exploit the Internet, which holds a lot of promise for distributing information. Companies such as Optika Imaging Systems Inc. have introduced software that allows users to view their office's imaged documents from any computer via the World Wide Web. But the technology to allow users to manipulate documents across the Internet is still evolving.

Although a lack of interoperability standards has hampered the growth of imaging, today a range of standards are in various stages of development and use, and analysts agree that the only direction for imaging and related technologies to go is up. "It's not to the point that imaging is on every desktop, despite the potential," Palmer says. "I see that happening down the road."

An up-front requirements study should show departments whether an imaging-based system will be cost-effective or not. "You should know what you want to accomplish when you finish. Otherwise it becomes an expensive toy," SRA's Bass cautions.

Luba Vangelova is a Washington-area freelance journalist.

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GIS Puts Information on the Map

Luba Vangelova — Wed, 01 Oct 1997 00:00:00 -0400

ne challenge in reducing urban welfare rolls is that many welfare recipients live in the inner cities, while the bulk of entry-level job vacancies are in the suburbs. To see how well existing public transport could accommodate welfare recipients wanting to commute to suburban jobs, the Transportation Department turned to a geographic information system (GIS).

Simultaneously displaying on a computer screen the locations of welfare recipients, entry-level jobs and public transit systems on a map of Boston (chosen as the prototype site) showed that "there's still a tremendous disparity," says Bruce Spear, director of the Office of Geographic Information Services in DOT's Bureau of Transportation Statistics. "When you see it on a map and see clusters of people who have very good access to transportation from where they live, but the potential jobs have no access to transit, it really brings home that issue. A map is worth a thousand words."

This prototype project is just one example of the many new uses the federal government has found for geographic information systems, software and hardware that assembles, stores, manipulates and displays geographically referenced information. The government has been using GIS for more than a quarter century, but for much of that time it was a specialized field applied to only a few areas, such as land management and research. In the last several years, the technology has evolved into a tool that even casual users can apply to a wide set of applications.

The federal government invested $254 million in software, hardware and services from GIS industry vendors in 1996, according to Daratech Inc., a Cambridge, Mass., market research firm. That figure represents a 10 percent increase over 1995 expenditures. Unlike in the past, government is favoring small-scale GIS projects over large procurements and relying more on commercial, off-the-shelf GIS products.

A Changing Landscape

Several factors have contributed to the growing use of GIS in both the government and industry. Personal computer prices have dropped even as more powerful PCs-which are better able to process large graphics files-have entered the market. (GIS vendors have responded by making more products for Windows NT computers.) More efficient data storage media such as CD-ROMs are available, and the growing use of the Internet has made it an effective distribution method.

Users also have less need to go to the expense of collecting or creating their own data, because many commercial companies now sell geospatial data. Commercial satellites and the prevalence of global positioning systems (GPS) will further increase the availability of high-resolution, high-precision imagery.

New Internet GIS tools are expected within the next year. "There's the promise of being able to access data directly over the Internet, not just downloading an entire database," says Transportation's Spear. On their own computers, Spear says, users will be able to view "a map consisting of databases sitting on different [computers] across the nation. It offers tremendous potential for being able to share data."

Another important new development is the ability to work with spatial data in a relational database environment. Both Oracle Corp. and Informix Software Inc. now offer products that make it possible to manage standard and geospatial data types within the same databases.

"The nature of GIS is changing," says Greg Smith, geographic sciences adviser to the National Imagery and Mapping Agency. "It's getting away from the notion of large software systems . . . [and moving toward] geospatial capabilities that people can integrate on their own or with other types of applications, such as spreadsheets and word processors." This is placing GIS-type technology "into the hands of many, many people, for many different applications," Smith says.

Federal GIS Use

"For the last 10 to 15 years, what the government was primarily doing [with GIS technology] was creating spatial databases using GIS tools," says Dana Paxson, federal marketing group coordinator at Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc. (ESRI), a leading GIS vendor based in Redlands, Calif. Now agencies are focusing on how they can use GIS tools to disseminate and manage that data, Paxson says.

Agencies have also become more aware of the benefits of sharing data across an enterprise or among different departments and levels of government. The Housing and Urban Development Department, for example, sends GIS software to its local grantees to help them make better informed decisions regarding community development and how best to allocate federal funds. And the Environmental Protection Agency is one of many agencies taking advantage of the Internet by combining its Envirofacts relational database (containing data about EPA-regulated facilities) with a GIS database. The result, called "Maps on Demand," allows World Wide Web users to see regulated facilities in the context of surrounding geographic features. Providing this information through the Internet has saved EPA staff the research time necessary to fulfill each request for information.

Federal GIS applications cover a broad spectrum: the Library of Congress is assembling a GIS application for users interested in studying environmental or other changes, giving them access to digitized historic maps; the Federal Emergency Management Agency uses GIS technology to help guide disaster recovery efforts; and the Justice Department is using GIS to track crime patterns, just to name a few examples. The Defense Department is the most aggressive federal GIS user, ESRI's Paxson says. DoD has applied the technology to tasks as diverse as managing base-level activities, tracking unexploded mines and even negotiating diplomatic settlements.

The use of GIS for diplomacy spotlights a growing user group: high-level decision-makers. GIS technology is "moving more into the resource management and decision-making realm," says Clifford Greve, vice president/director of imagery and remote sensing systems for Science Applications International Corp., a systems integrator with offices in McLean, Va. The policy use has become more prevalent because the technology is now "more available in near real-time," Greve says. These users "don't need to know the ins and outs of the technology, but just need that spatial data to make quick decisions," Paxson says.

Outlook and Obstacles

The cost of GIS technology is much less of a deterrent than it once was, and the investment in GIS differs markedly among users. Most Transportation Department agencies, for example, have "some GIS capability," Spear says, but "most are fairly limited," relying on perhaps "two workstations running desktop mapping software." The minimum level of investment is "one relatively high-powered desktop computer, a desktop GIS software package, and probably a color printer, all of which you can get for less than $10,000," Spear says. Comprehensive high-end GIS systems cost more by several orders of magnitude.

"The investment from a hardware and software point of view is continually dropping," Greve says. "The real question one has to ask is whether the data is available and can be purchased. . . . Data is far and away the largest cost of any GIS system." Sources of data may be multiplying, but it's still no small task to "develop a nationwide database at the level of resolution [necessary] to support a nationwide decision-maker," Greve says. "The challenge that lies in front of federal agencies now," he adds, "is how to settle on a level of resolution and detail that is maintainable, given budgets."

Because GIS technology has only recently begun gaining a wide user base, many federal users aren't yet taking full advantage of the technology. At the Transportation Department, for example, GIS technology "could be used much more extensively to go beyond presentations, to do more detailed spatial analysis," Spear says. Models of how systems change over time can be built into GIS applications to allow "what-if" scenario evaluations.

Another hurdle is the inefficiency of working with data that was collected with another vendor's tools. Fortunately, there appears to be progress in this area: the Open GIS Consortium, a group of about 100 companies, government agencies and universities organized to promote open systems approaches in the GIS arena, unveiled an interface specification in August. This was the first of many specifications the group plans to develop in order to ensure users will have transparent access to a variety of geospatial data and processing resources in a networked environment. A few so-called plug-and-play components that can integrate seamlessly with each other and with non-GIS software have recently begun appearing on the market, offered by companies such as ESRI and Intergraph Corp. of Huntsville, Ala., another leading GIS vendor.

Several government initiatives also are intended to help the government make better use of GIS technology and to avoid duplication of effort through better coordination. A 1994 executive order established the idea of a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), encompassing geospatial data activities both within and outside the government. The interagency Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), chaired by the Interior Secretary, was given the responsibility of promoting the NSDI. Its tasks include establishing standards and making geospatial data more widely available.

The FGDC has already released a standard for metadata, which is information about data, used to determine the contents and quality of a data set. The committee is now working on standards for different data types. The FGDC also established the National Geospatial Data Clearinghouse, a network of data producers and users on the Internet. Federal agencies are required to list new data with the clearinghouse and to check the clearinghouse before collecting data, in case another group already possesses it.

While admitting that GIS can't be expected to solve all of an agency's problems, industry experts and end users see a bright future ahead for the technology and its applications. "In the future, you will find the ability to spatially reference information a lot easier and more prevalent," Smith says.

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Comic Strip Tease

Luba Vangelova — Sun, 01 Jun 1997 00:00:00 -0400

balding, barrel-chested manager enters a conference room and announces, "I've got an idea!" His employees simultaneously think: "We're doomed." Prelude to a recent Commerce Department meeting, perhaps? Or a meeting at the EPA? Or the IRS? None of the above: It's the opening panel of a Dilbert comic strip. But any federal employee who has survived a management fad can discern apocalyptic hoofbeats behind an idea-bearing manager. So an entirely believable answer would have been all of the above, which helps explain why Dilbert is so popular with government workers. And why managers can learn a thing or two from the comic strip.

Dilbert captures the '90s workplace Zeitgeist-the struggle for sanity amidst mission statements, pseudo-empowerment schemes, perpetual reorganizations and seemingly random buzzwords. Dilbert and his cubicle-dwelling co-workers play their part in this theater of the absurd, voicing the daily frustrations of the multitudes.

If thumbtacks are scarce in federal supply cabinets, it's because they've been used up by employees posting Dilbert comics on cubicle walls and bulletin boards.

"In my office, we all tend to think [Dilbert creator Scott Adams] really worked at the IRS," says Terry Weaver, an IRS acquisitions manager in Falls Church, Va. "It feels like the events in the strip happened right here." For example, like Dilbert characters, "we seem to spend more time trying to figure out time-keeping codes for our work than doing something productive," Weaver says.

Dilbert's company also undergoes that familiar federal exercise-reorganization. To fit the occasion, Dilbert's boss even introduces a new dress code for his employees: chess pawn costumes. The symbolism rings true for many federal workers. One General Services Administration employee, who prefers to remain anonymous, was recently reassigned to a different work group for the fourth time in as many years. As if in a Dilbert comic, he says, "Everyone stands up, rotates and sits back down." Work-wise, he adds, "essentially we're doing the same thing."

Scott Whitcher, a business manager at Fort Meade in Laurel, Md., and a 33-year federal government veteran, says he's "seen everything Adams puts in there at one time or another." How does the absurdity of his workplace compare to that of Dilbert's, which enlists sadistic little dogs as consultants and staffs its accounting department with trolls? "It's about equal," Whitcher says.

In one series of Dilbert strips, Dilbert's co-worker Wally realizes he can make more money if he's fired. In a bid for the golden handshake, he starts showing up for work in his underwear. It reminded Shelley Matsuba of her workplace, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency in Chantilly, Va. Adams "just makes it more ludicrous," Matsuba says, "but you can see [co-workers] in his characters."

Laughs@agencies.gov

Adams' ideas spring from his 17 years in the corporate trenches. But he also finds inspiration in the hundreds of e-mail messages he receives daily. Do some have ".gov" return addresses? Government employees "aren't allowed to use their e-mail for personal purposes," Adams says. "So, for the record, no, I've never gotten a single e-mail from any government employee. Because that would be wrong."

And off the record? "Well, let's just say, if you see similarities in the strip, they're not from my own experience," he says. Adams says his e-mail folder bulges with "mostly bad boss stories. . . . They usually have to do with bosses who don't understand the whole time-space dimension and who think if two people can do it in two days, then one person should be able to do it in one day." Fans also frequently complain about office recognition systems. "People work 60 hours a week for two years, and their reward turns out to be a Snickers candy bar that says, 'Congratulations, you're a valuable team member,'" Adams says.

In March, Adams found out just how popular Dilbert is among federal employees. Almost a thousand people, most of them government workers, spilled out of an auditorium in the Washington Convention Center during Adams' speech at the FOSE information technology expo. One Agriculture Department fan even sneaked in through a back entrance to ask Adams for an autograph.

Adams ended his speech with a comics primer. He explained how cartoonists employ several dimensions of humor. One dimension is the bizarre, which Adams says he achieves by juxtaposing two things that don't belong together. His example: a comic strip panel showing a boss telling the truth. Judging from the sustained laughter in the auditorium, largely filled with managers, the panel had also touched on another dimension of humor: the spark of recognition.

An invitation-only book signing following Adams' speech drew several dozen managers and executives. Matsuba was also there. She asked Adams to autograph two copies of The Dilbert Principle, his best-selling 1996 business book. One copy belonged to her boss, who she says cuts out Dilbert comic strips from the newspaper and posts them on his door. She asked Adams to dedicate her boss's book with the words: "Thanks for the inspiration."

Mirror, Mirror on the (Cubicle) Wall

"We rarely recognize our own idiocies, yet we can clearly identify the idiocies of others," Adams writes in The Dilbert Principle. "Everyone who is a manager has a manager," Adams elaborates. "The beauty of [the Dilbert strip] is that everyone thinks it's their boss; they don't think it's [about] them." Adams says employees frequently tell him, "I had a comic up on my cubicle that makes fun of my boss. It was exactly what he does, and he came by, read it, laughed and said, 'I've heard of people who do that.' "

"As a manager, I'm sure I'm not one of the bosses he portrays," the IRS' Weaver laughs. "The next up the chain is the one that's guilty, not you." But employees have a way of bursting that illusion. At the IRS, they take the unsubtle approach of writing managers' names next to the appropriate comic strip characters before publicly posting the strips. "The executives have seen enough strips with their names on them that they know how we feel," Weaver says.

That message has not sunk in everywhere. "My direct supervisor can relate very well" to the Dilbert strips, says the anonymous GSA employee. But the jokes apply more to his higher-level managers, he says, who might find the strips too much "like looking in the mirror."

Managers' reactions vary. The GSA employee says he once posted a collection of Dilbert cartoons on the office bulletin board, but "they disappeared." His conclusion: "I think we were censored." But in a different department at GSA, a manager good-naturedly accepted a framed Dilbert comic signed by his staff.

"I'm a boss and I love [the strip]," says Jerome Smith, dean of the Information Resource Management College at Fort McNair in Washington. "It gives us all some food for thought," agrees a Pentagon project manager who spoke on condition of anonymity. Does he ever see himself in the comic strip? "If I'm honest, probably so." The EPA's acting Information Resources Management director, Paul Wohlleben, admits he's found himself in situations similar to "about a third" of Dilbert strips. But he chooses not to elaborate on which role he's played.

In some cases, the strips even serve as a catalyst for positive change. "It puts you in your place," Whitcher says. "I've made some modifications because of what I've seen in the strips. I see how the other half lives."

The Dilbert Future

Dilbert sympathizers can glimpse their fate in a new book called The Dilbert Future. Following trends to their logical conclusions, Adams considers cost-cutting mania, for example, and sees "head cubicles" in workers' futures. Today's cubicles still have "plenty of arm room, which is largely wasted," he says. The solution: borrowing a design concept from the hair dressing salon, engineers will build computers into chair bases and attach hoods that workers can pull down over their heads. At the end of the day, the cubicles can be neatly stacked in a corner.

Adams also sees a bifurcating workplace: "It will become like the [National Basketball Association]," he says, "which has a few superstars with a huge amount of power and money, a few unimportant executives in the middle, and lots of people selling peanuts and cleaning sweat off the court."

Is Adams worried about running out of comic strip ideas? "It could only happen if everything in [the workplace] stopped being bad . . . so I think it's a pretty low risk." Managers, the gauntlet has been thrown.

Luba Vangelova is a Washington-area freelance writer.

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Year 2000 Deadline Not Negotiable

Luba Vangelova — Thu, 01 May 1997 00:00:00 -0400

hether Jan. 1, 2000, will be a day of high anxiety or relief for federal executives depends on whether the government successfully completes its largest information technology project to date, a multibillion-dollar effort to solve what is known as the year 2000 problem. Awareness of the problem has grown significantly over the last year; the challenge now is to correct it.

The issue-which affects all types of computers, from large mainframes down to personal computers-is that many software applications will not recognize the year 2000. To conserve once-precious electronic storage, programmers designed applications to use two-digit years. Unless changes are made before midnight on Dec. 31, 1999, these applications will not run correctly, if at all. The problem is most common in older, mainframe-based applications. But even some newer commercial software packages won't recognize the year 2000.

Nor is the problem limited to software: It affects stored data and also many computers whose chips don't recognize the next century. In some cases the hardware can be "patched" with software; in other cases it must be replaced.

A related problem that has only recently come to light concerns the many elevators, air-conditioning systems, telephone systems, fax machines and other equipment that relies on microprocessor chips that might malfunction in the year 2000. Only some of this equipment is officially defined as information technology. In early March, the CIO Council Subcommittee on Year 2000 began working with General Services Administration officials to evaluate the problem this will pose for public buildings. Also in March, the House Government Reform and Oversight subcommittee on government management, information and technology and the Science subcommittee on technology held a hearing about these embedded microprocessors; the two subcommittees then urged government regulatory agencies to assess the issue.

The General Accounting Office recently named the year 2000 problem a "high risk" area because of the potential losses to the government if the problem is not corrected. Calculations involving next-century years already have been thrown off in some systems.

According to an Office of Management and Budget report released in February, the price tag for fixing the federal year 2000 problem will be $2.3 billion. Both analysts and government officials have questioned the figure, which was calculated using the agencies' and departments' own estimates. Sally Katzen, administrator of OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, and the Clinton administration's point person on the year 2000 effort, says she expects the figure to go up as more agencies finish assessing their systems. The Defense Department's estimate has already increased from $969.6 million at the time data was collected for the report to $1.1 billion, and DoD says the figure may change again.

Estimates vary for how much the governmentwide total might rise. Katzen says the figure may reach $5 billion; Jim Kerrigan, president of COLMAR Corp., a Reston, Va.-based market forecasting firm, says it will be about $9 billion; other consulting firms have put the tab as high as $30 billion. Departments are being told not to expect additional appropriations for the year 2000 effort, which means the funds will need to be diverted from other information technology programs.

Government Initiatives

To address the year 2000 problem, agencies must ensure that both their installed base of hardware and software and the information technology products they are buying will not fail at the turn of the century. With regard to an agency's installed base, the year 2000 problem is fundamentally an information systems maintenance project.

But the project is unique in two ways: A large number of systems are affected and its deadline is not negotiable. This, coupled with the desire not to expand the problem by buying more non-compliant products, has prompted the government to begin several initiatives to help departments and agencies better address the problem.

In February, GAO issued an exposure draft of a report outlining a phase-by-phase framework and checklist for assessing agencies' preparedness for the year 2000. Also in February, OMB issued a report that includes a year 2000 compliance strategy and sets governmentwide milestones for the completion of each phase. The strategy encourages agencies to focus on mission-critical systems and follow industry's best practices. OMB will require quarterly progress reports from agencies and will "meet with those [agencies] with later target dates and press them to accelerate, if possible," Katzen says.

The CIO Council Subcommittee on Year 2000 is trying to promote the sharing of managerial and technical expertise among agencies. It maintains a best practices document on the government's official Year 2000 World Wide Web site. It also hopes to establish a database listing the year 2000 compliance status of commercial products. (The Defense Information Systems Agency has posted a similar list on its Web page.) The subcommittee is working with the GSA to develop a logo that identifies year 2000 compliant products on GSA schedules.

In response to the subcommittee's urging, the National Institute of Standards and Technology amended the federal digital date standard to a four-digit year. In January, the CIO Council adopted this standard for all data exchanges among agencies.

Last September, the GSA recommended year 2000-related contract warranty language. An interim Federal Acquisition Regulation rule was then issued in January. Referencing the GSA warranty clause, the rule defines year 2000 compliance and requires agencies to procure only products that already are or will soon be year 2000 compliant. The final version of the FAR rule was expected to be announced at the end of April or beginning of May.

While the government is stressing interagency cooperation, some analysts warn that a problem may be brewing within agencies. Program managers won't want to see their projects' funds diverted to the year 2000 effort, says COLMAR's Kerrigan, which could lead to "internal warfare."

Year 2000 Solutions

"There is no single, cookie-cutter approach for solving the year 2000 problem," states the recent GAO report. GAO and OMB divide the year 2000 effort into five sequential but overlapping phases: awareness, assessment, renovation, validation (testing) and implementation. The assessment phase, according to the OMB report, determines "the scope of the problem by inventorying systems and deciding which ones to change, replace or discard." During its assessment, DoD, for example, decided to eliminate more than 560 of its systems.

Most agencies are currently in the latter stages of the assessment phase, although many agencies are like the Internal Revenue Service, with "different systems in different [phases]," says Julia McCreary, the year 2000 technical adviser for the IRS. "It's a realistic way to approach the problem."

Year 2000-related software and data storage problems can be resolved in several ways.

The first is to use four-digit years, a solution which requires both code and data changes. An alternative is to use a 100-year "sliding window" that relies on context to determine in which century a two-digit year falls. The third option is to stuff four-digit dates into two-digit spaces and compress and expand them as needed. Each technique has advantages and disadvantages.

Analysts emphasize that the year 2000 problem is more an issue of management than technology. The solutions aren't difficult, but they require a large, well-coordinated effort. Although NIST estimates that only 1 to 2 percent of computer code may be affected, all of it must be examined in order to isolate the affected lines. Many organizations have at least a few old programs for which the code has been lost; in these cases, the code must be recreated before it can be assessed.

Fortunately, there are automated software tools to aid much of the year 2000 effort. During the assessment phase, tools can gauge the number of programs and lines of code that are date-sensitive, and some even generate cost and time estimates for the fix. During the renovation phase, tools can help programmers find lines of code that need changing; some can also do part of the modification. Testing tools are also available; these include date-simulation tools that allow programmers to find out what will happen in the year 2000 without needing to change their computers' clocks. There are also management tools for the entire project.

Year 2000 tools are not available for every programming language. In cases where an agency can find no tools on the market, it can either do more of the task by hand or develop its own tool. The Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters, for example, relies heavily on a newer, fourth-generation language for which no code scanning tool was available, so its year 2000 contractor developed a tool specifically for the project.

"Tools help but are no panacea," noted Kathleen M. Adams, the Social Security Administration's assistant deputy commissioner for systems and chair of the CIO Council Subcommittee on Year 2000, at a recent conference. "Using tools just helps shorten the manual process," says Mike Miller, senior vice president of Computer Associates International Inc.'s federal division in Reston, Va. "No technology will change program logic automatically," he says.

Many of these tools can be used for any information systems maintenance project, not just the year 2000 effort. Many vendors have simply repackaged existing maintenance tools with a few add-ons specific to the year 2000 problem (such as pre-written date calculation modules, or date-simulation testing tools). The trend is toward selling these packages with services, says Dick Heiman, a research manager at International Data Corp., a consulting and market research firm in Framingham, Mass.

New vendors and products are entering the field every day. Among the established companies are Keane Inc., Computer Associates, Compuware Corp., IBM Corp. and Viasoft Inc. (On April 1, Viasoft announced a program to sell year 2000 tools to federal government customers at a substantial discount.) Prices vary widely; "the only thing that is certain is that prices will go up" as the demand for qualified programmers outstrips the supply, Heiman says.

An organization should assess its existing information system maintenance program-its tools, process and system knowledge-to determine whether it needs a full solution or just individual tools for the year 2000 effort, Heiman says.

Analysts caution that the testing phase will account for fully half the work in the year 2000 effort, because so many systems are affected. Organizations may not have the computing power to test so many systems, in which case they may need to turn to a disaster recovery firm for support. Another challenge will be handling ongoing maintenance work while addressing the year 2000 problem. "A significant amount of new applications and enhancements to old applications will not get done," Miller says.

The government is trying to be realistic about the year 2000 effort. "There will undoubtedly be some systems, hopefully of much lesser importance, that will not be fixed" when the year 2000 arrives, Katzen says. Instead of expecting perfection, the government is concentrating on making at least its mission-critical systems compliant. Then, Katzen says, "we can truly celebrate the new year."

Luba Vangelova is a Washington-area freelance writer.

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Computer Security Guide

Luba Vangelova — Thu, 01 May 1997 00:00:00 -0400

May 1997

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Computer Security Guide

By Luba Vangelova

ur special report on security focuses on products and methods that protect the government's computer data against threats to confidentiality, reliability, integrity and availability. We cover encryption, intranet firewalls, anti-virus software, power protection and disaster recovery techniques.

Click on a topic below to learn more.

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New Technology Means New Risks

Luba Vangelova — Thu, 01 May 1997 00:00:00 -0400

nformation technology has enabled government agencies and departments to work more efficiently. But with the productivity improvements have come new risks to the confidentiality, integrity, reliability and availability of government information, which increasingly resides on computer systems. Threats range from human error to theft, vandalism, organized crime, terrorist operations, power outages, natural disasters and international cyber warfare (Attempts by hostile nations to disrupt critical computer networks).

New computing technologies and methods have introduced new vulnerabilities. The move toward decentralized, networked computing systems has multiplied points of access, as has the trend of making more government information and services available to the public through the Internet. Portable computing, telecommuting and remote access services have also spread the problem beyond the office doors. And in a fast-changing marketplace, immature technologies such as Java are being implemented before their effects on security are well understood.

The culprits also have more technology at their disposal. Automated hacker tools allow relative novices to attack thousands of computer systems at a time. "The sophistication and severity of attacks has gotten worse," says Kathy Fithen, a manager at the federally funded Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center (CERT/CC) in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Although these trends also affect the private sector's computer systems, some consider government to be more at risk because it's in the public eye and because of the sheer number of computers it uses. Because classified information is protected much more rigorously, the primary risks are to unclassified information the government uses in its day-to-day operations. But much unclassified information is nevertheless sensitive or private.

Last year the General Accounting Office, relying on data supplied by the Defense Information Systems Agency, reported that the Defense Department suffered about 160,000 successful Internet-based attacks on its unclassified computer systems in 1995. And within the last year, there have been numerous high-profile desecrations of government Web sites, including incidents at NASA, the CIA, the Justice Department and the Air Force. A recent Computer Security Institute survey showed that many more breaches go unreported.

The most highly publicized computer security breaches are hacker attacks, but security experts say the biggest dangers, both accidental and deliberate, to information technology resources are within the organization. Threats range from employees choosing easily guessable passwords, not backing up data, or leaving connected computers unattended, to "disgruntled LAN [local area network] managers with a nefarious bent," says Don Heffernan, assistant chief information officer for the General Services Administration.

Unfortunately, such threats can never be entirely eliminated. "You can't obtain complete security for any cost," says Robert H. Anderson, head of the information sciences group at Rand Corp., a Santa Monica, Calif., think tank. But the risks can be reduced by changing information-handling procedures, raising user awareness and applying the right combination of security-related products and services.

The government has recently taken steps to counter computer security threats. Last year, the Office of Management and Budget modified Circular 130-A, which defines minimum security controls for federal computer systems. The circular now requires agencies to have both security plans and computer incident response teams. The Federal Computer Incident Response Capability (FedCIRC) was established to help civilian agencies start incident response programs, conduct security evaluations, and educate them on trends, tools and relevant technologies. Also, the National Institute of Standards and Technology will soon issue a policy and planning guidance document.

An executive order last July created the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection, a government-industry group charged with recommending a national strategy for protecting "critical infrastructures," including essential government operations.

The General Services Administration's Security Infrastructure Program Management Office helps agencies implement data-security solutions. Meanwhile, many security experts stress the need for additional training for those charged with maintaining system security. As computer systems grow more complex, maintaining their security "is becoming a full-time job," Anderson says.

Fortunately security-related products are becoming more interoperable, more user-friendly and easier to administer. Their prices have also dropped somewhat. But security products should be considered only as a component of an overall security solution. The following pages describe some of the latest products and services available to security professionals.

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Computer Security Guide

Luba Vangelova — Thu, 01 May 1997 00:00:00 -0400

Click on a topic below to learn more.

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Authentication and Access Control

Luba Vangelova — Thu, 01 May 1997 00:00:00 -0400

efore any other security measures become meaningful, there must be a way to reliably identify authorized computer system users and lock others out. Once identified, authorized users should have limited access to the system's resources, consistent with their work responsibilities.

The most commonly used authentication technique is a password. But many passwords can be easily guessed, which is why more sophisticated authentication techniques are becoming more popular. These are usually in the form of cards (either PC cards or credit-card size "smart cards") that users carry with them. Smart cards resemble credit cards but feature an embedded microprocessor in place of a magnetic stripe.

To gain access to a computer, they are either inserted into a card reader, or they display a one-time code on a small LCD screen mounted on the card, in which case the user types the code into the computer. The card may also communicate with the card reader using radio frequency. For additional security, the user must often also enter a personal identification number (PIN), much like when using a bank card.

Users worried about their PINs being compromised through electronic eavesdropping can buy smart cards with small keypads. The PIN code is entered directly into the card, which then creates a scrambled PIN with the one-time code. Security Dynamics and CRYPTOCard are among the companies offering card-based authentication products.

An alternative authentication technique called biometrics relies on such methods as retina or fingerprint scans, but these are currently too expensive to be widely practical. A third method is in the form of software installed on both the server and the computers connected to it; the two sites communicate and confirm the user. Companies that sell software-based authentication include Security Dynamics and Bellcore.

Access control is primarily software-based. In many cases, sufficient security can be achieved by simply implementing the built-in access controls of operating systems and applications. These can ask users for passwords before allowing them to boot up the computer system or before allowing them to open a document.

Third-party access control packages are available from companies such as Computer Associates International Inc., IBM Corp., AXENT Technologies Inc., Mergent International and Fischer International Systems Corp.

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Firewalls

Luba Vangelova — Thu, 01 May 1997 00:00:00 -0400

lthough the term "firewall" is used by vendors in many different ways, firewalls are fundamentally an access control measure for networks. That is, they limit what people logged onto one network can do on another network that is connected to the first. Firewalls are commonly used to keep Internet users (especially Web site visitors) away from an organization's internal networks. "If you connect to the Internet, you have to install a firewall, there's no option," says Michael Zboray, vice president of network security at Gartner Group, a Stamford, Conn.-based information technology advisory firm.

Increasingly, firewalls are also being deployed to shield internal computer networks from each other.

The firewall itself is usually a combination of hardware and software that presents a single point through which all traffic between two networks must pass. Only authorized traffic, as determined by what is being attempted and by whom, is allowed to pass.

There are two approaches to firewall architecture, application gateways and packet filtering. A gateway intercepts all traffic between two networks and decides what should and shouldn't pass. (Secure gateways called proxy servers act as dummy fronts to an internal network, shielding its complexity and structure from the outside.) A packet-filtering gateway acts as a router, either blocking or forwarding messages and requests for information based on their source addresses and other limitations. The two methods are usually implemented together.

Some companies sell firewalls already installed on a computer platform; others sell only the software, leaving you to install it on your own platform.

Encryption programs, anti-virus software and other programs are sometimes pre-installed on firewalls because of their convenient location between networks. Firewall vendors include Trusted Information Systems Inc., Raptor Systems Inc., Telos Corp., V-One Corp., CyberGuard Corp. and Secure Computing Corp. Some new products are selling for as little as $3,000; typical firewall costs range as high as $25,000 to $30,000.

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Encryption

Luba Vangelova — Thu, 01 May 1997 00:00:00 -0400

ryptography-the science of encoding messages so their content can only be understood by the intended recipient-dates back to ancient times. Today, encryption is used to transmit sensitive digital data across computer networks or, increasingly, to keep sensitive computer files private while they remain stored on a desktop or laptop computer. The messages are changed from readable to unreadable and back again using complex mathematical algorithms known as keys. Security experts expect to see more use of encryption for unclassified computer information.

There are two encryption strategies: symmetric and asymmetric. Symmetric encryption uses the same key for both the encryption and the decryption; that key must be securely relayed from the sender to the recipient.

Asymmetric encryption requires each person to have one publicly known key and one private key, both of them unique to that individual. To send an encrypted message, the sender must look up the recipient's publicly known key and use it to encrypt the message, which can then be read only if it is decrypted with the recipient's private key. No keys need change hands using this technique, although it is more time-consuming than symmetric encryption. Many solutions combine the two strategies, using the public key to encrypt a secret key, which is used to encrypt the actual message.

The most popular asymmetric algorithms are from RSA Data Security Inc., although agencies, unless they apply for a waiver, are required to use the symmetric Digital Encryption Standard.

Encryption has applications in many areas, including electronic commerce and message authentication. A "digital signature" is a message attachment containing the mathematical output of applying the sender's private key to the message contents. This ensures that the purported message sender is the person who really sent the message and also that the message contents have not been altered.

Encryption products can be hardware- or software-based. Hardware-based solutions-on PC cards, credit-card size "smart cards," or on separate boxes attached to a network-offer security advantages but are generally harder to implement than software solutions.

Companies that provide hardware-based encryption include GTE and Paralon Technologies Inc. Encryption software packages such as Pretty Good Privacy are available free on the Internet. Commercial software packages-some of them specializing in encrypting e-mail, although interoperability remains a problem in that area-cost between $45 and $180. They are available from companies such as RSA Data Security Inc., OpenSoft Corp. and ConnectSoft Inc.

The controversial Escrowed Encryption Standard (EES), designed to ensure that law enforcement officials have access to encrypted documents, remains in effect for now. The voluntary program divides encryption keys into two components, one safeguarded by NIST, the other by the Treasury Department. But critics are wary of concentrating too much power in the government's hands. A Commerce Department advisory committee is looking into other ways to address the administration's concerns about encryption.

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Anti-Virus Software

Luba Vangelova — Thu, 01 May 1997 00:00:00 -0400

omputer virus protection is a basic security measure that agencies need to implement. Viruses are unwanted computer instruction sets that covertly attach to and spread among programs and documents, with the goal of altering how a computer works. At their least destructive, they may change screen displays or slow down a machine; at their worst, they may erase the hard drive.

Viruses spread through a number of channels, which include sharing floppy disks, downloading files from the Internet, and through e-mail attachments. Early warning signs include slower PC operation, programs failing to start, or unusual error messages.

Anti-virus software protects against viruses by scanning your computer for the signatures, or strings of zeroes and ones, that identify known viruses. Some of these software tools reside on your computer and continuously check for virus signatures or virus-like actions. Some even remove the viruses.

Over the years, virus creators have invented strains that are harder to detect. Encrypted viruses, for example, consist of an encrypted virus body and a decryption routine; the virus is scrambled at each infection, hiding its signature. However, the virus' decryption routine remains the same, so scanners were developed to search for the signatures of known virus decryption routines. Next came polymorphic viruses that scrambled both the virus body and the decryption routine. New virus detection methods countered this by systematically loading files into virtual computers created within the computer's memory. Once there, a virus would decrypt itself and expose itself to the anti-virus software's scanning capabilities. The biggest problem today for anti-virus tools is posed by macro viruses, which reside in template or macro files for Microsoft Word documents.

Anti-virus software packages can be installed on any type of computer, although experts recommend concentrating on individual desktop computers or laptops. Packages are available from companies such as Symantec Corp., McAfee Associates, IBM Corp., Norman Data Defense Systems Inc. and S&S International. It's imperative to have current versions of the software, as new viruses are discovered on a regular basis; some new anti-virus software automatically downloads updates from the Internet.

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Security Administration Tools

Luba Vangelova — Thu, 01 May 1997 00:00:00 -0400

aintaining the security of a vast system of information technology resources can be daunting. Fortunately, an assortment of tools are now available to help security administrators. Often several functions are bundled into one package.

Security management tools can help agencies with networks of networks to centrally manage user sign-ons. "Computer access controls are constantly in flux," notes David Bernstein, editor of Infosecurity News in Framingham, Mass. Computer users "leave, get different responsibilities, move to different departments . . . new applications come on to the system," he says.

Software to automate portions of that task is available from companies such as Computer Associates International Inc., IBM Corp., AXENT Technologies Inc., Mergent International and Information Resource Engineering Inc.

Detection or monitoring software spots security breaches in progress. "They tell what is happening in the flow of traffic over the network or what activities people are performing on various applications," says Power of the Computer Security Institute. If it finds something unusual, it can alert a systems administrator or disable that user's account. Detection software can help address the threat of insiders doing unauthorized things.

Trident Data Systems plans to make commercially available a detection tool the company originally developed for the Air Force. Other companies offering such tools include Haystack Labs Inc., AXENT Technologies Inc. and Internet Security Systems. Keane Federal Systems Inc. is testing patented software that takes the offensive after a breach to determine where on the Internet the threat originated.

Auditing tools focus on the system's configuration; they check the system for vulnerabilities and provide reports. Security administrators can run tests with the same types of tools that hackers might use to penetrate the system's defenses. The tools can check for easy-to-guess passwords, for example. SATAN (Security Administrator's Tool for Analyzing Networks) is one type of software that is publicly available at no charge on the Internet, while commercial versions are available from companies such as Internet Security Systems.

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Power Protection

Luba Vangelova — Thu, 01 May 1997 00:00:00 -0400

he electricity that powers computer systems can sometimes be the source of security problems, rendering important computer data unavailable. Power outages are one threat; variations in the quality of the current are another problem. Blackouts, sags (short-term voltage decreases, also known as brownouts), spikes (instantaneous, dramatic increases in voltage), surges (short-term voltage increases) and line noise can degrade or destroy hardware and wipe out unsaved (or in extreme cases all) data. Sources of these problems include lightning, downed power lines, peak-period electricity demands, and the power needs of other high-powered electrical motors on the line.

Several types of products are available to overcome these threats. Surge suppressors are a ubiquitous piece of equipment used between computers and outlets to guard against surges and spikes. Power conditioners also protect against sags by keeping the voltage reaching the computers within an acceptable range. Uninterruptable power supplies (UPSs) are installed on many government computer systems as complete protection against power disruptions. The units supply about 10 to 15 minutes of battery power once the regular supply is lost, which is enough time to switch to a generator, if one is available, or to save data and safely shut down the system.

UPS units are "ubiquitous" at the General Services Administration, says the GSA's Heffernan. "They're not just for mission-critical [systems], but for all local area network servers and up," he says.

UPS units are becoming smaller, cheaper and smarter. The newest products on the market feature multiple batteries to minimize the odds of battery failure.

In a network environment, a complete UPS solution includes power management software to allow systems administrators to control and monitor power across a network from a central workstation. The software displays power system status for points along the network. If a systems administrator is absent during a power emergency, some software can page them.

American Power Conversion, Exide Electronics and Best Power sell UPS units, power conditioners and surge suppressors for a range of computer systems. Prices for UPS units start at about $100 for workstation-level protection and go above $10,000 for UPS units serving high-end data centers with many servers.

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Disaster Recovery

Luba Vangelova — Thu, 01 May 1997 00:00:00 -0400

he responsibility for a system includes the ability to deal with a lack of availability of the system," says Dave Kennedy, CISSP, director of research for the Carlisle, Pa.-based National Computer Security Association. Data centers and the data stored within them can become unavailable due to a natural disaster, fire or other disruptive act. Regular data backups and redundant storage are a necessity. The Environmental Protection Agency, for example, stores its backups in a secure, waterproof, fireproof facility. But, notes Capt. Casey Ajalat, information systems flight commander at Dover Air Force Base, "we need backups of the system and also backup systems for the system; that is, backups for both the software and the hardware."

Disaster recovery plans are essential, especially for mission-critical computer systems. Some agencies deal with this on their own, maintaining an alternate computing facility at a separate location that mirrors the data processing taking place at the primary location. Others contract out for recovery services.

In the event of a disaster, vendors may either provide the use of their own facility (called a "hot site"), or they may travel to the client site to assemble a replacement data center. Hot sites, available across the country, are equipped with backup tape libraries, computers and telecommunications equipment.

Agencies are advised to test their disaster recovery plans several times a year (including on a nonworking day). The EPA is required by its administrator to bring its critical systems back to operation within seven days, says Robert D. Lewis, CPP, the EPA's chief of security staff in Research Triangle Park, N.C. To be prepared, "two to three times a year, we go off-site, bring the system up and process a few applications such as payroll," Lewis says.

Companies offering disaster recovery services include Comdisco Disaster Recovery Services, IBM Business Recovery Services and SunGard Recovery Services. Hot-site subscriptions can cost from less than a thousand dollars to several hundred thousand dollars a month, depending on an organization's needs.

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Powering Up the Virtual Office

Luba Vangelova — Tue, 01 Apr 1997 00:00:00 -0500

Mariley Ferens works for the General Services Administration in Washington. But her physical office is more than 2,000 miles away, in her home in Seattle. "Most of what I do can be done from anywhere," says Ferens, senior site coordinator for the GSA's Office of Workplace Initiatives.

Increasingly powerful desktop and portable computers, combined with simpler and faster telecommunications technology, have helped bring the concept of the "virtual office" to the federal government. "A lot of jobs have changed so dramatically, they can be done anywhere, anytime," says Warren Master, acting director of GSA's Office of Workplace Initiatives. Instead of reporting to an office every day, increasing numbers of federal employees are telecommuting part time or full time from home offices or suburban satellite work centers. Others, often called "road warriors," rely on a portable office as they shuttle among multiple remote locations. What they all have in common is a decreasing need to share a physical office with co-workers.

While no reliable statistics exist on federal road warriors, there are "about 10,000 federal employees telecommuting," Master says. That figure represents only "about half of 1 percent of the federal civilian workforce," he says. By comparison, telecommuters represent about 7 percent of the overall workforce in the United States. The federal number has increased significantly in recent years, roughly tripling from 1995 to 1996. And it will continue to grow, thanks in part to the National Telecommuting Initiative, an interagency effort approved by a presidential council in January 1996. It has set a goal of 160,000 federal telecommuters by 2002, which represents 15 percent of the expected federal workforce at that time.

The most popular arrangement, accounting for 95 percent of government telecommuters, is employees dividing their time between a primary office and home. The other 5 percent work out of their primary office and a GSA-supported telecommuting center. There are 11 telecommuting centers in the Washington area alone; that number will almost double by September. Telecommuters spend an average of one and a half to two days a week telecommuting, although the range is from "once every other week to four or five times a week," Master says.

Benefits on Many Levels

The government is embracing telecommuting because of the many benefits it offers to both employees and employers. Less commuting time translates into more personal time, reduced stress and lower transportation costs for employees. Federal employees in the Washington area who spend one and a half days per week at a telecommuting center are saving an average of 1,600 hours of commuting time per year, Master says. "That's 20 actual workdays, or the equivalent of someone's annual leave," he says. The resulting decrease in car emissions and energy consumption also benefits the environment.

Research shows that telecommuting improves employee productivity, according to telecommuting experts. "The single biggest advantage to the 'flexiplace' program is fewer interruptions" during the workday, says Rich Terry, an Occupational Safety and Health Administration program analyst who telecommutes two days a week from a center in Fredericksburg, Va. "I can concentrate better, because there aren't people stopping by the cubicle to chit-chat," he says.

The flexibility telecommuters have to work outside standard business hours helps many of them manage their jobs better. Telecommuting and mobile work arrangements can also improve customer service, by distributing employees throughout the communities they are serving.

Agencies also stand to reduce their facility costs by allowing employees to work remotely. When telecommuting takes place on a large-enough scale, several telecommuters can share one office-based workstation, if each worker is in the office on different days. "It's conceivable you could eliminate one workstation for every two to three telecommuters," Master says.

A leading accounting firm has estimated that the average office cubicle workstation costs more than $10,000 per year, Master says. The average cost of a telecommuter is less than $1,000 per year, he adds. Therefore, by meeting its year 2002 telecommuting goal, the government could save up to $1 billion a year.

Equipment Needs

"The most fundamental equipment a telecommuter needs is a telephone," says Jack Nilles, president of JALA International, a telecommuting consultancy in Los Angeles. "And for about a quarter of telecommuters, that's it," he says. Nilles adds that computers are becoming essential to more and more workers, especially those who are "computer-attached in their regular office." Employees who need to regularly connect to their office's local area network (LAN) also need a modem and remote access software. Up to 90 percent of telecommuters don't need any other equipment, Nilles says.

Many employees who already own equipment at home are willing to use it for their work because of the advantages telecommuting offers them on a personal level. Alternatively, agencies may have excess equipment to loan to telecommuters. In either case, the employer incurs minimal expenses, if any.

"Unless someone is working at home full time, it doesn't pay to equip them with expensive equipment," Master says. "For many, even a 386[-based computer] with a 14,400 baud modem will suffice," he says. Workers who rely on the Microsoft Windows operating system and who require frequent access to their e-mail or to the Internet would probably need a 28,800 baud modem, he says, and "a 486[-based computer], if not a Pentium." Fast but expensive ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) technology would be needed only rarely, "if large amounts of data are to be transferred back and forth," Nilles says.

Some employers give telecommuters laptop computers to carry between the office and a remote workplace. Docking stations and monitors at both locations turn it into the equivalent of a desktop computer, with the added advantage that it can be taken on business trips.

Other equipment, such as printers, scanners and fax machines, are useful but not critical for most employees, especially those who telecommute only a few days per week and can use that type of equipment in the office. And in the case of fax machines, modems can now handle most faxing needs. (If such equipment is needed, buying a combination printer/scanner/fax machine can help an agency cut costs.)

In contrast to home-based offices, telecommuting centers can spread the cost of the equipment among many workers, and are therefore usually equipped as well as or even better than many primary offices. "Anything I might have in the D.C. office, I have here" at the telecommuting center, Terry says. Workers at the centers have access to Pentium computers, laser printers, modems, scanners, color laser printers, fax machines, duplexing photocopiers, voicemail and videoconferencing. Telecommuting centers also offer high-bandwidth networking connections. "You can't possibly have everything at home that we have available here," Terry says.

Because of this, the telecommuting centers will begin promoting themselves as "backups for home-based telecommuters," says Mary Bray, manager of the Hagerstown, Md., center. Such an arrangement would give home-based telecommuters access to the center's equipment and technical support on a fee-for-service basis. GSA is also considering setting up intranets (restricted-access sections of the World Wide Web) for home-based telecommuters within each telecommuting center's area. This would give the home-based workers access to CD-ROM jukeboxes and other networked equipment at the centers.

Some agencies with special security needs or with "a particular software [package] or arrangement for getting into their LAN" must tailor the telecommuting center's equipment to their employees' needs, Master says. But remote access technology has improved to the point that it's straightforward for most telecommuters to dial into their office network from virtually anywhere and have access to what they would in their primary office.

Telecommuting equipment needs vary with job duties, how much of the workweek is spent at a remote location, and how much of the work can only be done while connected to the office computer network. Maxcine Sterling, GSA's telecommuting coordinator, recommends that managers in agencies with flexiplace coordinators consult them to find out about norms. The GSA's Office of Information Technology Policy and Leadership has also issued a resource guide called "Flexiplace Questions and Answers" (KA0953-1).

Road warriors have similar needs to telecommuters, because most still rely on phone lines to connect to the office networks (wireless alternatives are slower). Usually their only additional requirement is that their equipment be portable. For example, some Agriculture Department meat and poultry inspectors travel to different packing plants over the course of a day carrying notebook computers with built-in modems and portable printers. Mobile workers who only need a telephone might turn to cellular phones, while those with limited data communication needs might consider pagers with e-mail functions or portable "smart phones" with Web browsers and e-mail capabilities.

Road warriors should benefit from a new generation of subnotebook computers running the new Microsoft Windows CE operating system. The new crop, which is scheduled to reach the market in a year, will cost about $1,500, half the price of current machines, says Andrew Seybold, editor-in-chief of Andrew Seybold's Outlook on Communications and Computing newsletter in Boulder Creek, Calif.

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Multimedia: Not Just for Games

Luba Vangelova — Wed, 01 Jan 1997 00:00:00 -0500

housands of Coast Guard technicians now learn how to troubleshoot aircraft systems at their computer terminals. But instead of scrolling past screens of text describing helicopter electronics the trainees see some text, supplemented by two- and three-dimensional animation and still photos of the aircraft. "You have to keep [the training programs] interactive to keep their interest," says Jeff Wood, petty officer first class at the Coast Guard's Aviation Technical Training Center in Elizabeth City, N.C.

Computer-based training is just one of many uses the Coast Guard and other government agencies have found for multimedia, which refers to computer software that employs any combination of audio, video, photos, animation and text. Multimedia technology, once applied almost exclusively to computer games, entertainment and education, "is coming more into the mainstream" of business applications, says Josh Bernoff, a senior analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. Applications other than training for which the government is using multimedia include research, interactive manuals, law enforcement, public information and telemedicine (medical care from remote locations).

Presenting information in multiple media makes it more persuasive and instructive, says Bob Gill, vice president and research director at Gartner Group, a Stamford, Conn.-based information technology advisory firm. And multimedia is well-suited to situations in which "you want to give somebody a personalized experience with a lot of interaction . . . basically when you're trying to substitute to a certain extent for what you'd normally do face-to-face," Bernoff says.

Requirements and Limitations

Multimedia applications usually require a personal computer with considerable memory, a relatively fast processor, a CD-ROM drive, speakers, and video and sound capability. Most newer personal computers come with these components; companies such as Panasonic even make notebook-size, multimedia-capable computers. Older computer models can be upgraded to handle multimedia applications for $500 or less. Some of the companies that make multimedia products are Apple Computer, Diamond Multimedia Systems, IBM, Compaq and Macromedia.

"It's certainly not necessary to make a big financial outlay" to employ multimedia, Bernoff says. Gill estimates that "you can do a decent multimedia application for anywhere between $250 and $2.5 million." For $250, Gill says, a person can buy the software needed to create a simple slide show annotated with voice comments.

Limiting the more widespread application of multimedia technology are several technical roadblocks related to how multimedia information is stored, managed and transmitted. The first obstacle is that "database engines need to evolve," says Mark Bromley, director of multimedia and imaging at PRC Inc., a McLean, Va.-based systems integrator. The most common databases are not well-equipped to manage multimedia data types; they don't allow users to search a video clip for references to a particular person, for instance.

Finding enough storage to accommodate some of the more memory-intensive multimedia applications is another problem. "Already a lot of high-quality, video-intensive CD-ROMs are running out of gas," Gill says. Fortunately digital video discs, which can store many times more information than CD-ROMs, are on the horizon. But storing information on discs may sometimes pose challenges. Ensuring that all trainees are relying on the most up-to-date computer-based training discs could be difficult when many versions have been sent out over the years, for example.

"The ideal thing would be to deliver this across a network like the Internet," Bernoff says. "Unfortunately there are now severe limitations on bandwidth that make it difficult to deliver really interactive applications that way," he says.

Because upgrading networks and databases is expensive, "a lot of these multimedia systems are going to stay in the prototype stage" for some time, Bromley says.

Aside from these limitations, there is the problem of perception. "Many people doubt the real benefits [of multimedia], and part of the reason is that many of the early [applications] were silly or frivolous," Gill says. Another factor is that many multimedia developers "are technically pretty good at putting together multimedia, but they have absolutely no concept of design," he adds.

Government Applications

Perhaps because of these obstacles, most agencies have ventured into multimedia, but few have applications that have moved beyond the pilot stage. "There is a lot of experimentation going on," says Vicky Page, senior research analyst at IDC Government, a Falls Church, Va.-based market research firm. IDC Government randomly surveyed government users on using multimedia for Web pages for the Internet as well as for department- or agency-only intranets. Their survey showed that "everyone wants [multimedia], but they're not sure of the right way to go about it," Page says.

Popular multimedia applications in government include computer-based training and information kiosks. Computer-based training is attractive to agencies with high training demand but limited resources. "Our training equipment is very, very expensive," says the Coast Guard's Wood. But some tasks-especially in the military, where a skill learned incorrectly can lead to fatalities-are better shown than described. And "if you're showing someone how to do something, nothing beats animation or video," Gill says.

For the Coast Guard, training on computers instead of aircraft not only eliminates the need to tie up as many expensive aircraft for training, it also speeds up the training process because more people can get instruction simultaneously. And because Coast Guard instructors are transferred every four years, computer-based training also provides more consistent lessons.

Multimedia training is cost-effective and convenient. Agencies don't have to send instructors out, and they don't have to interrupt trainees' other job duties to gather them in a class when an instructor comes to town. For these reasons the Army now uses an interactive multimedia program to teach job search strategies, including interviewing skills, to departing personnel who are stationed at remote sites where it is impractical to provide job counseling in person.

Multimedia information kiosks conserve government resources by reducing the number of government employees needed to answer citizens' questions. The Postal Service is planning to install multimedia kiosks in shopping malls, libraries, courthouses and other public places around the country. From the kiosks, citizens will eventually be able to retrieve government information from a number of civilian agencies. They will be able to make reservations at national parks and learn about Social Security or Veterans Affairs claims and benefits, says Suzan Zimmerman, vice president of business development at Science Applications International Corp., a McLean, Va.-based systems integrator that was selected to develop a portion of the project.

For its own use, the government publishes multimedia CD-ROMs containing documentation supplemented by audio, animation and images. In the process it is "saving millions and millions of dollars . . . on printing, paper, transport and other costs," Gill says. Many of these CD-ROMs are replacing large technical manuals. Naval system operators refer to such interactive electronic technical manuals for troubleshooting assistance for the communications links that transmit voice and data among ships, aircraft and shore stations. Their electronic manuals pack the equivalent of 500 pages of documentation on a single CD-ROM, and they supplement the paper version with additional features such as visual simulations.

Other multimedia applications the government is pursuing or has already implemented include fully digitized FBI case files and the incorporation of reconnaissance video and audio clips into Defense Department war games. An application that Gill says is "not broadly exploited" but that some agencies are looking into is video networking, or installing a multimedia network on top of a standard local area network to allow on-line training, videoconferencing and other video services.

Considerations

Multimedia offers valuable benefits, but agencies should focus on their needs and not on the technology. "Don't consider multimedia applications as any different than other standard types of applications," Gill advises. "Go through the same planning, including cost analysis." The Coast Guard's Wood says, "Visit other sites before you even think about starting [a project]. Learn the pitfalls ahead of time."

Applications don't need to take advantage of every media available. "Realize that you don't need video to be multimedia," Gill says. "We're finding that many times when people ask for multimedia presentations, what they really want is a [voice-] annotated slide show," he says, which can be created for a fraction of the cost of a presentation that includes video.

Experts agree that multimedia costs will continue to drop, and that the technology will become more convenient and widespread as technological challenges are overcome. With greater bandwidth, for example, "you'll be able to go over to a Web site and experience some sort of training application," Bernoff says. Meanwhile, the introduction of digital video discs will "dramatically alter our whole concept of documentation . . . [and] our notion of how much information can be stored locally," Gill says.

"By the year 2000, expect these new media types like audio and video to be a standard part of all your applications," Gill says. "Get ready for it."

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Virtual Reality Turns Inside Out

Luba Vangelova — Tue, 01 Oct 1996 00:00:00 -0400

his year, for the first time, some military medic training sessions on gunshot wound treatments required no bloody cleanup. Instead of relying solely on wounded animals, medic trainees practiced techniques by guiding simulated instruments through simulated human tissue.

Watching a three-dimensional impression of a leg wound on a high-resolution computer monitor, a trainee holds a surgical instrument handle attached to a motion-sensing device. The tip of the instrument appears on the computer screen, and every movement of the handle results in a corresponding move of the simulated tip. The simulated flesh reacts to the tip as real flesh would under the same circumstances. But the results are much less messy.

The simulated exercises do more than save cleanup time. Hundreds of animals will be spared, and, more importantly for the military, the medics will have received more realistic training. "It will be real human anatomy they're practicing on," says Col. Rick Satava, M.D., program manager of Advanced Biomedical Technologies for the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). And "when you give a gunshot wound to an animal, you only get to practice on one wound, whereas with a virtual cadaver you can give it many different kinds of wounds and be able to practice [a procedure] over and over."

Medical training, both within and outside the government, is one of a growing number of areas in which virtual reality technology has moved from research laboratories into the real world. Virtual reality "is not the pie-in-the-sky fringe thing it was perceived as three to five years ago," says Daryl Rasmussen, a researcher at NASA's Ames Research Center, which has been at the forefront of research in this field. "People are doing real work using the technology," he says.

Varied Techniques

Virtual reality technology allows people to interact in three-dimensional, computer-generated environments. These are usually models of real-world scenes, but can also represent abstract data, such as budget figures. "In an ideal virtual environment, all of the senses are fully exploited such that it's difficult to differentiate between the real and the virtual world," says Bob Voiers, director of Electronic Data Systems Corp.'s Detroit Virtual Reality Center.

When virtual reality users move their heads, their views shift and sounds may be adjusted. Users can move around and sometimes through the objects they see. With the proper equipment, they can also pick things up, manipulate them and actually get the sensation of feeling the object in their hands. There is a two-way interaction: Users experience the virtual surroundings, and the surroundings and objects change in response to users' actions.

Not all virtual reality applications completely immerse users in artificial environments, nor is absolute realism necessary for a virtual reality application to be effective. Immersive applications rely on head-mounted displays with tracking sensors, gloves or other sensing devices. Popular in the entertainment sector, immersive virtual reality is used to design expensive equipment such as aircraft engines. Jackie Fenn, a research director at the Gartner Group, a Stamford, Conn.-based information technology advisory firm, expects the technique to become more important in applications that focus on exploring models of physical or abstract spaces.

More limited virtual reality applications allow users to interact with three-dimensional objects on a computer screen without making users feel surrounded by the environment. These cost-conscious alternatives to immersive virtual reality are popular for industrial design, architecture and data visualization, Fenn says.

Other virtual reality techniques involve projecting computer-generated images onto the walls of small rooms-useful for simulating vehicle-based views and engaging multiple users-or viewing the real world through glasses that superimpose relevant virtual objects such as schematic diagrams onto the scene. The latter technique is in its early stages, but has applications in maintenance and repair, as well as in the medical field, Fenn says.

Another technique, telepresence, allows users to see and influence a real but geographically removed scene; camera images reconstruct the scene for the user, who interacts with the remote environment by controlling on-the-scene robotic arms. Applications include remote surgery and exploration of distant environments.

Technology Still Developing

Virtual reality simulations are improving, but "most applications haven't tried to mimic all of the senses, because the result would be abominably bad," says Paul T. Breen of MITRE Corporation, a Bedford, Mass.-based nonprofit company that provides technical support to the government.

Most development work has focused on the visual component. But "with most virtual reality technology, you're legally blind at this point," Breen says. "It's got a long way to go." This is less of a setback for applications that depend more on object context than visual precision. Visual representations have improved: "All medical applications now suffer from a lack of visual realism, but it's much better than the cartoon levels you had a couple of years ago," ARPA's Satava says.

Generating computer scenes on the spot is less a technology problem than a problem of acquiring the necessary data sets and being able to afford the computer equipment. Powerful computers and better graphical representation techniques will make visual displays smoother, faster and more detailed. Falling computer costs also will put better graphics within reach.

Currently, a virtual-reality-enabled computer system can cost about $250,000; "in the next year, we'll see PC systems with similar kinds of capabilities probably on the order of $10,000," says John Latta, president of 4th Wave, a market analysis and consulting firm in Alexandria, Va.

Virtual reality applications stimulate the other four senses to varying degrees. Audio technology is "quite mature," Voiers says, at least with respect to incorporating three-dimensional sound in a virtual environment. The problem of how to make the computer respond to the human user's voice is harder to solve, although a lot of work is also being done in this area. The technology to reproduce tactile sensations is also "pretty primitive," Breen says.

Wide Applications

A 1994 National Research Council study noted that virtual reality could have practical uses in many fields, but especially in training, hazardous operations, medicine and health care, and design, manufacturing and marketing. The advantages to using virtual reality include lower product design and manufacturing costs: Fewer physical prototypes are needed, and flaws in both the design and the manufacturing process become apparent while examining the product and the assembly line in a virtual environment. Physical objects and abstract data can both be better understood when viewed from different angles and manipulated in a virtual setting. Virtual-reality assisted training can be more comprehensive, less expensive and safer.

Within government, virtual reality will be used predominantly for design applications in the near future, Fenn says, starting with costly items such as ships and then "moving into smaller-scale design" as equipment prices drop. The military already relies on virtual reality for some of its training and simulation needs. For example, Air Force pilots flying over Bosnia during last year's Operation Deliberate Force rehearsed their missions on a simulation system called PowerScene. Relying on satellite imagery and terrain elevation data, PowerScene displayed terrain and intended targets and allowed pilots to determine optimal flight strategies.

NASA, which uses remote vehicles for science and exploration, has been at the forefront of virtual reality development. When a vehicle lands on another planet, "we need to be able to visualize that environment so we can drive the vehicle around remotely," NASA's Rasmussen says. Scientists need to receive enough information about the environment to do their work "as if they're there," he says.

"Virtual reality is recognized by the brain as an experience," Rasmussen says, making it an "extremely powerful" way for the scientists to understand these distant environments. NASA hopes to deploy the technology on interplanetary missions soon after the turn of the millennium. "I feel we're in the fine-tuning stages," Rasmussen says.

Other agencies have also begun to use virtual reality. The Transportation Department, for example, is investing in a sophisticated driving simulator to better understand human factors involved in traffic accidents so it can better prevent them.

Future Outlook

Within the next few years, the availability of better, yet less expensive virtual reality graphics and head-mounted displays will broaden the technology's appeal, according to Gartner's Fenn. Work also has begun on developing virtual reality applications that accommodate multiple simultaneous users, which will prove useful to geographically scattered colleagues.

Unfortunately, some virtual reality users have reported unwelcome physical side effects, such as migraine headaches, after using high-performance simulators, and because the technology is relatively new, its longer-term effects remain unknown. Even if it is proven to be safe, virtual reality technology may not be right for every situation. "You have to look carefully at the application and ask if in ideal circumstances virtual reality would allow you to do a better job," advises Latta of 4th Wave. If the answer is yes, and if the required level of technology is available, there is also the question of how difficult the technology will be to implement. "It's not a plug-and-play technology yet," says NASA's Rasmussen.

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Going Mobile With Computers

Luba Vangelova — Thu, 01 Aug 1996 00:00:00 -0400

pecial operations planes will soon be able to zero in on targets located with hand-held computers carried into the field by ground troops. Soldiers will point a laser range finder at a target, and the laser device will then feed information into a hand-held global positioning system unit, which will calculate the target's location. After the soldier inserts this result into a standard report, a radio attached to the hand-held device will transmit the data to a computer aboard the plane.

The hand-held computers will make the Joint Special Operations Command "more effective, in that they reduce mistakes, and more efficient, in that they save time," says John A. Glowacki Jr., an Air Force aviation and tactics specialist assigned to JSOC at Fort Bragg, N.C.

But Glowacki views this limited-function system only as an intermediate step. "Our target users are people that live with what they can carry," Glowacki says. "Every additional battery is a great consideration," he says, "so we want one [computing device] that serves many uses." One possible use will be to track soldiers by assigning each a bar code. Ultimately he envisions that "one operator with a hand-held [device] could have a series of [software] applications and move from bar coding to digital call for fire, to whatever administrative and communications tasks he needs." Glowacki's ideal system may not be too far off, given the rapid evolution of mobile computing technology.

Mobile computing includes a broad range of products and services, all designed to allow people to electronically receive, manipulate or send data without being constrained to one place, such as an office. An executive on a cross-country flight who is preparing a presentation using a laptop computer is taking advantage of mobile computing. But many mobile users find their machines to be of little benefit unless they connect to other computers, which requires telephones (or radios) and modems.

Some new cellular phones use digital technology that eliminates the need for a modem, and new "smart phones" with small keyboards and displays tucked under the telephone keypads are expected on the market this year. SkyTel Corp.'s two-way pagers allow users to send a brief reply chosen from a range of choices. These products illustrate the trend toward bundling more features and components in smaller, less-expensive packages.

Mobile computing technology promises greater productivity for any employee whose job involves a lot of roaming within a facility, as in the case of doctors, or frequent travel. Some organizations find it cost-effective to redesign entire processes, using mobile computing-based systems. Giga Information Group, a market research firm based in Norwell, Mass., estimates there are 31 million mobile professionals (defined as employees who spend at least 20 percent of their time away from their desks) in the United States.

In 1995, almost 12 million portable computers and personal digital assistants (PDAs) were in use, according to Giga, which expects that number to rise to almost 33 million by 2000.

Capabilities Vary

All-in-one smart phones are convenient, but for mobile computing they are only useful for sending and receiving short text messages and storing limited data. A little more functional are hand-held computers, including PDAs and palmtops, from companies such as Apple Computer Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Litton Data Systems. In general, hand-helds are most useful for basic tasks such as contact management, word processing, and collecting and transmitting data. PDAs with significant new features will debut late this year, according to Andrew Seybold, editor of The Outlook on Communications and Computing newsletter.

Mobile employees looking for more powerful machines can find a range of options among notebook and laptop computers, the most powerful of which offer desktop computer-equivalent functionality. Full screens and keyboards are now complemented by plenty of memory, Pentium processors, and multimedia components. But short battery lives are a common complaint, and Seybold says users should expect no quantum leaps in this area. Although portability translates into a higher sticker price for these computers, some users have found the benefits they provide more than make up for the expense.

The Agriculture Department's Food Safety Inspection Service has begun equipping some of its meat and poultry inspectors with notebook computers and modems. Inspectors whose patrols cover more than one plant in a day are using the devices to receive inspection assignments and other messages, as well as to refer to agency directives, technical manuals and regulations. Their computers are equipped with word processing, spreadsheets and other software.

These inspectors have no regular offices, so having access to such functions has already proved valuable. "We did a benefit-cost study, which showed a return of $1.60 for every dollar spent," says Peter Kuhmerker, the computing initiative's project manager. The portable computers "probably save inspectors an average of half an hour a day," Kuhmerker says.

However, mobile computing is "not an inexpensive undertaking" for large organizations, says Alan Reiter, president and editor of Wireless Internet & Mobile Computing newsletter. He says departments can expect to pay a few thousand dollars per person for the necessary equipment. Other users who have offices but travel frequently are offsetting the higher price by making a laptop their only computer and connecting it to a docking station, if necessary, while at the office.

Wireless Advances

To communicate with other computers from the road, most mobile users still rely on a phone jack and modem. Another option is wireless technology, which bypasses phone cables in favor of infrared, microwave or radio waves. "Wireless is still a very small part of the mobile market, probably about 1 to 2 percent," Reiter says. But the growing use of mobile phones and pagers presents opportunities for increased wireless computing.

"People are getting used to using e-mail and portable communications," Reiter says. "It's not rocket science to have e-mail messages forwarded to a wireless device. And it's getting to the point that it's not terribly expensive." But the cost is relative: "Air time is still too expensive by a factor of 5 to 10," says Bill Frezza, president of Wireless Computing Associates in Yardley, Pa.

A new General Services Administration contract scheduled to be awarded this fall promises cheaper wireless services for all agencies. The Federal Wireless Telecommunications Services contract is a short-term way of taking advantage of government volume buying power until the more comprehensive post-FTS2000 contract is awarded sometime in 1997. "We expect these contracts will give us dramatic reductions of about 40 to 50 percent off what we're now paying" for wireless services, says John L. Okay, deputy commissioner of GSA's Federal Telecommunications Service.

The immediate procurement is only for analog cellular service, but it is structured to take advantage of digital cellular and other emerging wireless technologies. Better prices should take mobile communications "out of the realm of a very specialized service for high-level managers and put it in the hands of more people who would really benefit from it on a day-to-day basis," Okay says.

Cost is not the only issue. Wireless data speeds are slower than those of conventional cables; cost-effective wireless services are not available everywhere; and standards have not been established. "The biggest single problem hindering the growth of wireless is connecting the mobile user wirelessly back to their own LAN [local area network] or desktop," Seybold says, largely because of security worries and the fact that "many wireless products aren't plug-and-play," says Reiter.

Wireless Networks

For those who wish to make the leap to wireless networks, several options are emerging:

Cellular. Analog service is ubiquitous, but the trend is migrating to digital cellular systems, which transmit strings of zeros and ones, as do computers. Air time is very expensive, and interface standards are lacking.
Cellular Digital Packet Data. A technique for sending packets of data quickly through analog cellular phone networks; the service is not available nationwide.
Personal Communications Services. These are cheaper cellular services that are beginning to offer completely digital voice and data transmission over newly assigned radio frequencies. Sprint Spectrum is already offering PCS service in Washington, D.C. PCS phones can be used both inside and outside buildings, but roaming among regions will be hindered by different standards.
RAM Mobile Data and ARDIS. These two private radio networks offer good nationwide coverage. Reliability and speed are weak points, but are improving.
Enhanced Specialized Mobile Radio. This uses two-way radio dispatching frequencies for carrying voice and data on a national digital network. Geotek Communications Inc. and NEXTEL Communications Inc. offer ESMR service.

Less ambitious than long-range wireless connections are wireless local area networks, which connect computers within a building, and infrared ports, which offer line-of-sight wireless connections that eliminate the need for cables. Nurses at many Veterans Affairs hospitals carry wireless LAN-connected laptops on their rounds to access and update patient data stored on a central computer. ]]>

Meltdown

Luba Vangelova — Mon, 01 Jan 1996 00:00:00 -0500

atch declares alert. Unit 2 hit by lightning." The ominous message appeared suddenly on monitors throughout the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's operations center in Rockville, Md., at 9:27 a.m. on Aug. 23.

The Edwin I. Hatch nuclear power plant in Bailey, Ga., was in trouble. Lightning had struck one of the plant's two units, knocking out electrical power and the emergency diesel generators. The blow had shifted the reactor core cover, and coolant was leaking into the atmosphere. Radioactivity levels around the site registered above normal.

The NRC operations center responded immediately. At 9:46 a.m., the center upgraded its response mode from standby to initial activation. The office director and regional administrator dispatched a regional NRC management and analysis team to the plant. The operations center notified state officials as soon as the alert was issued.

Maintaining Preparedness

No nuclear emergency really threatened the Edwin I. Hatch plant. The entire morning's events were designed to test the power plant's-and the state and local governments'-emergency preparedness. It also allowed the NRC to practice its response.

The NRC was formed in 1975 as an independent agency to take over the regulatory functions of the defunct Atomic Energy Commission. The NRC regulates medical, academic and industrial uses of nuclear materials as well as commercial nuclear power reactors. The agency aims to protect the public, defense installations and the environment. It operates four regional incident response centers in addition to its headquarters operations center.

The 109 licensed nuclear power reactors in the United States generate approximately one-fifth of the nation's electricity. Although many precautions are exercised to minimize the possibility of an accident, equipment fails on occasion. The primary danger is not a nuclear explosion-reactors can't explode like nuclear bombs-but a loss of cooling water. Without the cooling agent, fuel rod temperatures can rise high enough to damage the rods, causing radiation leaks.

To minimize such dangers, the NRC inspects nuclear plants regularly; each plant has two NRC resident inspectors. The utilities are required to file regular reports on out-of-the-ordinary events to the NRC.

Thousands of these events are reported annually, but only 1 percent to 2 percent are serious enough to warrant any remedial action. The risk of a major nuclear accident is difficult to quantify. But the country's worst nuclear incident, which occurred at Three Mile Island in 1979, pointed to the need for each plant to have an emergency plan. About half the plant's fuel melted at Three Mile Island, near Middletown, Pa. One flaw identified in the follow-up analysis was the inadequate preparedness of plant operators. The accident also pointed to the need for the state, local and federal governments to improve emergency planning.

Test Plans

Since then, emergency plans and ways of testing them have become more formal. Every two years, nuclear plants' emergency plans are tested along with state plans to ensure information gathering, consultations between agencies and instructions to the public can be carried out adequately. Sometimes even schools and nursing homes are evacuated on a small scale to test the process. The Federal Emergency Management Agency grades plant and state performance.

Three or four times a year the NRC picks one of the tests and "plays along as if it were a real emergency and we're responding to it," says Rich Barrett, chief of the NRC's Emergency Response Branch. This is what the agency did with the Hatch exercise. Once every five years or so a full federal exercise is carried out. "We really bring out all the troops" during those drills, Barrett says, adding that such exercises are infrequent because they are extremely expensive.

The NRC's responsibilities during a nuclear emergency, simulated or real, are to monitor and assess the situation and direct the utility to take actions to protect the public. The commission coordinates the responses of other agencies, such as the Energy Department and FEMA. It also helps state officials interpret technical data and keeps updated information flowing to the public, Congress and the White House.

Other agencies fill support roles as they are needed. The Energy Department monitors radiation and the Agriculture Department determines the safety of food in an affected area. FEMA makes longer-term decisions similar to what it would do in an earthquake or other such disaster, Barrett says.

During the Hatch emergency exercise, NRC employees filled the operations center. Two of them manned direct phone lines to the Hatch facility. At the other end of the room, another employee monitored the conversations using headphones and jotted down situation updates on a dry-erase board. In the middle of the room, NRC technical experts huddled around a conference table, poring over continuously updated plant data. Nearby, another team of experts discussed radioactive fallout risks.

The teams' assessments flowed to the NRC's decision-making executive team, which had gathered in an adjacent glass-enclosed room. A liaison team disseminated information to outside agencies and the public.

At 9:48 a.m., the nuclear power plant declared a site area emergency. A 10:33 a.m. a message on operations center monitors announced that National Security Adviser Anthony Lake had requested a briefing. At 10:48 a.m., NBC's Nightline program requested an interview.

By 11:01 a.m., the plant upgraded its classification from site emergency to general emergency, the most serious status. Area schools had already begun to evacuate. The NRC initiated a Federal Radiological Emergency Response Plan. The operations center dispatched an Energy Department Federal Radiological Monitoring and Assessment Center advance party, which was expected to arrive at the disaster site at 8 p.m. A full radiological team would be there by 7 a.m. the following day. Also, FEMA activated an emergency support team at its headquarters.

Reports continued to appear on the monitors. "11:58: Evacuation is confirmed to be under way." By 12:07 p.m., the NRC's site team had arrived at the plant. The operations center handed control over to the site team, and the atmosphere at the center began to ease up. People started to pack up their files and make small talk. To the casual observer, it appeared as if the Georgia nuclear plant's emergency, though still unresolved, had almost been forgotten.

Planned Response

A test progresses just as a real accident would. First, a phone call from a utility comes in to the NRC's operations center, which is staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. (The current operations center has been in use since May 1994. Its numerous improvements over the previous center include special lighting to keep the operators more alert and advanced computer systems to improve the information flow between NRC teams.)

Depending on what is happening at the nuclear plant, the utility classifies a situation an unusual event, an alert, a site area emergency or a general emergency. The situation may be reclassified as more data becomes available.

In 1994, the NRC handled three real alerts, and in July 1995 it responded to two in one day. Three site area emergencies have been handled since the advent of the classification system in 1981. No public evacuations have been ordered since the accident at Three Mile Island.

The NRC's response to an event depends on its classification and circumstances. The lowest level is standby, at which point the level of danger is still unclear. Initial activation means the situation is serious enough to dispatch a regional NRC team to the site. Expanded activation requires a site team to take over the operation from the headquarters teams. Deactivation means the crisis is over and the commission conducts follow-up activities.

The commission has made some changes over the years. After Hurricane Andrew caused major equipment damage to a plant in Florida, it began to back up live telephone links to the plants with portable telecommunications equipment.

During emergency exercises, the NRC frequently hosts observers from other agencies or foreign governments. Alexander Kordiuk, head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Environmental Protection and Nuclear Safety's regulation and emergency planning department in Kiev observed the Hatch exercise. "Chernobyl showed the need for this kind of coordination between federal agencies," Kordiuk said. "The results of Chernobyl would have been less severe-people would have been evacuated quicker, the government involvement would have been coordinated better, and the emergency reaction would have been swifter," he said.

"The most important thing I learned [from the Hatch exercise] is that you need to have a federal-level agency for an emergency response," said Alexei Kovalevsky, Kordiuk's counterpart from Russia. "I was particularly impressed by the good communication between various participants in the exercise."

Following the Hatch plant's exercise, NRC's operations center reviewed the events in a debriefing session. Some inconsistencies were found in the data reported by the plant, and the communication standard had not been ideal. Yet overall, things appeared to have gone smoothly. Only one decision remained, an NRC team member noted: "Would NRC send someone to appear on Nightline that evening?"

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