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Aliya Sternstein

Senior Correspondent Aliya Sternstein reports on cybersecurity and homeland security systems for Nextgov. She has covered technology for nine years at such publications as National Journal's TechnologyDaily, Federal Computer Week and Forbes. Before joining Government Executive, she covered agriculture and derivatives trading for Congressional Quarterly. She has been a guest commentator on C-SPAN, WTOP and Federal News Radio. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
Results 1461-1470 of 1668

White House mulls making NASA a center for federal cloud computing

July 24, 2009 FROM NEXTGOV arrow NASA and the Obama administration's top technology officer are considering a NASA cloud computing prototype to test the president's plan for agencies to outsource information technology services to a shared platform. President Obama has called for slashing federal IT infrastructure costs by relying on cloud computing, a process where agencies ...

Two federal groups follow different paths to transparency

July 23, 2009 FROM NEXTGOV arrow Two government groups conducting significant national security reviews followed different procedures for collecting outside input, illustrating that agencies, even those working in the same policy area, are inconsistent in their approaches to transparency initiatives. An advisory board, on behalf of National Security Adviser James Jones, this summer sought public input ...

Archives Strategizes for Gov 2.0

July 22, 2009 FROM NEXTGOV arrow The National Archives and Records Administration is out with a draft 2009 strategic plan that lays down a marker for some ambitious changes, including expanded responsibility for e-records management -- and departmentwide telework. The strategy states: NARA must provide leadership and be more agile in adapting to change in information ...

Army morale chief to use Web tools to connect with soldiers, their families

July 21, 2009 FROM NEXTGOV arrow The incoming head of a military division dedicated to supporting Army troops and their families plans to network through social media with soldiers' loved ones. "I'm going to be Tweeting [and] blogging to be able to connect externally as well as internally throughout the command," said Brig. Gen. Reuben Jones, ...

Transparency advocate: Fed Web sites have moral obligation

July 21, 2009 FROM NEXTGOV arrow Government transparency carries a moral aspect that is embodied on government Web sites as links, or connections to other Web pages, according to David Weinberger, a fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society and a former presidential campaign adviser. As opposed to viewing transparency in terms of ...

Nixon Tape Transcripts 'Interpretations'

July 20, 2009 FROM NEXTGOV arrow It likely is impossible to produce a perfect transcript of the infamous Nixon tapes because audio fidelity was not taken into consideration in designing the White House tape-recording system, reports Steven Aftergood, author of an e-newsletter and blog on government secrecy published by the nonprofit Federation of American Scientists. Aftergood ...

Recovery Board Won't Fix Ham Goof

July 20, 2009 FROM NEXTGOV arrow The independent board overseeing stimulus spending will not correct information on Recovery.gov that indicates the government is paying more than a million dollars for two pounds of frozen ham, a spokesman for the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board said on Monday. The blogosphere and WTOP reporters over the weekend and ...

OMB's dashboard site plays role in suspending 45 tech projects at VA

July 17, 2009 FROM NEXTGOV arrow Top officials with the Veterans Affairs Department, while compiling data for a recently launched White House Web site that details information technology projects, identified more than 45 failing projects that the agency subsequently suspended, federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra said in an interview with Nextgov on Friday. In preparing ...

40 years after moon landing, public unaware of NASA's tech contributions

July 17, 2009 FROM NEXTGOV arrow On July 20, NASA will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing, but space enthusiasts and lawmakers are concerned that the public is unaware of the space agency's work and how its technological developments have improved everyday life. Many Americans think NASA's major contributions to technology include primarily ...

Recovery.gov Maps Go Deeper

July 16, 2009 FROM NEXTGOV arrow Recovery.gov on Thursday retooled the maps on its Web site, as the official stimulus-monitoring portal prepares for a more thorough refresh later this summer. While agencies are not required to begin transmitting spending reports until October, they are beginning to report their weekly state-by-state distributions of money, according to Vice ...