Is Your Privacy Worth 50 Foiled Terror Plots?
Postal Service Eyes Cuba
Tangherlini As GSA's Mr. Fix-It?
Lew Cleans Up Signature for the Nation's Currency
The Plan to Open More Military Jobs to Women
Should Leaders Ever Lie?
AUTHOR ARCHIVES
Joseph Marks
Staff Correspondent
Joseph Marks covers government technology issues, social media, Gov 2.0 and global Internet freedom for Nextgov. He previously reported on federal litigation and legal policy for Law360 and on local, state and regional issues for two Midwestern newspapers. He also interned for Congressional Quarterly’s Homeland Security section and the Associated Press’s Jerusalem Bureau. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s in international affairs from Georgetown.
How technology will test the Constitution
December 13, 2011
FROM NEXTGOV
As technology advances, governments and citizens will face constitutional and legal questions that could barely have been imagined before, legal scholars at the Brookings Institution said Tuesday. Could Google or Facebook, in 2030, for instance, live stream feeds from security cameras dotting the globe? Or would that violate U.S. citizens' ...
It's apps vs. mobile-enabled websites in GSA smackdown
December 12, 2011
FROM NEXTGOV
Agencies looking to push their content onto mobile platforms are better off building mobile-enabled websites that can be accessed from any smartphone or tablet than building native apps that live only on one particular platform, Neil Bonner, a mobile specialist at the Transportation Security Administration, said recently. Unlike native apps, ...
Clinton Condemns Spy Software Sales to Syria
December 9, 2011
FROM NEXTGOV
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized Western technology companies suspected of selling surveillance technology to Syria and other repressive regimes in a speech on Internet Freedom Thursday, while acknowledging dual use technologies and third-party resellers sometimes make it difficult for tech companies to keep their hands clean. "When companies sell ...
Federal CIO outlines shared services strategy
December 9, 2011
FROM NEXTGOV
Agencies must create a plan to move at least two agency-specific information technology services to shared interagency platforms by the end of 2012, according to the draft version of federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel's shared services strategy released Friday. The draft strategy also requires agency IT leaders to create ...
IT project reviews have saved $4 billion since 2010, according to CIO
December 8, 2011
FROM NEXTGOV
This story has been updated. Federal agencies have saved nearly $4 billion in the past year through TechStat reviews that resulted in scaling back or canceling information technology projects that are over budget or delayed, officials said Thursday. The TechStat model, aimed at weeding out underperforming contracts, was launched by ...
Federal IT Dashboard improving but still not wholly accurate
December 8, 2011
FROM NEXTGOV
Postings to the Office of Management and Budget's Federal IT Dashboard are more accurate and timely than 18 months ago, but they still aren't giving a perfectly clear picture of government information technology spending, according to a watchdog report released Wednesday. The Federal IT Dashboard ranks about 800 major IT ...
State Launches Virtual Embassy Tehran
December 7, 2011
FROM NEXTGOV
The State Department launched Virtual Embassy Tehran, on Tuesday, a website officials hope will "work as a bridge between the American and Iranian people." The site can't perform most functions of a bricks and mortar embassy, such as issuing visas, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a video message. ...
USDA plans internal app store in 2012
December 7, 2011
FROM NEXTGOV
The Agriculture Department is developing a mobile application it believes will cut in half the travel required of its Natural Resources Conservation Service employees working on projects to reduce chemical runoff at farms, an Agriculture official said Wednesday. The department also is working on a mobile app for veterinarians reporting ...
Social media isn't a major path to radicalization
December 7, 2011
FROM NEXTGOV
Al Qaeda and other Muslim extremist groups are active on Facebook, YouTube and other social media, but that doesn't mean they're making much impact, experts testified before a House panel Tuesday. Internet discussions are a poor replacement for in-person extremist recruiting because they lack the same level of intimidation and ...
If you think you'll save money with cloud computing, think again
December 6, 2011
FROM NEXTGOV
This article has been corrected to remove an error in the government’s cloud adoption timeline. More than half of organizational users saved little or no money after transitioning to cloud computing, according to a new study, and only 14 percent actually downsized their information technology departments after moving to the ...
