The Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s) Office of Federal Procurement Policy Deputy Administrator Lesley Field explained how OMB is working on its category management, training procurement officers, and data use modernization to accelerate and sharpen Federal procurement at the Acquisition Innovation CXO Tech Forum today. […]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released the finalized framework of the Federal Data Strategy, as well as a draft of its year one action plan today, cementing the administration’s approach to data under the President’s Management Agenda and setting out new activities for agencies to complete. […]

Despite near-universal trust in the science of mathematics, human biases can readily creep into data analysis and design of algorithms, leading author and algorithmic auditor Cathy O’Neil to warn that biases baked into algorithms may create sweeping consequences for both individuals and society as a whole.  […]

As government agencies start and continue to migrate to cloud platforms, it is important to adopt multi-cloud environments and back it up with smart use of data, said Department of Agriculture (USDA) Associate CIO Edward Reyelts and Maryland Department of Information Technology (IT) Secretary Michael Leahy. […]

Data alone isn’t the new bacon. Data fusion is the new bacon, and data exploitation is the new gold. […]

Sens. Roy Blunt, R-Mont., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, introduced the Commercial Facial Recognition Privacy Act yesterday in a bipartisan effort to regulate facial recognition technology to protect consumers and their data. […]

While a Federal government-wide database on fees would require a lot of resources to implement, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) should aim to make more fee data available to the public, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Thursday. […]

Department of Justice (DOJ) CIO Joseph Klimavicz spoke about the importance of how everyday citizens should be able to reach people in leadership positions in the Federal government and the soon-to-be-released IT strategy for FY 2019-2021. […]

The Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) said the agency needs to improve in two key legislative areas related to IT management, according to OIG’s semiannual report released Tuesday and covering October 2017 through March 2018. […]

Industry leaders and business advocates in the ever-expanding Internet of Things (IoT) sector said Tuesday they support the aims of new draft legislation in the House directing the Secretary of Commerce to undertake comprehensive research on the IoT industry with an eye toward regulating it. […]

Machine learning innovation is kicking into high gear. Investment in this field and data science increased 9.3 percent in 2016 to $2.4 billion, according to Gartner. On top of that, the Federal government is increasing its focus on machine learning, with the MGT Act, Technology Modernization Fund, and the President’s Management Agenda all supporting transformation efforts. […]

It is imperative for Federal agencies to effectively utilize threat intelligence combined with the power and agility of the cloud to better defend their networks. But, today, agencies are lacking adequate situational awareness to give their IT and security teams more clarity about what is going on in their networked environments. So, what’s holding them back? […]

Federal IT comes with some baggage–much of its data is trapped in legacy technologies.  Agencies can’t realistically pick everything up and move to more modern infrastructure.  So how do they bridge the gap?  MeriTalk’s latest report found that improving data sharing between new and legacy systems is the number one solution to accelerating Federal IT modernization.  The “Modernizing the Monolith” study explores why legacy systems are so persistent and outlines a path to modernizing with them, instead of in spite of them. […]

The Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet took a deep dive look at the future of broadband in the United States during a hearing on Tuesday. “To make next-generation broadband a reality and position the United States so it can win the global race to 5G, we should modernize outdated rules that delay and add unnecessary costs to broadband infrastructure deployment,” said subcommittee Chairman Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss. […]

Bruce Greenstein, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) CTO knows Feds need help combating the Opioid crisis. That’s why HHS convened the Opioid Symposium last week at the Hubert H. Humphrey Building, bringing Federal, state and industry players together to brainstorm on one of the nation’s toughest issues. Fourteen sessions later, and sharing data, innovating, communicating, and remembering the human impacts emerged as the key takeaways. […]

U.S. Customs and Border Protection established protocol to coordinate drone missions with other Federal agencies, but has yet to develop such procedures within two of its three operational centers, according to a Government Accountability Office report. […]

While education hasn’t gotten much air time in the 2016 election cycle, one common refrain from both parties is that all children deserve a high-quality education. The Data Quality Campaign a nonprofit policy and advocacy organization designed to bring the education community together to empower educators, families, and policymakers, shares the goal of a high-quality education for every student. […]

Should email and other personal electronic data be protected by the Fourth Amendment in the same way that a written letter or other personal effects are protected? This and other questions like it were debated today before the House Judiciary Committee. The hearing comes as HR 699, the Email Privacy Act, approaches a House vote. […]

With cybersecurity threats mushrooming across the Federal government, members of a House committee said this week that the Education Department is failing to protect the data of millions of Americans. DoEd’s systems have been penetrated many times by the inspector general, and the department has failed to correct many recommendations from the IG and General […]