Sigh-ber
It’s been a while since I opined on matters I know little about…so I thought I would continue that tradition by putting out a few thoughts about all things cyber. No doubt you have all heard about cyber-xxxxx until you are becoming immune to the cries of “Danger Will Robinson.” And that is a real problem because cyber crime, cyber snooping, cyber intrusion, cyber war, and all manner of other things is perhaps the most significant challenge to the well-being of the good ole US of A in this century, IMHO. I’ve attended a series of meetings and had a couple of...
Read MoreWhat’s after Electronic Payments ?
What’s the next big thing in efficiency at Treasury now that electronic payments is well on its way to full implementation? This paper by John B. Hill, the Assistant Commissioner for Payments and Chief Disbursing Officer at Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service proposes that the next BIG Thing is E-Invoicing. Here is his paper: Download (PDF, Unknown) Let us know what you...
Read MoreDATA ACT: MANY PATHS — SAME DESTINATION
There are two areas of the DATA Act implementation that I will briefly discuss. These two areas are closely linked together: XBRL as the standard for data; and the opportunity to leverage numerous approaches and software to obtain the goals of the DATA Act. XBRL as the Standard Having XBRL as the standard for data may indeed be the right long term goal. However, it is very likely that implementing XBRL as the standard for all data sources will not be complete until well after the deadline for implementation of the DATA Act. In the meantime, Treasury and OMB need to develop a strategy...
Read MoreCyber: Too Big Not To Fail
I admit that I am not much of a cyber-techie. I do know a little about computers though. When Microsoft announced they were not supporting Windows XT a while back, I had a bit of a cyber-rebellion because I refuse to spend anymore money on Mircrosoft Operating Systems, which I assume, much like the NSA, report your every keystroke and video back to some central repository for “troubleshooting.” Right….But I instead elected to move to linux. I’ve not noticed a degradation in what I can do, don’t have to worry about virus checkers and internet security programs that...
Read MoreDoD Budget Cuts. [n.] 1. Less of more
I saw an article in Defense News this morning that said that the DoD is safe for now from budget cuts. For those outside the Beltway (and unfortunately many inside as well) that translates into the notion that the Defense Department will skate by again by avoiding the “cuts” threatened by the Budget Control Act of 2011 ( commonly referred to as Sequestration). But for those in the know, that just means the DoD can look for more of an increase in money than currently scheduled. For all of the hubbub about “cuts”, one must understand that in DoD budget parlance,...
Read MoreGovernment Transformation Initiative
Here’s a statistic I read in Federal Computer Week that will open your eyes: “Last year, the GAO documented close to $10 billion in failed IT projects and continues to identify hundreds of millions of dollars in duplicative and ineffective IT systems.” The problem is although we have plenty of watchdog organizations to discover these sorts of facts, agencies seem to be powerless to fix them. The Government Transformation Initiative is designed to provide the President and Congress with specific courses of action to fix the problems uncovered by our various watchdog...
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