DataStream

XXXSPLITXXX-The departments of Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs last year auctioned about 110,000 homes using the Internet and other telecommunications, according to Tower Communications, the Los Angeles-based company that built the auction system the agencies used.The transaction volume represented $7 billion of real estate sale value and approximately 2 percent of the 6 million homes sold in the United States last year. The system allows 80,000 real estate brokers to place bids 24 hours a day via the Internet, an automated interactive voice response phone system and a customer service center. The company plans to develop new systems to help state and local governments provide financing and other assistance to first-time home buyers, a segment which industry experts estimate at 42 percent of all home buyers.XXXSPLITXXX-Electronic Data Systems Corp. will help more than 1 million students around the world take part in a collaborative, online learning environment during the 12th annual JASON Project Expedition, held Jan. 29 to Feb. 9 in Hawaii. The project introduces students in fourth through ninth grades in Europe, North America and Asia to new scientific tools and experiences. It fosters interest in science and technology and helps teachers improve their instruction.Through the Plano, Texas, company's multiple Internet components, streaming video and other multimedia tools and services, students will interact in real time with the JASON expedition as if they are with about 30 student "argonauts" in Hawaii. Together, they will study the islands' geographies and ecosystems and determine the fate of the islands.EDS is the founding sponsor providing Internet solutions for the JASON Project, begun in 1989 by Robert Ballard, the scientist who discovered the wreckage of the R.M.S. Titanic.XXXSPLITXXX-Affiliated Computer Services Inc. of Dallas won a six-month task order from the state of West Virginia to assess the influence of federal health insurance law on the state's Medicaid Management Information System.The task order is in addition to a contract ACS has with West Virginia. The value of the task order was not disclosed in the company's Jan. 10 announcement. ACS' subsidiaries Consultec Inc. of Atlanta and Birch & Davis Inc., Silver Spring, Md., will analyze both the system and policy impact of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.The project will result in a document that details required policy and business function changes, recommended technical solutions and costs related to West Virginia HIPAA implementation. XXXSPLITXXX-E-government services portal GovWorks Inc. of New York filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and plans to sell its transaction processing business to American Management Systems Inc. of Fairfax, Va., and eOne Global LP of Menlo Park, Calif.In its filing, GovWorks called itself a victim of the "growth-at-any-cost craze" that has killed a slew of Internet companies. The company claimed assets of $8 million and liabilities of $40 million. The filing follows months of unrest at the company. In November 2000, GovWorks reduced its staff to fewer than 60 people and cut expenses in hopes of cooling the burn rate to less than $1 million per month, court papers said.The deal with AMS and eOne will not be complete until the bankruptcy court finalizes certain documents. In March 2000, AMS took an undisclosed equity stake in GovWorks. Founded in late 1998 as Public Data Systems, GovWorks employed 250 people in April 2000.GovWorks' first layoffs were part of a restructuring to shift to an application services provider model. But competitors offered the same services at lower or no cost, and the staff cuts and cost reductions continued. A plan devised last summer to raise $25 million in financing fell flat, and efforts to find a buyer were to no avail.XXXSPLITXXX-Bryan Mundy, 36, a cofounder and chairman of EzGov Inc., died Jan. 15 in a fire at his Atlanta home. The fire was not detected because of a faulty smoke alarm, the reported Jan. 16. The newspaper reported Mundy and a female companion died of smoke inhalation as flames shot through the single-story white brick house in midtown Atlanta just before 5 a.m.The woman was not identified pending notification of relatives. Police do not suspect foul play, the paper said.Atlanta-based EzGov is an Internet company that provides software to government agencies. The software is used to bring services online that previously were handled through the mail or in person. EzGov has 65 customers and about 150 employees.XXXSPLITXXX-Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda, Md., has won a 10-year task order that could be worth up to $400 million to provide a broad range of information technology services to the Office of the Secretary of Defense.Under the contract, the company will provide seat management, network services, application packages and development, information assurance, document management and enterprise e-mail through its systems solutions unit.Lockheed Martin hopes to provide seat management for up to 7,500 seats in the Washington metropolitan area under this contract. The first order for 1,000 seats is expected to be fielded in the next few months.This win follows one in December that Lockheed Martin received, a 10-year, $378 million network management task order under GSA's Millennia contract for the Defense Department's Network Infrastructure Services Agency. Millennia is a $25 billion vehicle awarded to 12 companies used by agencies looking to field large IT projects quickly.XXXSPLITXXX-Private-sector contractors doing business with the Defense Department can now access their past performance report cards through the department's Past Performance Automated Information System, the Defense Logistics Agency announced Jan. 11.The Web-based system, at http://dodppais.navy.mil, was opened to contractors Dec. 1. Government agencies have been using it since July 2000. The system contains more than 9,000 contractor past performance report cards covering over $310 billion in contracts across the Defense Department.In recent years, government agencies have placed increasing importance on contractors' previous performance when awarding new jobs. The system gives defense agencies and contractors a central mechanism to research the contractors' performance.Contractors can access their report cards with a password. They cannot access competitors' evaluations unless the competitor provides its password. A proposal to open the database to federal agencies outside the Defense Department is under consideration, spokesman Jack Hooper said.