Slow News Summer? Not Around Here

Summer may be long and sweltering, but there's no dearth of news here.A brief roundup of this issue's top stories finds Canada embarking on an electronic government initiative designed to make our northern neighbor the most connected nation in the world. Under an ambitious Government On-Line Initiative, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's has pledged that by 2004, Canadian citizens will be "able to access all government information and services online at the time and place of their choosing."Here in the United States, Computer Sciences Corp. has been trying to explain to investors why a major IT outsourcing contract it just received from the National Security Agency is worth only $2 billion ? and not $5 billion, as many had expected. The company's assertion that the Groundbreaker contract could expand eventually to $5 billion did not appear to sit well with the NSA, which said the contract still stands at a little more than $2 billion.CSC now says it's going to let NSA do the talking on Groundbreaker.And for this issue, the Washington Technology staff talked with Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., who, as chairman of the House Government Reform subcommittee on technology and procurement policy, has a hand in just about every piece of legislation affecting government technology. Davis shared his views regarding outsourcing, procurement reform and other issues of interest to the IT community.