McDonald wins DoD semantic Web work

McDonald Bradley Inc. has won a $7.8 million contract to help unify Defense Department back-end intelligence systems.

The little chip that could: radio frequency tags reshape logistics

<FONT SIZE=2>Imagine this dilemma: You are standing in the desert, overlooking 10,000 tractor-trailer-sized containers packed with everything needed to carry out a military operation. Your mission: find a pair of size 10 boots locked away in one of those metal vessels. What do you do?</FONT>

Tech success: SAS helps Marine Corps budgets get lean

<FONT SIZE=2>When the Marine Corps needed to carve fat from operating expenses at its bases, it turned to cutting-edge accounting software from SAS Institute Inc.</FONT>

Northrop Grumman wins IRS contract worth $118 million

Northrop Grumman Corp. is keeping the third iteration of a tax form processing contract with the Internal Revenue Service, a deal that could be worth $118 million.

NIST recommends dual biometrics for visas

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is recommending a dual biometric system of fingerprint and facial recognition, possibly stored on smart cards, to identify visa holders at the nation's borders.

VeriSign wins Bureau of Land Management PKI service

VeriSign Inc. will provide an agencywide public-key infrastructure service for a new smart-card personnel identification system being developed by the Bureau of Land Management.

Integrators in cybersecurity

<FONT SIZE=2>When his phone rang after midnight Saturday, Jan. 25, Brian Dunphy knew it was trouble. On the phone was the night crew at Symantec Corp.'s Security Operations Center in Alexandria, Va., giving Dunphy, a senior manager at the center, a heads-up that the Slammer worm had begun to attack servers around the world.

States hope e-gov equals budget savings

<FONT SIZE=2>State governments will rely heavily on e-government this year to squeeze every bit of efficiency from their operations as they stagger under the weight of huge and growing budget deficits.</FONT>

Oracle guns for government e-mail market

Within three years, Oracle Corp. hopes to have almost all government e-mail stored on agency databases and servers running its software, a company executive says.

IBM pushes Web services to mainstream

The installation of applications servers by the government will lead to greater use of Web services, IBM's director of Web services technology says.

Buy Lines: Homeland Security procurement -- This is how you do it

<FONT SIZE=2>In its recent report, the Volcker Commission suggested that personnel flexibilities granted to the Department of Homeland Security could serve as a model for reform across government. The same could be said for the department's procurement policies. </FONT>

Tech Success: Informatica helps Core lock up Colo. work

<FONT SIZE=2>With 16,000 inmates spread out among 20 institutions, the Colorado Department of Corrections needed a way to make inmate records available to all its facilities. It also needed a way to more quickly compile statistical reports. </FONT>

SGI's Linux superclustering to open new fed markets

<FONT SIZE=2>Silicon Graphics Inc. is trying to break open a new government market for high-end computers with a new technology that aggregates memory banks of multiple Linux machines. </FONT>

Let's talk

<FONT SIZE=2>Web site and e-mail traffic spiked Sept. 11, 2001. Worldwide, people were trying to find out what happened and locate loved ones after terrorists struck New York and Washington. But accurate information was hard to find, and some communications systems overloaded, including government Web sites.</FONT>

Lockheed chases Air Force contract

<FONT SIZE=2>Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, Md., has assembled a team to pursue a $500 million contract to build the battle management subsystem for the Air Force's Multi-Sensor Command and Control Aircraft program. </FONT>

Disruptive technologies

Two potentially disruptive technologies watched closely by government systems integrators today are open-source software and nanotechnology. Each holds the promise of radically changing the landscape of information technology.</FONT><FONT SIZE=2>The concept of open-source software, for example, challenges many notions about how software should be created and sold. "If you are an entrenched proprietary software vendor, this paradigm shift can be alarming," said <b>John Weathersby</b>, chairman of the Oxford, Miss.-based Open Source Software Institute.</FONT>

Navajo Nation selects J.D. Edwards' software

The largest Native American government in the country has chosen business automation software from J.D. Edwards & Co. to increase productivity.

Tech success: Now hiring

<FONT SIZE=2>The Immigration and Naturalization Service human resources operation was struggling with poor service and staff defections when the agency in July turned to a Web-based HR service provided by Avue Technologies Corp. of Tacoma, Wash.</FONT>

Chain of demand: Military looks to commercial logistics apps

<FONT SIZE=2>Ask Verle Hammond about logistics, and he replies: "Steaks and ice cream."</font><!--/STORY--><!--STORY--><FONT SIZE=2>Before founding Innovative Logistics Techniques Inc. in 1989, Hammond spent 28 years as a logistics officer for the Army, rising to the position of staff officer for the Army's Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics. Most memorable, however, was his tour of duty in Vietnam, where he was assigned to the First Infantry Division in 1966 and 1967.</FONT>

Rescue 21 gives boaters an extra lifejacket

<FONT SIZE=2>Officially called the National Distress and Response System Modernization Project, Rescue 21 is the equivalent of a 911 emergency system for boaters. </FONT>