To further a spirit of cooperation, agencies also are beginning to share information from disparate databases by sending some of that data to common data warehouses, where it can be merged, queried and analyzed.
Intelligence is an imperfect science. Just ask CIA or the 9/11 Commission. Or EDS Corp., the contractor tasked with wrangling thousands of legacy systems into the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet. When EDS started the job, the Navy thought it had about 5,000 applications to integrate. EDS found more than 100,000.
Federal agencies have done an admirable job posting hundreds of millions of pages on intranets and public Web sites. But finding the right information can be an adventure. That's why agencies need powerful search engines.
In the private sector, mobile computing has all but disappeared from the list of "Next Big Things." Once touted as the technology that would revolutionize how people work, it has been stifled by a lack of services and inadequate bandwidth.
In the private sector, mobile computing has all but disappeared from the list of "Next Big Things." Once touted as the technology that would revolutionize how people work, it has been stifled by a lack of services and inadequate bandwidth.
In Washington, image means more than just looking good. It also means creating forms and documents that are easily accessible to government workers and the public. In fact, imaging is so much in demand these days, it's hard to find an agency that doesn't have some sort of imaging project going on.
Reading the daily headlines, one would think that everything is business as usual in Washington. But a fundamental change is under way in how the federal government handles its day-to-day information technology operations. Changes such as electronic government initiatives are being made possible by major shifts in the basic enterprise computing infrastructure. "The federal marketplace is undergoing a transformation from agency-centric, legacy-based, stove-piped systems and applications to a more private-sector model," said Pete Scalone of Computer Associates International Inc.
Reading the daily headlines, one would think that everything is business as usual in Washington. Democrats and Republicans still fight each other's agendas. Politicians are under fire for financial misdeeds and extramarital activities. All the usual stuff.
A sputtering new economy has high-tech companies refocusing attention on the old economy's largest enterprise ? the federal government ? where they see nothing but expansion ahead. "There is a significant push at the federal level to implement a wide range of e-business initiatives," said Bill Smithson, vice president for information technologies at Materials, Communications and Computers Corp.
A sputtering new economy has high-tech companies refocusing attention on the old economy's largest enterprise ? the federal government ? where they see nothing but expansion ahead.
