June 2010

GSA's Tech Team Keeps Busy

The General Services Administration's revamped Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies has its hands full with technology projects designed to engage the public, promote openness and improve government innovation and efficiency.

The in support of the Obama administration's open government initiative, OCSIT is looking at what's ahead for federal websites and building tools such as improved search capabilities to help the public interact beyond the information available on a site's front page. And FedSpace, a Facebook-like site announced in April, will be a "game-changer" to expand collaboration and knowledge out across government.

Gordon Snow, FBI's new top cyber cop

A Q&A with Gordon Snow of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Cyber Division.

As the FBI's top cyber cop, he's on the front lines of federal efforts to thwart cyber crime, espionage and potential online terrorist activity. Snow, who took over as FBI assistant director in charge of the bureau's Cyber Division earlier this year, served in the Marine Corps for more than 10 years and has a master's degree in business administration and law degree. He has held bureau posts in Silicon Valley, Detroit and Afghanistan, which would seem to be the ideal background for someone in his position. In addition, he recently helped draft the government's Cyber Counterintelligence Plan while detailed to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and he has directed the bureau's National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force. But even for someone as prepared as Snow, leading the Cyber Division has to be a challenge. In 2009, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center Web site received 336,655 submissions. And cyber crime poses special challenges for law enforcement because online perpetrators can use various technologies to hide their identities. The problem is also inherently international, as indicated by the cyber intrusion agents that the FBI has stationed in foreign countries to work side by side with computer investigators.

McChrystal Affair Risks Military-Media Trust

During a discussion of the McChrystal affair on NPR's Diane Rehm Show Wednesday, James Kitfield, a senior correspondent for National Journal, made a point that no doubt has crossed the mind of many reporters who cover the military — the fallout from the infamous Rolling Stone piece has just made their jobs harder. The takeaway for many senior military officers is likely to be that there's only a downside to talking with the media so why bother? Kitfield said, "There will be no embeds in Afghanistan in higher headquarters... for quite a while. This has probably set back the reporting quite a ways because the trust between the military and the media has just been shot out of the water."

The Politico Opens the Kimono. And then Pretends it Never Happened.

[Commentary] As everyone who pays attention to the news knows by now, an article appeared in Rolling Stone this week by freelance reporter Michael Hastings that wound up forcing the resignation of General Stanley A. McChrystal as commander of American troops in Afghanistan. Hastings had been invited to hang out with McChrystal and his staff and was witness to their contempt for the civilian side of the war effort, which he reported on. It was a shock to everyone in Washington that McChrystal would make such a blunder, and the press began immediately to dissect it. The Politico was so hopped up about the story that it took the extraordinary step of posting on its site a PDF of Rolling Stone's article because Rolling Stone had not put it online fast enough. In one of the many articles The Politico ran about the episode the following observation was made by reporters Gordon Lubold and Carol E. Lee:

"McChrystal, an expert on counterterrorism and counterinsurgency, has long been thought to be uniquely qualified to lead in Afghanistan. But he is not known for being media savvy. Hastings, who has covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for two years, according to the magazine, is not well-known within the Defense Department. And as a freelance reporter, Hastings would be considered a bigger risk to be given unfettered access, compared with a beat reporter, who would not risk burning bridges by publishing many of McChrystal's remarks."

Now this seemed to several observers—and I was one—a reveal. Think about what the Politico is saying: an experienced beat reporter is less of a risk for a powerful figure like McChrystal because an experienced beat reporter would probably not want to "burn bridges" with key sources by telling the world what happens when those sources let their guard down.

Why Were South Carolina Voters So Uninformed?

When unemployed veteran Alvin Greene won the Democratic nomination for United States Senate in South Carolina with 59 percent of the vote, despite pending criminal charges and a total lack of any apparent campaign effort, media speculation went into overdrive. Could Greene's win over Vic Rawl have been caused simply by his being placed first on the ballot? Could African-Americans have concluded from the names of the candidates that Greene was also African-American? Could uninformed voters have believed they were casting a ballot for singer Al Green? Or could the result have had a more nefarious cause, such as vote fraud?

Few people, however, are asking the most important question: Why were the voters so uninformed? In a major party primary for an office as important as United States senator, the media have a responsibility to cover the election in a way that provides enough information for voters to cast intelligent ballots. How well did South Carolina's media meet that responsibility? Numerous studies have indicated that an overwhelming majority of the public obtains its information about elections largely from television. Nevertheless, the Web sites for the ABC affiliates in Charleston and Florence, CBS in Columbia and Spartanburg, NBC in Columbia and Greenville, and Fox in Columbia and Greenville do not seem to have run a single story about the Democratic primary candidates. Only WCSC in Charleston had any coverage, and it was merely two sentences in an Associated Press roundup story about the primary. It would not have helped voters very much, stating in its entirety, "Former legislator and judge Vic Rawl of Charleston has raised $185,000 since announcing in March. Unemployed military veteran Alvin Greene of Manning has raised nothing."

HHS: Grappling with privacy vs. accessibility

The "consumer choice technology" demonstration that the federal Health IT Policy Committee's new privacy and security Tiger Team will host June 29 in Washington aims to showcase projects and systems that address one of healthcare reform's biggest IT challenges: balancing the opportunities of health-information sharing with the need to keep individual patients' data secure.

One such initiative scheduled to be presented is a Web-based record-keeping system called Clinical Management for Behavioral Health Services (CMBHS), developed by the Texas Department of State Health Services. The CMBHS system is designed to give behavioral-health patients some control over their medical records' release, letting patients mask specific data elements within their records, for example, and decide whether to release their complete medical history to all of their healthcare providers.

Oil Saga Spills into Social Media

Eight weeks after the oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico triggered one of the largest environmental catastrophes in the country's history, attention to the subject hit unprecedented levels in social media last week.

While the disaster has consistently garnered major coverage in the American mainstream press over the past two months, it had not been a major subject of interest in blogs or on Twitter. But from June 14-18, 22% of the news links on blogs and 14% on Twitter were about the oil crisis according to New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism -- the highest levels for the story in both platforms. Why did social media interest in the topic spike dramatically last week? It's not entirely clear, but it was a week in which the oil story clearly became more political and Washington-centric. President Obama delivered an Oval Office speech, BP officials met with Obama, and BP boss Tony Hayward faced a tough grilling on Capitol Hill.

Libraries Connect Communities: Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study

Today's public libraries are vital community technology hubs that millions of Americans rely on for their first and often only choice for Internet access.

Despite increased demand for library computers, however, libraries typically have not seen a corresponding increase in budgets and many are challenged to provide enough computers or fast-enough connection speeds to meet demand. The Public Library Funding and Technology Access Study is a multi-year project that builds on the longest-running and largest study of Internet connectivity in public libraries. The study assesses public access to computers, the Internet and Internet-related services in U.S. public libraries, as well as the impact of library funding changes on connectivity, technology deployment and sustainability in FY2007-2010. Built on the longest-running and largest study of Internet connectivity in public libraries, begun in 1994 by John Carlo Bertot and Charles R. McClure, this study provides information that can help library directors and library IT staff benchmark and advocate for technology resources in communities across the nation. The data are also of importance for policymakers at local, state, and federal levels, manufacturers of information and communication technologies, and the communities served.

School librarians read writing on the wall: Jobs are disappearing as the budget crisis deepens

Since few state or federal laws mandate school libraries or librarians, and their job losses are small compared with classroom teacher layoffs, library layoffs may seem minor to some observers. But librarians say few administrators or parents understand how involved they are in classroom learning and school technology. A trip to the school library may be a weekly highlight for children who love to read, but for kids from low-income families, it's more of the necessity than a treat, according to literacy experts and the librarians who help kids struggling in high school without a home computer.

Unlike the overflowing bookshelves of wealthier families, 61 percent of low-income families own no age-appropriate books, according to a 2009 study commissioned by Jumpstart on "America's Early Childhood Literacy Gap." They depend on libraries to keep them from falling behind in school. While the American Association of School Librarians says some states like California, Michigan and Arizona have been hit especially hard, a map of cutbacks on the organization's website shows jobs are disappearing across the nation. "We're doing a disservice to our kids, especially those in poverty, if we don't have the resources they need," said association president Cassandra Barnett, who is also the school librarian at the Fayetteville, Ark., High School library.

Westmoreland libraries try to make up for drop in state dollars

With Pennsylvania's July 1 budget deadline looming, some Westmoreland County library officials are bracing for yet another drop in state funding and are considering options to make up those losses.

Library officials said that local support for fundraising events such as auctions, book sales, bake sales and letter-writing campaigns is important in the face of dwindling state dollars. They contend that everyone should have a stake in maintaining viable libraries. "Public libraries are the great common denominator," said Denise Sticha, director of the Westmoreland Federated Library System and the Murrysville Public Library.

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