As the Minister for Transformational Government, Tom Watson is responsible for the UK Government's strategy for both IT and public service modernization. In his spare time he is also a keen political blogger and was the first Member of Parliament to start a blog in 2003.

It is amazing to Watson that at age 41 he's considered a "veteran" blogger, as his blog turned five years old last month. Not only does he use his blog to talk politics and government policy, but he candidly discusses everything from world events to his passion for music and gardening. Watson had the idea to start a blog after reading an article in the British newspaper, The Guardian, about a blog that's been around since 1999. He thought "a politician could do this" to share ideas with the public. Watson had just been elected to Parliament in 2001 and didn't like the static parliamentary websites that didn't interact with the public in a meaningful way.

His blog grabbed attention when the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) did a story on it a few months after he started. So many people clicked on his blog that it crashed the server! In 2004, Watson won the New Media Award from the political magazine, the New Statesman, for using his blog to "further the democratic process."

Tom Watson has been a member of the left-leaning Labour Party since he was 15, and a member of the UK Parliament since 2001. He has twice served in the Government. He first served as a Defence minister, responsible for Armed Forces issues. In January of this year, he was appointed as the Minister for Transformational Government in the Cabinet Office.

Transformational Government is a U.K. government initiative created in 2005 to address how the world is being changed at an "incredible pace" by advances in technology. It is driven by a vision for delivering public services to citizens through technology that would change the way government works. It concentrates on three ideas: (1) IT-enabled government services must be designed around the citizens and delivered through modern delivery channels; (2) the government should move toward a shared-services culture; and (3) the government should broaden its professionalism in planning, delivering and managing IT-enabled change.

As minister for Transformational Government, Watson is charged with helping to revitalize Britain's public services and re-invent its government through IT. "We need to design our services around what citizens need and how they live their lives rather than around the silos of government and the self-interest of delivery agencies," Watson said. The world has changed and government needs to adjust.

The father of a young child and a soon-to-be newborn, Tom Watson likes to talk about "NetMums," a community of websites where local parents and parents-to-be can go to offer each other advice. It is a good example of how the most successful websites are those that bring together "user-generated" content created by the people who use the sites. If 100,000 moms met at a stadium to discuss the best ways to raise their children, swapping ideas with midwives, health workers and teachers, everyone - even politicians - would notice "and try to get in on the act," Watson said. "But when twice that number meet in the same place online, we just ignore them. That has to change."

There are early adopters in the British government that Watson points to. One, the National Health Service, which is controlled by the U.K.'s Department of Health and is the world's largest health service, launched a blog in March about diabetes. It brings together people who have the disease and those who treat it. They meet online in a public place to share ideas. Watson hopes forums like these will cultivate new "information communities" that will ultimately find new solutions to citizens' long-standing problems.

Under Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the U.K. is taking public service delivery to the next stage, Watson said. In March, he announced the creation of a taskforce that will help government officials use social media tools, such as blogs and discussion forums, to communicate with and listen to the public. Watson wants the taskforce to help change government policy, break down government silos, and help make government data more freely available to the public. The first step, according to Watson is helping public servants become more comfortable using internal blogs, wikis and other collaborative tools to communicate within government.

A big item on Minister Watson's agenda this year is consolidating more than 1,000 government websites to weed out unnecessary sites and leave only around 100, he told the audience at this year's Interagency Resources Management Conference (IRMCO) on April 14. Last year the British government made the unprecedented announcement that it would close down all but a handful of government websites and move their content to either Direct.gov.uk or businesslink.gov.uk. "I'd like to be known as the MP who pressed "delete" on more websites than anyone else," Watson said.

Federal agency CIOs have until May 1 to submit to OMB justifications supporting the "targeted" number of Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) their agencies need. The information should be e-mailed to isslob@dhs.gov.

This deadline is a follow-up to the November 20, 2007, memo that introduced the TIC initiative seeking to reduce the number of total federal government Internet connections to 50.

Federal agencies are lagging behind in implementing HSPD-12, GAO told a subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, April 9. HSPD-12, the Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12, requires all federal employees and contractors to undergo background checks and use a standardized identification card.

GAO testified on its new report assessing the progress selected agencies have made in implementing the standardized identification cards. GAO reviewed eight federal agencies and found none of them met the Oct. 27, 2007, deadline for issuing ID cards to all federal employees and contractors employed for less than 15 years.

Implementation of Identification Cards and DOD's Personnel Security Clearance Program Need Improvement stated that most of the reviewed agencies hadn't been using the electronic authentication capabilities on the cards, and hadn't developed plans to implement the capabilities. GAO pointed out that implementing HSPD-12 would require substantial financial investments from agencies. However, the report concluded, OMB didn't consider HSPD-12 to be a major investment, so it didn't require the agencies to detail how they would implement the capabilities of the cards.

HSPD-12's objectives of increasing the quality and security of credentialing practices across government, may not be fully achieved until OMB revises its approach, GAO said.

In prepared testimony, Karen Evans, administrator of E-Government and IT at OMB, reported on all federal agencies' progress as of March 1:

• 59% of federal employees (including military personnel) and 42% of contractors have completed background investigations
• 3% of employees and contractors have received Personal Identity Verification (PIV) credentials
• 0.8% of other individuals that agencies have identified as requiring credentials based on their long-term access to federal buildings or information have received PIV credentials
• An additional 141,000 individuals have completed their enrollment process to receive the credentials.

OMB will continue to track key performance metrics for HSPD-12 compliance, and recommended agencies look at a NIST draft special publication that describes how agencies can enable their physical access control systems to use PIV credentials.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that all 56 U.S. jurisdictions have qualified for extensions to comply with the REAL ID Act. The Act required citizens of non-compliant states would be barred from using state IDs to enter federal buildings or board airplanes after May 11.

The extensions will last until December 31, 2009. At that time states must upgrade their systems to check for the lawful status of applicants in order for their licenses and ID cards to be accepted as official forms of ID.

Maine, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Montana passed laws opting out of compliance with the REAL ID federal law and wrote to DHS stating their licenses already complied with many of the security aspects of REAL ID. DHS accepted the letters as requests for extensions and granted them. The other two states were Oklahoma and Washington.

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) collected best practices and strategies for state CIOs to recruit and keep high-performing IT employees, as a shortage of state IT workers is expected in the coming years. The predicted shortage is due in part to a lack of interest in public sector jobs by those entering the workforce and the likely retirements of older workers, NASCIO says.

Eighty percent of respondents to NASCIO's 2007 survey on the state IT workforce said they had trouble filling open IT positions. As a result, states need to reexamine their tactics to attract and retain top talent, according to NASCIO. The Workforce Evolution: Recruiting and Retaining State IT Employees explores the traditional and innovative strategies states have found successful.

GSA will scrap its original awards for the Alliant and the Alliant Small Business contracts and reassess all bidders. The GSA decided to re-evaluate all the bids on the $50 billion Alliant contract after a federal judge put it on hold until an agreement between the agency and protesting bidders could be reached.

Although the judge's ruling did not affect the $15 billion Alliant Small Business contract, GSA decided to look at those bids again in order to ensure the evaluations were conducted properly, the Federal Times reports.

In the meantime, agencies can procure IT products and services using GSA's other governmentwide acquisition contracts such as: Millennia, Millennia Lite, Answer, 8(a) STARS, VETS, COMMITS NexGen and the IT Schedule 70 programs.

Agencies are directed to documents that will help them choose information systems and services to manage federal records, in a March 31 memo from Karen Evans, OMB administrator for e-government and IT.

• E-Government Electronic Records Management Initiative. These best practices help agencies transfer electronic records to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in a variety of data types and formats so they can be preserved for future use.
• DOD Electronic Records Management Software Application Design Criteria Standard, Version 2. NARA recommends agencies use the Department of Defense (DOD) standard and DOD-certified products as a baseline when selecting records management application software.
• Federal Enterprise Architecture Records Management Profile, version 1.0. Agencies should use this profile to identify records management issues, risks, benefits and challenges during the business process and IT investment planning. Agencies can also use NARA checklists when implementing the goals of the Records Management Profile.
• The Federal Enterprise Architecture Practice Guidance. The guidance focuses on segment architecture development and provides a context for applying the Records Management Profile to augment specific architectures to reflect records management requirements, shared services and technology solutions.
• NARA Guidance for Implementing Section 207(e) of the E-Government Act. NARA's Guidance highlights agency responsibilities to identify and schedule electronic records and to transfer to NARA electronic records requiring permanent retention.
• OMB Memorandum 06-02, "Improving Public Access to and Dissemination of Government Information and Using the Federal Enterprise Architecture Data Reference Model". This OMB memo identifies procedures to organize and categorize information and make it searchable across agencies.

USA Services Intergovernmental Solutions has published its semi-annual newsletter that examines technology's impact on the role of the government CIO.

In a collection of articles from 17 individuals around the world who understand the role of the CIO in the 21st century, the newsletter presents contrasting views on the CIO's place in a government organization and the importance of effective IT on modern governing.

The many notable contributors include:

• Karen Evans, U.S. Administrator of E-Government and IT
• Mark Forman, former U.S. Administrator of E-Government and IT
• Teri Takai, CIO, State of California, and former President of the National Association of State CIOs
• Wanda Gibson, CIO/CTO, Fairfax County, Virginia
• Ken Cochrane, CIO, Government of Canada
• John Suffolk, CIO, Government of the United Kingdom
• Bill Vajda, CIO, U.S. Department of Education
• Anthony Williams, Vice President for Government 2.0, New Paradigm
• Douglas Merrill, Vice President, Engineering, and Google CIO

Clay Johnson, OMB deputy director for management, released detailed instructions for the President's Management Agenda (PMA) scorecard meetings for the second quarter of FY 2008.

The Office of Personnel Management and OMB are re-evaluating the scores agencies received in the second quarter to make sure the success standards are still being met. Agencies will have until June 30 to meet any standard deemed not met by the process. If they fail to make the necessary adjustments the agency's overall score will be downgraded, according to the March 20 memo.

Expanded Electronic Government information was given to help evaluate agency status and progress, including the following items:

• EA Implementation
• Cost/Schedule/Performance for Major IT
• Security of all IT Systems
• E-Gov Implementation
• Maintaining Green Items.

The National Association of Government Communicators' (NAGC) survey on trends and changes, found that 94% of government communicators plan to use their agency websites more frequently to deliver information to the public, as that's where people are going for news. Eighty percent of government communicators think their agency websites need improving, and they also see their website role expanding.

The NAGC, an organization dedicated to advancing government communications, compiled these results after surveying 340 professional communicators from local, county, state and federal governments.

Eighty percent of respondents also say they will spend more time communicating to the public through e-newsletters, podcasts and blogs than they have in the past. Currently only 5% blog and 7% produce podcasts. The communicators think they will spend less time producing hard-copy newsletters and magazines in the future.

FCC. The Federal Communications Commission adopted technical requirements April 9 that will allow U.S. wireless carriers to send text alerts to cell phones during disasters or other emergencies.

Both carriers and subscribers will be able to opt out of the service. Participating wireless carriers will be required to make the messages accessible to people with disabilities by transmitting the alerts via vibration and audio attention signals.

There are three categories of messages:

• Presidential Alerts — national-emergency related alerts that would preempt any other pending alerts
• Imminent Threat Alerts — alerts with information on emergencies that could pose an imminent risk to people's lives
• Child Abduction Emergency/AMBER Alerts — Alerts related to missing or runaway children

Wireless carriers that want to participate must comply with the technical requirements within 10 months of a federal agency being designated to collect and transmit the alerts to them. In the future, the alerts may include audio and video messages.

Internet security company Symantec commissioned a study with market research firm Applied Research-West to compare the attitudes of "millennial" employees concerning Web 2.0 tools in the workplace with their co-workers. The study surveyed 600 people, including 200 "millennials" (born after 1980), 200 workers born before 1980 and 200 IT decision makers.

The results showed that millennials use Web 2.0 tools at work more often than other co-workers; that workers and management had differing views on how well they are trained on IT policies; and that IT managers have seen increased exposure to security risks in the last five years.

Other findings from the study:

• 50% of IT decision makers have policies banning the use of Web 2.0 applications in the office
• But 69% of millennials will use whatever application/device/technology they want at work, regardless of the company's IT policy.
• And 54% of IT decision makers have recognized some benefit from the latest wave of Web 2.0 applications and personal smart devices among employees.

Excellence.gov Awards. The Industry Advisory Council named five winners of its Excellence.gov Awards, from 20 finalists, on March 31. The awards are given to programs that creatively use IT to improve their organization's performance. The winners were:

• Business Gateway Initiative, Small Business Administration
• Distributed Learning System, Department of the Army, Program Executive Office Enterprise Information Systems (PEO-EIS)
• Enterprise Income Verification System, Housing and Urban Development Department
• Medical Communications for Combat Casualty Care, Department of the Army
• USA Services, General Services Administration

Azimuth Awards. David M. Wennergren, deputy CIO of the Defense Department, and Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, were announced as the winners of the CIO Council's Azimuth Awards on April 1. The annual awards are given to one government and one industry professional for their lifetime contributions, and support of the federal government IT community.

IRMCO Awards. The General Services Administration presented its individual and team Interagency Resources Management Conference (IRMCO) Awards at IRMCO on April 14. Curtis Turner from the Department of Labor won for his work on GovBenefits.gov and the Joint Strike Fighter Team from the Department of the Air Force won for its 24/7 Electronic Warfare Support Facility program.

CIO Council Leadership Awards. Also presented at IRMCO were the CIO Council Leadership Awards to three people and one team:

• Darlene Meskell, director, GSA's Intergovernmental Solutions, won for starting a quarterly forum where CIOs from five countries share ideas.
• John Moses, director, EPA's eRulemaking program, won for leading efforts to develop and deploy Regulations.gov and the Federal Docket Management System.
• Michael Sorrento, director, Small Business Administration's Disaster Credit Management System's operation center, won for guiding the Electronic Loan Application system to become a virtual process for efficient loan decisions for disaster victims.
• The Federal Desktop Core Configuration Team, which is an interagency effort, won for developing standards for federal computer systems.

USA Services Awards. The General Services Administration also honored three programs with its first annual Citizen Service Award at IRMCO. The three programs have provided excellent and innovative customer service.

• 1st place — Participant Assistance Program, Employee Benefits Security Administration, Department of Labor
• 2nd place — USAJOBS, Office of Personnel Management
• 3rd place — Cancer Information Service, National Institutes of Health

100 Most Influential People in IT. Five government officials from around the globe were included in eWeek's list of 100 Most Influential People in IT, released April 4. This year's list includes leaders of many technology companies, the creators of "One Laptop Per Child" and authors like Jim Collins and Nicolas Barr. The editors of eWeek, CIO Insight and Baseline publications chose individuals who are shaping IT products, how the products are delivered and the way people work. The five government officials were:

• Kevin Martin, chairman, Federal Communications Commission (#36)
• Navy Rear Admiral Elizabeth Hight, vice director, Defense Information Systems Agency (#41)
• Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany (#64)
• Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. (#73)
• Ben Bernanke, chairman, Federal Reserve Board (#100).

Also available in pdf 64 kb

• The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) is accepting nominations for its 2008 Recognition Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Information Technology until June 3.
• The Association for Federal Information Resources Management (AFFIRM) is accepting nominations for its annual Leadership Awards until May 2.

National Defense University Federal Virtual Worlds Expo: Implementing the Future
Washington, DC
April 24-25

The 9th Annual Knowledge Management Conference and Exhibition
Washington, DC
April 28-29

National Association of Government Communicators 2008 Communications School
Albuquerque, NM
April 28-May 1

2008 NASCIO Midyear Conference
Chantilly, VA
April 29-May 2

Collaborative Expedition Workshop: Identity Management (Interoperability Week at NIST)
Gaithersburg, MD
April 30

OASIS: eGov Workshop on Electronic Identity & Citizen-Centric Administration
Santa Clara, CA
May 1

2008 Government Web Managers Conference & Best Practice Awards Ceremony
Arlington, VA
May 5-6

GTC West 08: Conference on California's Future
Sacramento, CA
May 12-16

Networx, TIC and Beyond: Connecting the Dots
McLean, VA
May 13

USA Services: Contact Center Solutions Meeting
Washington, DC
May 14

Collaborative Expedition Workshop: Certification of High Confidence Software and Systems
Arlington, VA
May 20

Green Computing Summit 2008
Washington, DC
May 20

Defense Systems Seminar
San Diego, CA
May 21

The Council of State Governments Spring Conference
Lexington, KY
May 29-June 1

Government Leadership Summit 2008
Williamsburg, VA
June 1-3

ACT/IAC Management of Change Conference
Norfolk, VA
June 8-10

The Next Generation Data Center - Fueling Web 2.0 Applications
Washington, DC
June 12

Government Health IT 2008
Washington, DC
June 12-13

AFFIRM Annual Awards Luncheon
Washington, DC
June 19

Joint Warfighting Conference 2008
Virginia Beach, VA
June 17-19

AFCEA: Solutions Series - Identity Assurance
Washington, DC
June 26-27

The 7th Enterprise Architecture Conference & Exhibition
Washington, DC
September 9-10

GTC East 08
Albany, NY
September 23-25

GEIA 2008 Vision Conference
Springfield, VA
October 22-23

ACT/IAC Executive Leadership Conference
Colonial Williamsburg, VA
October 26-28

The 6th Annual Program Management Summit
Washington, DC
November 18-19

The 9th Security Conference & Exhibition
Washington, DC
November 20-21

The Council of State Governments Annual Conference
Omaha, NE
December 4-7

NECCC Annual Conference
Seattle, WA
December 10-12

Comments: We welcome your feedback.

Please send your comments, concerns, complaints and questions to dotgovbuzz@gsa.gov.

Check out our previous editions at www.usa.gov/dotgovbuzz.html.

The DotGov Buzz is produced by the following individuals in the GSA Office of Citizen Services and Communications:

Darlene Meskell
Andrea Noce
Bryant Jones.