Mike Howell comes from a family that liked to play together. They took numerous camping trips and national park excursions, including one that sticks out in his memory –a 5-week, 10,000 mile cross-country "odyssey" in a Winnebago when he was in his early teens. This voyage took them from their home in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to Seattle, down to San Diego, across to Georgia and back.

These experiences fostered in Howell an affinity for the outdoors and led him to pursue a Forest Science degree, and a career in the federal agency that manages the nation's parks and forests. Howell's adventurous spirit will come in handy at OMB, where, in January, he will become the IT point person for the new administration.

A career civil servant, he is replacing Tim Young, a political appointee who will be leaving government before the new administration is in place. The overlap in their terms is meant to ensure that federal IT policy is managed on an ongoing basis through the transition.

Although Howell has been on the job for only a month, he is excited to play his part in helping the government "not backslide and start over." As the Bush administration carried forward ideas from the Clinton era, he says, "I like the idea of building on what's here, sustaining and extending it because it's not about Democrat or Republican, it's about programs that work."

At the moment, that means working hard to prepare orientation information on CIOs and IT for the next President and his staff. This task brings on an added challenge as five of the 12 people in the E-gov and IT office are new to OMB.

Mike Howell doesn't have a formal IT background - one thing people may be surprised to learn about him, he says. He received his CIO certification from the National Defense University in 2005, about 13 years after he started working in the field. But he's always had an interest in science and technology, which was influenced by his father's job as a customer engineer at IBM.

He came to OMB from the Department of the Interior, where he had been CIO since May 2007. Although he wasn't necessarily looking for a new job, when he heard the E-gov deputy position was moving from political to career, he thought it was a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" that was too great to pass up.

Howell's journey began in the late '70s at Pennsylvania State University, where he received a bachelor's degree in Forest Science and a minor in Wildlife Management, which took him to Idaho and Oregon. The Department of the Interior eventually brought him back east and to Washington, D.C.

After graduating in 1977, true to the family's wandering spirit, Howell "packed up all my earthly belongings, put them in my car and drove to Idaho" looking for work. He joined the U.S. Forest Service in the Coeur d'Alene National Forest, where he inventoried the forest, measuring trees and assessing the wildlife habitats for the purposes of forest management.

He loved working outdoors in a beautiful part of the country, but there wasn't much room for advancement, and competition from the growing ranks of environmental studies graduates was fierce. Howell took a job in Oregon with Interior in part because it offered a professional career track and because his interests and degree aligned well with the agency's mission to manage and conserve federally-owned lands.

During his seven years in Interior's Bureau of Land Management(BLM) working on forest inventory, land use planning, and environmental policy analysis, Howell found himself in the midst of a national controversy. The northern spotted owl, whose habitat in the Pacific Northwest had been severely reduced by logging activity, had been listed as a threatened species in 1990. A court order stopped logging in the 24.5 million acres in Oregon, Washington and Northern California in 1991, generating years of conflict between the logging industry and environmentalists.

When President Clinton established a team to address the interrelated issues of old growth forests, spotted owls, and timber harvesting, Mike Howell joined it to manage IT and GIS support for the nationally recognized scientists tasked to analyze massive amounts of data and prepare a report within 90 days on how to solve these problems.

As the branch chief of the BLM's Oregon State Office, Howell was responsible for software application development, GIS applications and data and records management programs. He led BLM's efforts to calculate sustainable timber harvest levels under alternative management approaches, another "socio-economic big deal" whose outcome, he says, mattered to a lot of people. Adopted in 1994, the plan is a set of federal policies that would protect and manage the impacted species in the Pacific Northwest while still allowing the production of timber products.

In 1996, Howell moved to the BLM headquarters' budget office for what he thought would be a two-year stint in Washington. Like many others from outside the beltway, he expected to return to the Northwest after his assignment was completed. But his family put down roots in the area, and they have been in D.C. for the past 12 years. The adventure has just begun.

OMB released a memo on October 21 to clarify the responsibilities and authorities of federal agency CIOs. The memo also directs agencies to submit a signed memorandum by December 1, that summarizes their "current alignment with each element of the framework" described in the memo. The summary can include information and activities underway.

Heads of agencies are required to consult with OMB prior to appointing an agency-appointed CIO and to advise OMB on the responsibilities of the CIO.

The memo describes several aspects of the framework:

• Organizational structure and reporting relationships of IT executives and senior managers
• Authorities to set IT policy and implementing procedures
• Authorities to select, plan, control and evaluate investments in and acquisition of information systems and IT.

The International Council for IT in Government Administration (ICA) held its 42nd annual conference in Seoul, South Korea, October 20-23. With representatives from 25 countries, ICA is the premier international organization of government IT officials. The theme of the conference was "Anticipating the Challenges of Our Next Generations," which broadly addressed the issues of a younger government workforce and customer base, social networking, and societal changes generated by new means of communication, and the unique requirements for government in identity management, security and data protection.

Among the features of the conference was a discussion of the future role of government CIOs vis a vis globalization, product lifecycle, workforce, security and identity, green IT, and Web 2.0. The national CIOs from Canada, Ken Cochrane; from the United Kingdom, John Suffolk; and from New Zealand, Laurence Millar, gave their views on six of the most important topics for CIOs, globalization, product lifecycle, next generation workforce, security and identity, green IT, and Web 2.0. Some of the points they made were:

• Globalization raises new problems for national IT managers, particularly in the area of identity management across boundaries, organizational changes required to handle mass migration, creating a consolidated set of requirements that are embedded in government software products so they do not need to be constantly revised.
• Unlike private companies, governments are "circumspect" about putting data offshore. Citizens don't mind having their own personal data reside offshore but they don't want the government to put their information offshore.
• Identity management is going to keep coming up as a fundamental issue when working across borders. Privacy is more important to some national cultures and in some generations than in others. In a global world we are going to have to deal with the differences.
• Government will have to take steps to make public service attractive to young people, by branding government as a great career choice, making it easier for IT workers (in particular) to move around in their government jobs, modernizing the work environment so any government worker can use and network across the whole enterprise.
• Government needs to be more imaginative in recruiting smart young people, e.g., by encouraging students to consider a public service career in pre-high school years; using "collective recruiting," and attracting generalists with analytical skills, relationship-building skills and social-science backgrounds as well as technical skills.
• The public sector has the best career choices of anywhere in the world. We're getting smarter at selling subtle values. People come to the public sector for a different set of values, vs the banking sector, for example.
• We have good security plans within the agencies of government, but nothing that goes across agencies. We need to move away from a singular focus to move across the board.

The annual country reports submitted to ICA by 18 of the participating countries, provide a unique perspective on IT trends and activities in national governments around the world. This year's reports focus on the governance models and the infrastructure countries are developing to transform government, and how they use IT to enhance value and improve service to the public.

Among the trends cited in a summary of the reports are:

Countries have added functions and augmented the responsibilities of the CIO position. For example, Belgium has strengthened its IT function by giving the minister in charge responsibility for telecommunications, administrative simplification and economic development to the role.

Governments are using ICT to solve social problems, not just enable existing services. Estonia is using mobile technology and GIS software to enable a citizens' initiative to clean up illegally dumped waste. The project used Google Earth-based positioning software and GPS-enabled mobile phones to map and locate dumping sites that need to be cleaned up.

There is also a growing interest in government outreach and civic participation using Web 2.0 technologies. The UK has established a "Customer Insight Forum" to gather insight from the public about services that will influence Public Service Agreements.

OMB released guidance to help improve the federal government's incident response capability by reducing the number of Trusted Internet Connections (TIC). This guidance will help agencies work with the Department of Homeland Security's National Cyber Security Division to comply with the OMB directives on limiting the number of external connections.

Agencies that have been identified as TIC access providers need to:

• Comply with critical TIC technical capabilities according to the agency's Statement of Capability
• Continue to reduce and consolidate external connections to identified TIC access points
• Collaborate with the Cyber Security Division in determining agency technical readiness to coordinate/schedule installation of the Einstein program
• Execute a Memorandum of Agreement and Service Level Agreement between DHS and the agency's CIO.

All agencies need to update their current Plan of Action and Milestones and submit them by October 15.

DHS will work with agencies to complete setup/installation activities for Einstein and other DHS-specific tasks based on the prioritized needs for each agency.

The GSA Federal Acquisition Service created a Multiple Award Schedules (MAS) Program Office to provide strategic alignment for and champion the overall success of the GSA Schedules program. The office will develop and implement acquisition policy and guidance, define shared systems requirements and coordinate innovative program-wide improvements. Its charter was signed in July and it will be a part of the Office of Acquisition Management at GSA.

The MAS Office will partner with the business portfolios of: General Supplies and Services, Integrated Technology Services and Travel, Motor Vehicle and Card Services, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, through a Governance Council, to promote collaboration and mutual goals.

The Council for Excellence in Government's Committee on the Status and Future of Federal e-Rulemaking issued a report on the current state of the federal e-rulemaking system. The committee is sponsored by the Section of Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice of the American Bar Association and includes experts, researchers and regulatory practitioners.

It found by the end of 2008, 170 federal rulemaking entities will be using the Federal Docket Management System, which is a common database for rulemaking documents with a single public Web site (www.regulations.gov) where users can view proposed rules and submit comments.

Achieving the Potential: The Future of Federal e-Rulemaking, A Report to Congress and the President includes these recommendations:

• Design a new governance/management/funding approach to foster astute and timely decision-making, incorporate the perspectives of stakeholders including the public, and provide financial stability through a dedicated appropriation



• Enhance the capabilities of the Federal Docket Management System through a new systems architecture so that it can effectively support agencies with modest rulemaking activities, while opening the system to a dynamic process of growth and innovation in which new functions, tools and services are developed by both the larger rulemaking agencies and interested individuals and organizations outside the government



• Provide more complete and understandable access to regulatory materials; enhance the functionality of the government-wide portal; and urge agencies to use their own Web sites to offer more detailed online presentations of specific programs, rules and issues; develop techniques to achieve more effective forms of public involvement to expand and extend public participation



• Improve the efficacy of the process and rulemaking outcomes by facilitating processes for discovering and disseminating e-rulemaking best practices; identifying and overcoming barriers to the evolution of e-rulemaking; and encouraging agencies to explore innovative tools and methods for information management and interaction with the public.

The President's Identity Theft Task Force issued a report on its effort to implement the recommendations from its Strategic Plan, which was released in April 2007. The report points out the need for a comprehensive and coordinated response to identity theft from both the public and private sectors. The task force was created in 2006 by Executive Order 13402 that charged 15 federal departments and agencies with crafting a national strategy to combat identity theft.

The task force has successfully carried out most of the 31 recommendations, which were grouped into four areas:

• Data Protection — The task force member agencies launched initiatives to make the federal government a better custodian of sensitive personal information. OMB educated agencies on improving data security practices and is monitoring the performance. OPM led an inter-agency initiative to eliminate the unnecessary use of Social Security numbers (SSN) in human resource functions, and individual agencies also began to eliminate unnecessary SSN use.



• Avoiding Data Misuse — The task force examined ways to prevent identity theft by making it more difficult for thieves to misuse consumer data. Member agencies held two public workshops for public and private sector representatives and consumer advocates to explore ways to improve customer authentication processes that would prevent thieves from using stolen information to access existing accounts or open new ones. One of the workshops addressed the use of SSNs in the authentication process and whether there are less sensitive substitutes.



• Victim Assistance — During the past year member agencies provided identity theft training to more than 900 law enforcement officers from 250 agencies, trained victim assistance counselors and provided grants to organizations that directly help identity theft victims. Members developed and posted a Victim Statement of Rights and are working with the American Bar Association on a pro bono legal assistance program for victims.



• Deterrence — The task force worked to improve the ability of law enforcement to investigate, prosecute and punish identity thieves by proposing legislation to Congress; improving coordination and training for local law enforcers; and targeting criminal enforcement initiatives. Members are enhancing international cooperation by partnering with foreign law enforcement agencies in identity theft investigations, providing training and assistance and encouraging better information sharing between law enforcement agencies and the private sector.

Citizen satisfaction with federal government websites rose 1.4%, showing improvement for the second consecutive quarter, according to American Customer Satisfaction Index measurements released October 28.

Improving search capabilities was key to raising the website satisfaction levels to 73.9 on the 100-point ACSI scale. The University of Michigan produces the ACSI survey of more than 100 government websites.

The study investigates which elements have the most impact on improving satisfaction and finds that search is the top priority for 96% of e-government sites with a search function. Functionality is a top priority for 57% of sites, and navigation for 37%.

Survey results also reveal that more websites are improving over time than declining, and 25% of sites measured a score of 80 or higher, which is considered the threshold for superior satisfaction.

GSA's Intergovernmental Solutions office, a division of the Office of Citizen Services, has published a newsletter on Green IT that explores the growing awareness that governments, businesses, and nongovernmental organizations need to manage their use of technology in an environmentally responsible manner.

In its annual survey of members, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) found that consolidation and virtualization are the top priorities for state CIOs in 2009. The survey is conducted annually to identify and prioritize the top issues facing state government.

Top 10 Strategies, Management Processes and Solutions:

• Consolidation
• Shared Services
• Budget and Cost Control
• Security
• Electronic Records Management/Digital Preservation/E-Discovery
• ERP Strategy
• Green IT
• Transparency
• Health IT
• Governance

Top 10 Technologies, Applications and Tools:

• Virtualization
• Document/Content/E-mail Management
• Legacy Application Modernization and Upgrade
• Networking, Voice and Data Communications, Unified Communications
• Web 2.0
• Green IT Technologies and Solutions
• Identity and Access Management
• Geospatial Analysis and GIS
• Business Intelligence and Analytics Applications
• Mobile Workforce Enablement

The American Council for Technology and the Industry Advisory Council (ACT/IAC) presented Deirdre Lee, director of Defense and Intelligence Markets for Compusearch, with the Janice K. Mendenhall Spirit of Leadership Award at the Executive Leadership Conference October 27. The award is given in recognition of an individual's contributions to the IT community and promoting government and industry partnerships.

ACT/IAC also gave out five other annual awards at the conference. The ACT Chair Award went to Prashant Gaur of the Defense Business Transformation Agency and the IAC Chair Award went to Tom Suder of Concert Technologies. Three other award winners were:

• Mike Mullen, INDUS Corp. – Individual Contributor of the Year (Industry)
• Mike Carleton, HHS – Individual Contributor of the Year (Government)
• Joel Horwitz, AEGIS.net – Rookie of the Year

GCN Awards. Government Computer News honored extraordinary IT accomplishments and significant contributions from federal, state and local government with its 21st annual GCN Awards.

Ten government agencies were presented with the awards:

• Alabama Department of Homeland Security - Virtual Alabama
• GSA Office of Acquisition Systems - Integrated Acquisition Environment
• Office of the Director of National Intelligence - Intelligence Community Enterprise Solutions
• Air Force Material Command - Air Force Global Enterprise Tracking System
• Agriculture Department - The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's Phytosanitary Certificate Issuance and Tracking system
• Health and Human Services Department - Information Collection Request, Review and Approval System
• Housing and Urban Development Department - National Housing Locator System
• Labor Department - GovBenefits.gov
• Environmental Protection Agency - GeoData Gateway and EPA Metadata Editor
• Navy - Navy Enterprise Resource Planning Program

Five executives received GCN awards:

• Karen Evans, OMB administrator for E-Government and IT - Hall of Fame
• Charles Croom, former director of the Defense Information Systems Agency - Hall of Fame
• Molly O'Neill, CIO, EPA - Civilian IT Executive of the Year
• Ken Heitkamp, former Air Force assistant CIO for life cycle management - Defense IT Executive of the Year
• Curt Kolcun, vice president of Microsoft's Federal Division - Industry IT Executive of the Year

GISLAs. (ISC)2, the non-profit certification organization, bestowed its fifth annual Government Information Security Leadership Awards on four information security professionals. The winners were:

• Pam Rusk - information systems security manager, Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Regions and Center Operations
• Michael Williams - executive director, IT and CIO/director, IT Customer Service Organization of the Defense Contract Management Agency
• Adair Martinez - CISSP, PMP, deputy assistant secretary for information protection and risk management, Department of Veterans Affairs
• Steven Busch - senior managing consultant, IBM Business Consulting Services.

Federal Computer Week is accepting nominations for its 2009 Federal 100 Awards program until December 12.

The Cgov Community of Practice for government contact center managers is accepting nominations for its 2009 Government Customer Support Excellence Awards until December 1.

Also available in pdf 156 kb

Collaborative Expedition Workshop: Green IT
Ballston, VA
November 3

2008 World Usability Day
November 13

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

National Electronic Commerce Coordinating Council Annual Conference
Seattle, WA
December 10-12

AFCEA Solutions Series - CyberSpace/CyberWarfare
Washington, DC
December 10-11

Collaborative Expedition Workshop: The Science of Science and Information Policy
Ballston, VA
December 17

FOSE 2009
Washington, DC
March 10-12, 2009

GSA's IRMCO
Cambridge, MD
April 19-22, 2009

ACT/IAC 2009 Management of Change Conference
Norfolk, VA
May 31-June 2, 2009

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

Darlene Meskell
Andrea Noce
Bryant Jones.