Defenestrated

Masters in "E-Government"?

This one made me laugh. GCN reports that some folks think that e-government could be a new academic field, with its own theoretical structures. Why did I giggle at the idea of this? Well, for one, I don't think there's general agreement about what "e-government" is, never mind how it could be studied to better its implementation!

Britain toughens patient privacy

While catching up on my reading, I spotted an interesting article at FCW - Britain toughens patient privacy - which highlights how the UK's NHS intends to share patient health records, maintain privacy, and assure patients that their information will not be used for purposes outside of health care. While all this narrative is comforting, the devil is in the details and I'm still cynical about government's ability to realistically assure anyone of data privacy.

UK gov's PKI plans

The Register reports today on the UK government's plans to acquire cheap PKI certificates for every citizen, in order to better enable e-government services. The whole area of authentication for government services is a minefield, with governments worldwide taking different approaches. At 5UKP per certificate, the UK's plans still amount to a massive investment in what will probably be a proprietary system of some kind.

Implementing GAO's grants recommendations

A few of us in the Vendor and Consultant Group (VCG) of the National Grants Partnership (NGP) are putting together a white paper titled "Accelerating Grants Streamlining: Implementing the Recommendations of the GAO Grants Streamlining Report". GAO's April report regarding grants streamlining made I several recommendations but didn't provide any hint about how agencies could actually use them. We hope to start the ball rolling in making GAO's recommendations implementable.

Folks from all levels of government are helping us in this effort by reviewing our work as it develops. In working on the white paper,  it's become pretty clear to me that the government has missed a lot of important considerations and inputs from non-government people in their discussions of grants streamlining...or, at least, it appears that way. The paper will be published in early July. I'll post more about it once we get closer to the delivery date.

Antitrust Commissioners Have Interesting Friends

The Washington Post reported last week on "the Antitrust Modernization Commission. Created by Congress in 2002, the commission is examining a series of questions that challenge long-standing antitrust enforcement policies." Going from the list of commissioners on this body, Microsoft and other antitrust defendants have some very influential friends on board. The AMC site says that the Commission will "submit to Congress and the President a report, which will contain "recommendation[s] for legislative or administrative action the Commission considers to be appropriate." Shouldn't there be more of a firewall between parties closely associated with businesses proven guilty of antitrust and the development of new antitrust legislation recommendations?

I'm surprised this story didn't get more play when it was first published last week. I've posted it to Slashdot and BoingBoing to see if that might spur some interest.

New business model for TV distribution

Today's clearly an "interesting set of stories about digital media" day. Over at Mindjack, Mark Pesce has an article discussing how advertisers, broadcasters, and content producers might adapt to the new technology environment. Specifically, he argues that neither advertisers nor content producers need broadcasters to deliver their products. The means exist for advertisers and producers to work together to deliver content and messages to a prime audience (18-25 year old men).

I despise the idea of anyone despoiling my TV watching experience by placing advertisements on top of the picture, a la the "bugs" used by NBC, SkyOne, the BBC, etc. But if they'd let me receive content in the ways in which I want to receive it (e.g. via the Internet), I'd probably sign on.

I wish he'd spent more time discussing the implications for broadcasters, and how they could be mitigated. If advertisers are not willing to pay broadcasters for airtime in between shows, what will broadcasters need to do to remain viable businesses? More pertinently to today: what strategies are broadcasters likely to employ to retain their current business models, and how should society respond to them?

The Beeb Shall Inherit the Earth

Cory Doctorow's got a great article over at Wired.com, called The Beeb Shall Inherit the Earth. In it, Cory lists the many ways in which the BBC is steaming ahead of its peers in Europe and America by embracing the possibilities of technology change.

NasBackup and the amazing Butch

Turner Consulting Group, the company I work for (which is otherwise known as "TCG"), has a bunch of staff spread across the country, working from small offices that have little on-site support apart from the staff's own resources. This presents a number of technical challenges for data security and corporate data integrity. We've put in place measures such as our VPN, which has created an internal "LAN" that's proving very useful. But client backups have always been painful. For a while we were using Connected Online Backup, which was good but increasingly expensive as our backup needs grew, and Remote Backup, which was never as reliable as we need.  Our incredible CTO, Robert "Butch" Buccigrossi, has recently taken a really interesting tack, using an open source backup app called NasBackup.

NasBackup uses the rsync command to execute backups to a remote server. As Butch said, "rsync itself is as reliable as a rock.  The problem is that it is as user friendly as a rock.  The magic of NasBackup is that it places a simple but effective graphical user interface to a very cryptic command-line utility." That sounds simple enough but there's actually a great deal of techno-wizardry happening to make it easy for the end user and as reliable as one would expect. As with most nascent open source applications, NasBackup is being developed by a core set of people, with others adding changes organically as they modify the source code to meet their own needs. And this is exactly what Butch recently contributed to the project.

He took the source code, added some significant modifications, reorganized the source tree to make future modifications easier, and then contributed his work back into the project. You can see all the details in his posting here. As a result of his work, we now have a very reliable backup system that we're able to use from anywhere we happen to be, and the application is much easier for others to deploy, use, and expand upon.

Butch actually has a history of this kind of innovation. (A doctorate from UPenn is testament to that, too!) Another great example is SteelBlue, an application server that Butch and Al Crowley designed and built way back in the mid-90's, before security was really a built-in feature of most web apps.

My only serious complaint about Butch is that he appropriated the nickname that is rightfully mine before I joined the company. Damn him for being such an outstanding individual!

Want grants management info?

Then this page should make you happy! I've created a Grants Management category because a whole bunch of recent posts have been about that domain. You might think I'm a neat-freak and have to have everything in its place. If so, you've clearly never seen my office, or heard my wife's (quite valid) complaints.

NGP May 17th meeting agenda

As I blogged last week, the National Grants Partnership is holding an open meeting on May 17th. Here's the (updated) agenda . Everyone is welcome! We'll be discussing:

• The white paper we're producing (about which I'll post more details in due course)
• The Grants Management Line of Business
• Federal E-Awards and tracking funds at the state level
• State grants liaison
• State of Michigan eGrants System
• Grants.gov's interface with state, local, and tribal governments and non-profits
• Uniform Data Elements and Definitions

See you there!