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My Top Three Articles Relating to the Federal Government From Last Friday

On Friday, October 24, I was on the Federal News Countdown, hosted by Francis Rose, along with Jenny Mattingley, director of government affairs for Shaw, Bransford and Roth. You can hear the show, and see a picture of an old, bald guy standing next to Jenny, here.

The format of the show is each guest talks about their third most important article, then their second and finally their most important article of the week. Both guests will comment on each other’s second and top articles.

My Top Three Articles Relating to the Federal Government From Last Friday

Everything Without Wires

One of the great things about teaching classes is how much one learns from the students.

I have been teaching a capstone graduate class at the University of Maryland University College, UMUC, http://www.umuc.edu/, about the Management of Technology and Innovation for a number of years. One of the running threads culminating in a discussion in the last session (which ended yesterday) relates to future technologies.

One of the threads this year focused on wireless technologies. One of the students linked to a product called Twine from a company called Supermechanical, http://supermechanical.com/. Twine is basically a sensor box, with some coming standard built-in and some requiring additional purchase and snap-on.Everything Without Wires

My Slides from the University of Maryland University College 2010 Annual Cybersecurity and Homeland Defense Symposium

Last month I was the keynote speaker at the University of Maryland University College 2010 Annual Cybersecurity and Homeland Defense Symposium and Job Fair, http://www.umuc.edu/securitystudies/cybersymposium_agenda.shtml.

A few people asked me to post my presentation, but I have found that my current job as the COO at Powertek Corporation has caused me to miss many of my self-imposed deadlines for doing many things, including updating my blog.My Slides from the University of Maryland University College 2010 Annual Cybersecurity and Homeland Defense Symposium

Technologies to Watch in 2010

Recently Wyatt Kash, the Editor in Chief for both Government Computer News and Defense Systems, wrote me a note saying that GCN was working on an article about technologies to watch in 2010 and that he wanted my two cents.

Naturally I had more than two cents worth of thoughts about the issue and most likely my take was so orthogonal to what they were working on that it ended up being of marginal utility.

On the other hand, it gave me an excuse to think about the topic and allowed me to fill out another blog post. With Wyatt’s permission, the rest of the entry is what I sent to him in response to his request.Technologies to Watch in 2010

SCADA Conference Presentation

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I am one of two representatives from CSC speaking at a SCADA Conference on Tuesday.

My focus, as usual, will be on the strategic reasons behind the movement to SCADA. Oops, perhaps I should back up. SCADA is an abbreviation for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition. It usually is used as a catch-all term dealing with computer controlled equipment or machinery (or plants or smart grids or, well you get the idea).

Many of these systems were controlled individually by locally provised systems and thus security, while relevant, wasn’t the most critical factor when designing such solutions. Now that many of these systems are managed over the Internet and an increasing percentage of what most would consider our/US economic critical infrastructure touches these systems, cyber issue have become a very hot topic.

So my presentation will focus on why this is happening and also touch a bit on some of the issues the Government is facing in this space. The second presenter from CSC is an industry expert in the utility, chemical and natural resource market and will provide some more detailed oversight and advice.SCADA Conference Presentation

Sensor Technology

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This Week

 Before I get to the topic of this blog entry, sensors, I wanted to mention that I have been privileged to play a small role in the Government 2.0 Expo, www.gov2expo.com, occurring Tuesday, September 8th, and the  Government 2.0 Summit, www.gov2summit.com, occurring Wednesday and Thursday, all at the DC Convention Center.

 The fact that so many people around the country are interested in experimenting with 2.0 technologies to improve the way Government interfaces to its external and internal stakeholders and in a fundamental fashion rethink how it should operate, is wonderful.

 Democracies only work well when there is vigorous debate and participation in the public square.  I encourage anyone who reads this blog, recently calculated in the ten’s of viewers, to access these web sites and get active in future such activities.

 Sensors

One of the ways to look at the development of Information Technology is the increased capabilities of fast computers, fast networks and fast sensors.

fast venn diagram a

 

Sensor Technology