White House: Let’s all hold hands and share the airwaves
The full backing of the U.S. executive branch is now behind the idea of spectrum sharing, which would split time between federal and commercial users on the wireless airwaves. Read more »
Think your IT consolidation efforts are slow? Check out the feds.
photo: YouTube screenshot
Congress may gear up to do something about IT waste and data center consolidation as called for by a 2010 report, based on a hearing held this week. Read more »
U.S. No.1 in demanding data on Twitter users
Twitter released its first-ever transparency report on Monday, which provides statistics on the number of times governments and individuals requested data on Twitter users or made takedown requests under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act during the first half of 2012. Read more »
The White House wants your advice on fighting piracy
Having learned a lesson from the backlash its peers in Congress endured recently, the White House is trying, presumably, to develop an anti-piracy strategy that’s actually sane. On Monday, it announced an open call for comments on a new IP strategy. Read more »
Think tank appoints team of execs to school D.C. on big data
The U.S. government is investing billions of dollars in big data technologies and research, and now it has a team of industry executives from IBM, Amazon and elsewhere ready and willing to share their views on how it can best transition into a data-driven institution. Read more »
They can’t all be SOPA: Are webizens ready to fight with nuance?
It’s hard to be a web user, especially since the government has gotten so interested in what we’re doing online. It’s even worse when we can’t figure out who — if anyone — is actually on our side, and what terms we’re willing to live with. Read more »
The government doesn’t want to mess up on big data
The federal government talked a lot about grand scientific visions when it unveiled its big data agenda last week, but the government has consumers on its mind, too. Specifically, it doesn’t want to unduly hinder innovation, and it might even be willing to provide data. Read more »
How federal money will spur a new breed of big data
By pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into big data research and development, the Obama administration thinks it can push the current state of the art well beyond what’s possible today, and into entirely new research areas. It’s a noble goal, but also a necessary one. Read more »
Obama’s big data plans: Lots of cash and lots of open data
The White House released the details of its $200 million-plus annual big data strategy, which includes lots of access to funding and data for researchers.The administration is banking on big data having revolutionary effects on par with the Internet, which federal dollars financed decades ago. Read more »
If Congress wants jobs, it can’t want SOPA
SOPA and PIPA supporters still have faith in their shelved bills, citing the jobs they’ll save as making the bills worthy of salvage. However, the Internet economy is a potential job creator the likes of which Hollywood — already its own worst enemy — could ever be. Read more »
Guardly app becomes an on-campus safety tool for students
Personal security app Guardly, which launched back in April 2011 on the iPhone and iPod touch, announced Thursday morning that it will now offer a special program for students at 67 universities and colleges across Canada, designed as an extension of on-campus security measures. Read more »
Feds rip a page out of Amazon’s playbook in data center move
Much has been written about the U.S. government’s plan to shutter 1,200 data centers. There’s been considerably less chatter about the fact that some of the remaining, revamped federal data centers are now leasing out excess capacity to other government agencies. Read more »
Governments get behind agile working
Next week at Net:Work in San Francisco, tech geeks and forward-thinking business folks will gather to discuss the untethered, agile future of work. But apparently it’s not just these private actors that are cheerleading these changes; several governments are getting behind the idea too. Read more »
With friends like the DMCA, who needs SOPA?
The proposed Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, garners a lot of hatred from commentators and the Internet industry as whole, but it’s only the next logical step after the problematic Digital Millenium Copyright Act, the safe harbor of which is more like a plea bargain. Read more »
Tech giants to feds: We need free trade for data
Google, IBM, Citi and a handful of other large U.S. technology and banking companies are pushing the U.S. government to take the lead on establishing global treaties that would assure the free flow of information across international borders. If the government is smart, it will listen. Read more »
Why Uncle Sam might be ready for Hadoop in the cloud
The federal government has been gung ho over cloud computing in the past few years, but is it ready to do big data in the cloud? Federal contractor GCE Federal is offering a cloud service based on Hadoop and designed for federal agencies to outsource analytics. Read more »
Can cloud computing spur ubiquitous broadband?
Buried in the talk about security, privacy and transnational data laws, it looks like the federal government’s cloud computing push also could bring progress on broadband accessibility. If Congress actually does push more, faster broadband, I think the promise of economic growth will drive it. Read more »
Proposed: German cloud fortress for security-conscious shops
A bold proposal from Reinhard Clemens, CEO of Deutsche Telekom’s T-systems group. He would like certifications to enable the creation of super-secure clouds in Germany to slake pent-up demand among customers that don’t want to expose their data to U.S. government, Patriot Act scrutiny. Read more »
Amazon targets U.S. government with GovCloud
Amazon Web Services has rolled out a new region, called GovCloud, designed specifically for federal government workloads. The region is designed to meet the myriad regulations that government agencies must meet when deploying new infrastructure, which have proven a hindrance in terms government cloud adoption. Read more »
Why shutting down 800 federal data centers won’t be easy
There has been a lot of talk about consolidation lately because federal agencies have until Oct. 7 to present their plans for slashing data center footprints by 38 percent by 2015. But how exactly the government will pull this off is still up for debate. Read more »
Will the government get serious on cloud security, data privacy?
When the federal government finally does undertake the task of legislating cloud computing, it seems very likely that security measures and data privacy will dominate. The TechAmerica Foundation’s CLOUD2 commission announced Tuesday a data- and security-heavy set of recommendations that mirror proposed legislation targeting the cloud. Read more »
Cleantech apocalypse? No, but it’s cyclical
The cries declaring a cleantech armageddon are coming keep on getting louder. But I don’t think cleantech is headed for a sharp crash. It’s been going through consolidation for some time now, and the cleantech sector is inherently cyclical and is heading into a down cycle. Read more »
Has Dropbox set the stage for a privacy revolution?
When the smoke clears, Dropbox’s newfound focus on transparency could turn out to be a great thing. Especially if it triggers an avalanche of other web-service providers following in its footsteps, making life easier for consumers and getting the federal government off their backs. Read more »
Feds offer $105M loan guarantee for “Project Liberty” biofuel plant
Poet’s so-called “Project Liberty” biofuel plant, which will use corn waste instead of edible corn, is getting some support from the U.S. government. On Thursday, the Department of Energy announced it will offer Poet a $105 million loan guarantee to build out Project Liberty in Iowa. Read more »
Cloud legislation takes center stage on Capitol Hill
Today the Brookings Institute will host a panel discussion about proposed legislation called the Cloud Computing Act of 2011. I spoke this morning with panelist Dan Reed of Microsoft about his thoughts on the draft legislation, based on what he has seen of it. Read more »
U.S. CIO Kundra leaving for Harvard post
Vivek Kundra, the U.S.’ first Chief Information Officer, is stepping down later this summer to take a fellowship position at Harvard University. Kundra has worked to transition the federal government to the cloud while strengthening cybersecurity and promoting more transparency and openness. Read more »
Will a Crackdown on Privacy Kill Big Data Innovation?
As a recent McKinsey Global Institute report on big data points out, finding the appropriate balance between consumer privacy and business innovation will play a key role in ensuring that big data and the overall web advance at the pace required by both business and consumers. Read more »
Will the Government Push Open Clouds Over the Goal Line?
TechAmerica’s Commission on the Leadership Opportunity in U.S. Deployment of the Cloud (CLOUD2) officially kicked off its three-month mission today to advise the Obama administration on cloud computing best practices, and pushing cloud interoperability is high on the commission’s list of goals. Read more »
Why Microsoft and Google Are Fighting Over Uncle Sam
Microsoft today accused Google of lying about its Google Apps for Government offering being certified for use by federal agencies, which is just the latest salvo in an ongoing war to be the premier provider in the lucrative market for cloud-based collaboration tools. Read more »
The Trick to Government Clouds? Cowboys, Apparently.
A new video from government IT network MeriTalk and IBM illustrates how it takes a special kind of vendor to corral cloud servers and make them suitable for cloud computing at the federal level. Apparently, it takes a “cloudboy” to wrangle servers and FISMA regulations. Read more »
Nov. 3: What We’re Reading About the Cloud
What’s new in the cloud computing world today? How about Oracle working for API interoperability, the White House pushing cloud-specific security guidelines, Dell potentially getting into the cloud-provider business, and a discussion of why cloud-based products can up-end the traditional sales model. Read more »
Subscriber Content
Why the Government Doesn’t Care if ‘Cloud’ is the Correct Term
Headlines this week were dominated by the general availability of Microsoft Windows Azure and, shockingly, even more debate over the definition of cloud computing. However, while analysts and pundits were debating how many companies will use Microsoft’s new cloud, or whether “hybrid cloud” is an accurate ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
