Issue 3: March 28, 2006

• The Buzz: Citizen satisfaction with Federal websites increased in 2005.



• CIO Spotlight: Charles Havekost, Department of Health and Human Services



• CIO Council: George Strawn, National Science Foundation CIO, is the new co-chair of the Council's Best Practices Committee.



• E-Gov Initiatives: USA Services issues new guidelines for improved service to citizens, and GAO recommends building on them for better oversight of Federal contact centers.



• Lines of Business: The Financial Management LOB will release agency guidance this spring, OMB Controller Linda Combs tells the House Subcommittee on Government Management, Finance and Accountability



• Congress: The House Government Reform Committee gives agencies a combined D+ for IT security in oversight hearings on the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA).



• Policy: Minimum security requirements for Federal information and information systems have been established by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.



• State and Local: The National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO) joins Federal agencies in a breakthrough information-sharing initiative.



• Kudos: Fed 100 Awards, Azimuth Awards, FOSE Showcase of Excellence awards, Forbes Best of the Web.



• Transitions: Changes in the IT Community.



• Web Manager University: Registration opens for spring courses.



• Upcoming Events Calendar



• Comments: We welcome your feedback at dotgovbuzz@gsa.gov.

The overall satisfaction with Federal websites in calendar year 2005, at 73.5, was 2.2% higher than the comparable rating for 2004, according to Foresee Results, Inc., which measures citizen satisfaction with 91 Federal websites using its American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).

Although the most recent quarterly results were down slightly from the previous quarter, "the fact that the Federal government managed to not only maintain, but improve citizen satisfaction during 2005 is impressive when you consider the hurricanes, war and other challenges faced by the government last year," according to the Foresee analysis released March 21.

"Over the longer term, as shown in year-over-year results, citizen satisfaction with e-government has improved at a competitive pace with online private sector sites measured by the ACSI, which is commendable given budget constraints and regulatory restrictions faced by e-government sites."

Fourteen of the 91 sites scored 80 or higher, averaging 82.6 altogether for October-December 2005. "As a result of higher satisfaction, citizens who visit these sites are more likely to exhibit specific future behaviors tied to channel loyalty," Foresee reported. "Compared to the quarter's aggregate scores for all measured sites, citizens visiting these 14 sites, on aggregate, were 8.7% more likely to recommend the site, 5.4% more likely to return to the site and 5% more likely to consider the site a primary resource."

The 14 high-scoring sites include:

3 Social Security Administration websites, including benefits applications, the Medicare prescription drug plan, and business services online;

10 health-related sites, including MedlinePlus.gov in English and Spanish, the National Cancer Institute, the National Women's Health Information Center, and 6 sites managed by the National Institutes of Health; and

The Federal Citizen Information Center site at www.pueblo.gsa.gov

Charlie Havekost has been training all his life to succeed as an IT leader, beginning when he was a 16-year-old gas jockey and his boss sent him to a course on sales techniques (specifically, how to sell automotive tires and batteries).

"Learning to sell was an important step, useful throughout my IT career," he said. "An IT leader needs to promote-'sell'-projects, to communicate-'sell'-organizational missions to staff, and to describe-'sell'-capabilities and functions to customers."

He has learned this lesson repeatedly in over 25 years in the Federal government, and a couple of years with a startup telecommunications company.

At the National Institutes for Health (NIH), where he began his government career as a junior fellow, he co-created an online training system that enabled thousands of HHS employees to complete online courses. Throughout his time at NIH, he was an advocate for innovative technologies like relational database management systems, electronic mail and wide-area networking.

He left government in 1999 to develop the customer support organization for a startup telecommunications firm, but came back to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in 2001 as the initial program manager for the Grants.gov e-government initiative.

There, he found many opportunities to promote, communicate and sell the benefits of interagency collaboration to the agencies that manage more than 900 Federal grant programs. Before becoming HHS CIO, he worked with a staff on detail from across the government and with 26 partner agencies to consolidate the grant process and create a single portal that enables all Federal grant customers to find and apply for $400 billion in grants online.

Federal Computer Week named him one of the Federal 100 outstanding IT leaders in 2004 for "how far he was able to take the Grants.gov e-government initiative."

"Havekost had to find a way for everyone involved to collaborate, which included Federal agencies, state and local governments, industry and academic organizations, individuals, the Office of Management and Budget and the overseers in Congress," FCW said.

As CIO and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Information Technology for HHS, Havekost provides leadership and direction for IT investments and infrastructure services. And he is still involved in initiatives with a governmentwide reach.

He is an active participant in other e-government initiatives, such as GovBenefits and USA Services, in addition to managing Grants.gov, and he participates in the two HHS Line of Business initiatives-Federal Health Architecture and Grants Management.

The need to achieve economies of scale through consolidation, streamlining, outsourcing and standardization, especially in areas like grants management, is one of the most important issues facing federal IT officials in 2006, he said.

Recently named co-chair of the CIO Council's Architecture and Infrastructure Committee along with HUD CIO Lisa Schlosser, Charlie Havekost will have new challenges to meet as the committee undertakes a variety of projects using the Federal Enterprise Architecture to consolidate, streamline and make an impact on how the government does business.

Under their leadership, the committee will continue the work of the FEA Reference Model maintenance effort-designed to facilitate cross-agency analysis and identification of duplicative investments, gaps and opportunities for governmentwide collaboration-and hopes to complete a Consolidated Reference Model in April. In addition, it will identify services and data conventions that can demonstrate the value of architectural solutions and encourage agencies to employ re-usable components.

Havekost earned a mid-career masters degree in Information Resources Management from Syracuse University in 1999. Getting an advanced degree is a career-advancement move that he recommends to others in the IT workforce. "It's hard work, especially when combined with career and personal responsibilities, but well worth the effort," he said.

"Seek out mentors," he suggests to those seeking to get ahead in the IT field. "Be open to advice from the cagey veterans. And when the time comes to take on a new project or a new job, make the move with vigor and confidence."

He seems to have taken his own advice.

He was named at the Council's March 15th meeting. The committee's other co-chair has not yet been designated.

The Council also discussed the following issues at the meeting:

• The Council's new strategic planning effort, which is being led by Dave Wennergren, Council vice chair.
• In order to meet the President's Management Agenda Scorecard requirements, agencies must sign MOUs and make funds available by March 31 for the E-Gov initiatives in which they participate.
• OMB is reviewing agency Enterprise Architecture self-assessments, which were due February 28. The review, conducted by the Enterprise Architecture Program Management Office, will focus on how effective the agency's enterprise architecture has been in driving capital planning and guiding IT investments in support of the agency's mission. Version 2.0 of the Enterprise Architecture Framework and other assessment documents are available on www.egov.gov.
• The Council's Executive Committee heard an update March 6th on Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 (HSPD-12) identity management policy from Clay Johnson, OMB Deputy Director for Management; Karen Evans, OMB Administrator for E-Gov and IT; John Sindelar, Acting Deputy Administrator, GSA Office of Governmentwide Policy; Jeanette Thornton, OMB policy analyst; and Chris Niedermayer, Associate CIO, Department of Agriculture. Frequently Asked Questions about HSPD-12 will be posted soon on www.egov.gov.

USA Services, the citizen-focused presidential E-Gov initiative managed by the GSA Office of Citizen Services and Communications, issued guidelines for better government service to citizens in a March 13 report: Proposed Performance Measures, Practices and Approaches for Governmentwide Citizen Contact Activities.

The recommendations were developed by the Citizen Service Levels Interagency Committee (CSLIC), an interagency group created by USA Services to improve the delivery of accurate, timely and consistent government information. Its 77 members represent 35 Federal agencies and major bureaus.

The CSLIC report recommends measuring citizen satisfaction annually, while continuously monitoring to ensure that:

• An estimate of phone wait time is given to the caller after 30 seconds.
• E-mail responses are sent within two business days for 90% of e-mails received.
• For letters, a response, or an estimate of response time, is received within 15 days.
• Citizen wait time for walk-in service does not exceed 15 minutes.

The GAO report to Congress, Federal Contact Centers: Mechanism for Sharing Metrics and Oversight Practices along with Improved Data Needed, was issued March 10. In order to "facilitate the sharing of sound oversight practices for the operation of contact centers, to help ensure that providing accurate information to the public by contact centers is a priority outcome, and to improve the quality of information gathered about these centers," GAO recommended that OMB take the following actions:

• Building on efforts begun by [CSLIC], work with agencies to develop a mechanism for sharing performance metrics and oversight practices for contact centers. Continued efforts should stress that providing accurate information to the public needs to be a key factor in the oversight of Federal contact centers.
• Take steps to ensure consistent reporting on contact centers by developing an industry category or specific code definition in NAICS [North American Industry Classification System] that encompasses all the services provided by contact centers or by providing further instruction to agencies regarding the appropriate NAICS code to use for contact centers.

In addition, the report recommended that GSA improve the quality of information about Federal contact centers by ensuring that "further efforts to develop governmentwide data on contact center operations-such as the survey planned for next year-employ sound methodologies to ensure that the resulting information is representative of the activities across the government."

GAO also highlighted USA Services' FirstContact multiple-award governmentwide contract as minimizing the time and effort required of agencies to locate a contractor to manage their centers.

The House Government Reform Committee's Subcommittee on Government Management, Finance and Accountability held a hearing March 13 to examine the progress to date on implementation and direction of the Financial Management Line of Business (FMLOB).

Linda Combs, Controller of OMB's Office of Federal Financial Management, was the lead witness. She was accompanied by Karen Evans, OMB Administrator of E-Government and IT, and followed by a panel of private sector witnesses.

In her testimony, Combs provided an update on FMLOB activities. She cited her December 16, 2005, memo to Federal Chief Financial Officers, which outlines three stages for the initiative:

• Transparency and Standardization. This includes the establishment of common performance measures, and the development of migration planning guidance.
• Competitive Environment and Seamless Data Integration. OMB envisions a limited number of stable and high-performing competitive alternatives for agencies investing in financial system modernization, and an environment where financial data can be easily compared and aggregated across agencies.
• Results. When the FMLOB is fully realized, agencies' data will be more timely and accurate for decision-making and there will be improved governmentwide stewardship and accounting.

She described the governance of the initiative, which is managed by the Financial Systems Integration Office (FSIO), formerly the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program, under the oversight of OMB in consultation with the CFO Council's Financial Systems Integration Committee. FSIO is in the process of moving to the Office of Technology Strategy in the GSA Office of Governmentwide Policy.

The FSIO expects to complete initial work this month on two projects to bring more transparency into Federal financial activities:

• A set of common performance measures that cover categories common among agencies; and
• Migration guidance, including service level agreements that outline provider and client responsibilities.

The documents will be released to agencies in draft during the Spring and made available for public comment for 30 days. OMB is also developing a "competition framework" that will be issued at the end of the calendar year and incorporated into the migration planning guidance.

OMB thus far has designated the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and the Departments of the Interior, the Treasury and Transportation as shared-service providers of financial management services.

OMB's Lines of Business E-Gov initiatives focus on eliminating duplicative systems in Federal agencies and creating governmentwide shared-services solutions to cut costs and free up resources for agencies to better focus on their missions. Agencies will continue to use their existing legacy systems for the remainder of their system life-cycle, but when an agency needs to replace or upgrade its financial management system, it will migrate to one of these service providers or a commercial provider. OMB envisions migration of all agencies being completed within 10 years.

The committee gave the Federal government as a whole a "hardly improved" D+ grade on its annual Federal computer security scorecard. While the overall score remained the same as in 2004, 10 agencies raised their scores in 2005 over 2004, eight agencies scored lower in 2005, and six remained the same. The U.S. Agency for International Development, which scored A+ in 2004, kept its top score in 2005, and five of the agencies that scored an "F" in 2004 did no better in 2005.

The 10 agencies that improved in 2005 are:

	Grades
	2004	2005
Department of Labor	B-	A+
Social Security Administration	B	A+
Office of Personnel Management	C-	A+
Environmental Protection Agency	B	A+
National Science Foundation	C+	A
GSA	C+	A-
NASA	D-	B-
Small Business Administration	D-	C+
Department of Housing and Urban Development	F	D+
Department of Commerce	F	D+

FISMA lays out the framework for annual IT security reviews, reporting and remediation planning at Federal agencies. The Act requires agency heads and IGs to evaluate their agencies' computer security programs and report the results of those evaluations to OMB each year. The committee grades agencies based on these reports.

The committee heard from a number of CIOs, led by Karen Evans, OMB's Administrator of E-Government and IT. Her testimony drew from OMB's FY 2005 Report to Congress on Implementation of the Federal Information Security Management Act, submitted March 1.

"Over the past year, agencies made steady progress in closing the Federal Government's information technology security performance gaps," she said in prepared testimony. "Analysis of baseline performance measures indicates policy compliance improvements in a number of programs. However, uneven implementation of security measures across the Federal government leaves weaknesses to be corrected. OMB encourages CIOs and IGs to work together to remediate these deficiencies."

The committee also heard from Scott Charbo, CIO, Department of Homeland Security; Thomas Hughes, CIO, Social Security Administration; Thomas Wiesner, Deputy CIO, Department of Labor; Robert F. Lentz, Director, Information Assurance, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Networks and Integration, Department of Defense; Gregory Wishusan, Director, Information Security Issues, GAO.

Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) Publication 200 sets minimum security requirements for Federal agencies and a risk-based process for selecting the security controls necessary to satisfy them, as mandated by the Federal Information Management Security Act (FISMA).

The FIPS 200 requirements are designed to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of Federal information systems, and the information processed, stored and transmitted by those systems.

They cover 17 security-related areas in a broad-based, balanced information security program that addresses the management, operational, and technical aspects of protecting Federal systems:

• Access control
• Awareness and training
• Audit and accountability
• Certification, accreditation and security assessments
• Configuration management
• Contingency planning
• Identification and authentication
• Incident response
• Maintenance
• Media protection
• Physical and environmental protection
• Planning
• Personnel security
• Risk assessment
• System and services acquisition
• System and communications protection
• System and information integrity.

Federal agencies are required to comply with FIPS 200 by March 2007.

FIPS Publication 200, dated March 9, is the second of two mandatory security standards called for by the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA). The first, FIPS Publication 199, Standards for Security Categorization of Federal Information and Information Systems, was issued in February 2004. It set standards for categorizing IT systems as low, moderate or high-impact depending on the effect of a system's loss of confidentiality, integrity or availability.

NASCIO is asking the States to join it in supporting a project led by the U.S. Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to improve the ability of governments at all levels to share critical information quickly and easily.

This National Information Exchange Model Initiative (NIEM) will leverage the Justice Department's Global Justice XML Data Model to encourage widespread adoption of a common vocabulary to facilitate information exchange across governments. The Justice model will expand to include public health, intelligence and transportation areas, as well as justice and disaster management.

NASCIO issued a research brief March 14 describing NIEM and ways in which the states can support the initiative, which "has the potential for becoming a significant enabler for collaborative information exchanges across government at all levels-Federal, state and local."

The brief is entitled "A National Framework for Collaborative Information Exchange: What Is NIEM?" It offers seven "success stories" in which the Global Justice model helped State and local governments exchange data such as incident reports, arrest records and other information important for effective law enforcement.

At the request of the NIEM project team, NASCIO has pulled together officials from state, county and local government to vet the direction and concepts of NIEM. NASCIO's involvement in the NIEM initiative is funded by a grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance.

Fed 100 Awards: Federal Computer Week's 2006 Fed 100 awards were presented to 100 outstanding IT leaders from government and industry who have made a difference in Federal information technology. This year's list spotlights some of the "masters of disaster" who "truly rose to the occasion, saving lives and ensuring that essential services were provided in the hours, days and weeks after the storm surged through the Gulf Coast region." The FCW Media Group gave Eagle Awards-highest honors among the Fed 100-to Paul Brinkley, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Business Transformation, and Zoe Baird, President of the Markle Foundation. All of the Fed 100 winners were recognized at a March 20 gala.

Azimuth Awards: Karen Evans, OMB Administrator of E-Government and IT, was named 2006 Government Executive of the Year and received the eighth annual Azimuth Award for Government. The award was presented on March 7 by Clay Johnson, OMB Deputy Director for Management, at the FOSE trade show in Washington, DC.

The Azimuth Award is given annually by the CIO Council to individuals in government and industry who demonstrate far-reaching vision, leadership in technology, and "direction - setting" for their organizations in pursuing the goals of the United States government. Jim Barksdale, former president and CEO of Netscape Communications, received the corresponding Azimuth Award for industry.

The winners were recognized for their achievements in collaborative technology based on the following criteria:

• effectiveness of meeting the objective in terms of overall mission, business process and service improvement;
• effectiveness of the approach and degree of collaboration across organizations; and
• incorporation of industry and government best practices and standards related to information sharing.

Showcase in Excellence Awards: Also at FOSE, the Federal Leadership Councils named five projects winners of the 2006 Showcase in Excellence awards for their innovation and impact on the Federal government:

• Clinical IT Program Office Electronic Health Record
  U.S. Department of Defense
• Battlefield Medical Information System-Tactical
  Telemediciine and Advanced Technology Research Center
  U.S. Department of Defense
• J-9 Wireless LAN Team
  U.S. Joint Forces Command
• Core.gov
  U.S. General Services Administration
• FirstGov.gov
  U.S. General Services Administration

Forbes Best of the Web: Forbes.com named the GSA Federal Citizen Information Center's website, www.pueblo.gsa.gov, a "Best of the Web" site in March. "The site provides a seemingly inexhaustible store of consumer information and links to other sources for consumer assistance," the Forbes reviewer wrote.

Also available in pdf 295 kb

Web Manager University (formerly Usability University) offers government web and usability specialists high quality, affordable training that addresses the varied responsibilities of managing government websites. Classes cover such topics as web management and governance, web usability and accessibility, web editing and writing, information architecture, search engines, and web metrics. They are taught by experienced Federal web managers and consultants who advise government agencies in these areas.

Registration has begun for the spring semester, which runs from April - June.

This spring, Web Manager University offers eight 2-hour seminars @$30 and seven 2-day courses @ $400 for government employees and $600 for non-government employees. The spring 2-day courses are:

• Usability Testing that Gets Results (April 4-5)
• Introduction to Usability (April 27-28)
• Web Content Management Systems: Everything You Need to Know (May 2-3)
• Usability Metrics: How to Measure Performance and Progress (May 16-17)
• Essentials of Search Engine Optimization - How to Get Found by Search Engines (June 6-7)
• Writing for the Web (June 21-22)
• Latest Usability Research: 2006 (June 27-28)

The spring 2-hour seminars are:

• Introduction to Information Architecture: Creating Citizen-Centric
• Navigation Systems (April 6)
• Introduction to Web Content Management Systems (April 20)
• Web Metrics: Managing the Data Tornado (May 1)
• Designing Search-Engine Friendly Websites (May 10)
• Using the UTE: An Automated Usability Testing Tool (May 18)
• Plain Language Meets the Web (May 25)
• Developing a Strategic Plan for Your Website (June 8)
• Managing Multilingual Websites (June 20)

For more information and to register online, go to:
http://www.firstgov.gov/webcontent/resources/training/university.shtml.

Government Performance Summit
Washington, DC
April 3-5

GSA Citizen Services Forum
Washington, DC
Rescheduled for fall 2006

CTO Summit
Washington, DC
April 5-7

African American Federal Executives Association Conference
Williamsburg, VA
April 11-12

E-gov Institute Knowledge Management Conference
Washington, DC
March 14

AFFIRM Luncheon: Business Transformation at DoD
Washington, DC
April 19-21

IRMCO
Williamsburg, VA
April 23-26

World Congress on Information Technology (International Technology Association of America)
Austin, TX
May 1-5

SOCAP (Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals) International Symposium
Washington, DC
May 7-10

AFCEA's Transformation TechNet
Hampton, VA
May 9-10

GSA International Products and Services Expo
San Antonio
May 15-18

Spring Government CIO Summit
Naples, FL
May 21-23

National Association of State CIOs Mid-Year Conference
The Capitol Hilton
Washington, DC
May 31-June 2

ACT Management of Change Conference
Hilton Head Island, SC
June 4-7

Government Customer Support Conference 2006
Arlington, VA
June 14-15

AFCEA's TechNet International
Washington, DC
June 19-20

Western Information Technology Council
Stateline, NV
August 6-9

Comments: We welcome your feedback.

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

The DotGov Buzz is produced by:

Darlene Meskell
Ted Cogdell
Bryant Jones
Ernestine Ramsay