At the request of the Secretary of Agriculture, Chris Niedermayer once spent nearly two years traveling the Caribbean and South Pacific, visiting offshore U.S. locations, learning about the local cultures. (No Gauguin, he claims it grew old after awhile.)

As manager of the USDA's Farm Service Agency disaster assistance programs, which provided relief services to agriculture operations across the U.S. and its territories, he specialized in offshore production. He was a distinct minority; other Agriculture officials did not understand the different needs of these exotic communities. USDA wanted to know its aid money was being spent responsibly, but all indications were that disaster relief funds were not being distributed according to the rules.

At that time, particularly in American Samoa and Guam, age-old tradition still ruled society. Many locals still lived in huts and practiced ancient rituals, showing little concern for the regulations imposed by their benefactors in the federal government. Indications were that disaster relief funds, which came to the tribal governments, were distributed in ways that were not in keeping with USDA's rules.

Niedermayer's task was to find out what was going on and to ensure the government's objectives were met. He worked chiefly in Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands, learning the traditions and values of the local societies and building partnerships with local governments and the tribal governments that influenced them. Because he was seeking information, he brought credibility to the USDA programs. Soon he could explain to the Secretary where the federal money was going and why that was not inappropriate. Problem solved.

Back in Washington, he rose in the USDA ranks by relying on his ability to build cross-boundary relationships to achieve the Department's business and technical goals. In recent years, he has expanded his reach across the federal e-government community. With a well-developed appreciation for the skills of collaboration, he hopes to stretch that reach to include Congress when he becomes president of the Association of Federal Information Resources Management (AFFIRM) in June.

Niedermayer joined USDA in 1977. As licensed grain inspector, he had been working for his girlfriend's father, who owned a grain inspection company in Cedar Rapids, IA, and playing guitar in a rock and roll band. When he and his girlfriend broke up and his band fizzled, he eagerly accepted an offer to work for the federal government in Galveston. Before long, he had moved to regional offices in Peoria and Chicago, and then to the Farm Service Agency at USDA headquarters.

In the mid 1980s, FSA found itself holding grain worth billions of dollars as collateral for loans--and didn't understand the intricacies of managing grain quality. Niedermayer, who understood the business, found himself employed in the price support loan area of the agency working with warehouse operators who were storing government-owned commodities.

Over the years, he leveraged his agriculture background, his studies in business and information management, and his training as one of the original 12 practioners in the "Trail Boss" leadership program for federal IT managers. He joined the CIO's Office in 2001 as manager of USDA's e-government programs and was part of the original quicksilver team that recommended the 24 presidential e-gov initiatives.

Since then, he has moved up to a job with many titles and broad responsibility for e-government and other cross-boundary business transformation initiatives. As USDA's Associate CIO for Information and Technology Management, he is also Chief Technology Officer. He is in charge of the department's IT governance processes, information management, capital planning, investment control, enterprise architecture, IT workforce management, and what he calls "business development."

As a technology leader of this multi-faceted department, he has had notable success with several cross-cutting initiatives that unified the IT functions of the department's many agencies. These programs were called "smart choices" initiatives. They depend on a shared-funding model that helps USDA implement a number of department-wide projects, such as a single sign-on capability for 29 agencies; an improved web portal that brought USDA's from 25th among federal websites (the worst) to tied for first; and AgLearn online educational services for USDA employees, contractors, partners and customers.

Niedermayer has also brought his leadership skills to the cross-government IT community. He has served as government chair and vice chair of the Industry Advisory Council of the American Council for Technology, Partners Program, and chaired the cross-agency E-Authentication Executive Steering Committee from 2004 until 2007. He also championed the government's implementation of HSPD-12 a common shared service operation that is available to all departments. He was elected vice president of AFFIRM last year.

When he moves into the presidency in June, he will work with the AFFIRM board to "educate the legislative branch to garner support for the President's management agenda." He hopes to build a new awareness in the executive branch and Congress of the importance of breaking down boundaries to work as a single unit to benefit all citizens.

"It's difficult for the legislative branch to get their arms around this," he said. "While no one argues that being more efficient and providing better service is a national goal you try to achieve, it won't be easy, given the congressional committee structure, which is more topic-centric."

The challenge is for the executive branch to learn how to frame the value of interagency approaches in a manner that compels lawmakers to debate the issues in cross-committee forums. "I really think there's an art to framing this type of information in a manner that is easily understandable," he said. "As government we don't do that well because we don't have a common belief system and that results in inconsistent messages to the legislative branch."

In working with Congress as well as the world at large, it's important to "define the business value in terms of service quality, cost and return on investment," he said. "When people are not keen on losing control of the infrastructure or applications that support their mission, you have to make a business argument, sell it, and then deliver services that meet their needs and provides the expected business value." One of AFFIRM's challenges is to bring the compelling argument to the table for debate by lawmakers.

CIOs in large and mid-sized companies believe their role in industry will be more highly compensated by 2010 and that they will spend more of their time creating strategy and exploring new ways to use information and emerging technologies. They will still come from the technical ranks and be expected to deliver on IT operations, however.

In its annual study of the CIO's role, Ziff Davis Media received responses from the top IT officials of 291 companies. These included 128 executives from companies with 2006 revenues between $5 million and $100 million; 118 from companies with $100 million to $999 million in revenues; and 45 companies with revenues of $1 billion or more.

Survey results led to five findings:

• It pays to be a CIO. Respondents reported a 12.4% increase in base salaries and bonuses for top IT executives in the past year. "The excitement, challenges and financial rewards of the CIO position more than compensate for the pressures of the job."
• CIOs foresee big changes in their role. Respondents expect they will be focusing more on strategy and innovation in 2010, particularly new technologies and new ways to exploit information.
• CIOs need a balanced definition of success. CIOs today see strategic thinking as far more important than in 2003, while technical know-how and execution are much less critical. However, their performance is evaluated on day-to-day IT operations.
• Most CIOs play a limited strategic role. For the first time since 2003, fewer than half of CIOs now report to the CEO of the company--"and CIOs who report to other executives are less likely to be involved in strategy creation," according to the study.
• The CIO's background remains primarily technical. Sixty-nine percent of CIOs come primarily from within the IT community and have advanced by excelling as project managers or serving as liaisons, consultants or business analysts.

"CIOs will be well paid for the privilege of focusing on the Big Picture," the report said. "But our data does serve notice that the boss isn't letting the CIO off the hook…CIOs won't be allowed to engineer strategy unless the trains arrive on time."

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has issued a guide to the Human Resources Line of Business that contains answers to 33 frequently asked questions about the presidential e-government initiative.

OPM, the managing partner for the cross-agency initiative, plans to keep the document updated to provide an overview of the line of business and the HR shared service centers that most executive branch agencies will be asked to use when they recognize the need to modernize their HR systems.

The 12-page guide answers frequently asked questions in four areas: an overview of the line of business, its structure and governance, accomplishments and next steps and the ongoing migration to shared service centers.

Launched in 2004 as one of the first five line of business initiatives, the HR LOB aims to provide governmentwide, modern, cost-effective, standardized and interoperable HR solutions. It has established five shared service centers to provide common HR functionality across the government and eliminate duplicative HR processes and systems. They are in the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Health and Human Services, the Interior and the Treasury.

The House Oversight and Reform Committee issued its 2006 federal computer security scorecard April 11, for the first time giving agencies an average grade higher than a D in the annual evaluation of how well information is protected on government computers.

The Committee scorecard measures federal departments' and agencies' compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). For the three years 2003-2005, the governmentwide scores averaged D-, D+ and D+, respectively.

This year, several agencies showed marked improvement. The Department of Housing and Urban Development soared to an A+ in 2006 from a D+ in 2005 and an F in earlier years.

Three other agencies earned an A+: US Agency for International Development, National Science Foundation, and the Office of Personnel Management. Two earned an A: the General Services Administration and Social Security Administration; the Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency each earned an A-.

Eight agencies earned an F for 2006: Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, the Interior, State and the Treasury, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

In its 8th Annual Performance Report Scorecard, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University reported that four federal agencies were significantly better than the others in the quality of information disclosed in their annual performance reports.

The Departments of Transportation, Labor, Veterans Affairs and State scored a total of 50 or more points on a 60 point scale used by the Mercatus Center's Government Accountability Project to evaluate and rank the accountability reports produced by 24 agencies that account for 99% of federal outlays. The next highest score--42--went to the US Agency for International Development.

Their performance reports were evaluated on 12 criteria in three categories:

• Transparency, or whether information disclosed is easily understood
• Public benefits, or whether they focus on the valued results produced
• Leadership, or whether there is evidence of using performance information to devise strategies for improvement.

The lowest-rated performance reports were submitted by the Departments of Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Homeland Security, and the Office of Personnel Management.

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) has released a brief cautioning state CIOs that the greatest threat to computer security in public and private sector may come from within the organization.

Insider Security Threats: State CIOs Take Action Now! examines the often-overlooked threats from within. Although media attention has focused primarily on external threats, and both government and industry report hacking and identity-theft statistics, internal threats may be more prevalent and can have equally--if not more serious--consequences.

This report discusses five significant insider threats and provides insight on ways to prevent, detect and respond to them. The threats come from people, processes and technology, specifically:

• Malicious employees (with or without IT knowledge)
• Inattentive, complacent or untrained employees
• Contractors and outsourced services (IT or non-IT)
• Insufficient IT security compliance, oversight, authority and training
• Pervasive computing-technology is everywhere and data is on the move.

To combat these threats, the NASCIO brief suggests several actions to foster a "culture of security," including "trust but verify" employee actions, get background checks on contractors, appoint a chief information security officer, and ensure that IT security is ubiquitous. It also links to best practices employed by individual states.

The nation's governors plan "new investments and incentives to develop a more highly educated citizenry, create high-paying jobs, support knowledge-based industry, and otherwise build an innovative economy" in 2007, but barely mentioned technology improvements in their "state-of-the-state" addresses this year.

Health IT, homeland security and information infrastructure were mentioned, but they were not high priorities in most of the addresses analyzed by the National Governors Association in The Governors Speak - 2007/A Report on the State-of-the-State Addresses of the Nation's and U.S. Territories' Governors.

On health IT, 12 respondents (24%) "described efforts to improve the use of information technologies in the health field," according to the report. "This included digitizing health care processes to improve efficiency and quality, creating interoperable electronic medical records systems, developing electronic prescription-writing capabilities, and implementing telemedicine opportunities to reach patients in rural efforts more effectively."

On homeland security and information infrastructure, 27 governors (53%) described priorities for homeland security, including disaster preparedness and developing information infrastructure within the United States. Twelve highlighted their plans to improve state preparedness for natural and manmade disasters, including a system for electronic reporting of chemical spills and the development of first-responder communications capabilities. Nine described initiatives to increase access to telecommunications, particularly broadband and cell phone coverage.

The report, issued this month, captures the key themes of the addresses delivered and posted online by the governors of 49 states, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The highest priorities reported were investing in knowledge-based industries, education, health care, energy and the environment.

The GSA Office of Citizen Services and Communications publishes the Federal/State Issues Alert series on emerging issues for quick reference by busy managers.

Background
The lack of secure, standards-based electronic health records is a major barrier to improving healthcare delivery. The Administration has called for the use of electronic health records for most Americans by 2014 to help ensure patients receive high-quality care, reduce medical errors and increase administrative efficiency, while protecting patients' privacy and personal information. By using the best health IT in the public and private sectors, the President estimates approximately $410 billion per year could be saved, close to 10% of annual healthcare spending.

Commitment to Health Information Technology (Health IT)

• In April 2004, President Bush issued Executive Order 13335, Incentives for the Use of Health Information Technology and Establishing the Position of the Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
• The President's June 2004 Technology Agenda, establishes the goal of making secure, interoperable health IT and electronic health records available for most Americans by 2014.
• In August 2005, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT was established in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to counsel the Secretary on the nationwide and governmentwide implementation of a health IT infrastructure.
• In August 2006, President Bush issued Executive Order 13410, Promoting Quality and Efficient Health Care in Federal Government Administered or Sponsored Health Care Programs, requiring federal agencies to ensure that, beginning in 2007, health IT purchases are "certified" products that are on the path to interoperability using approved open data standards.
• The 2008 federal budget calls for spending over $4.5 billion for health IT, including $4.3 billion for bio-surveillance and emergency preparedness, $127 million for state and local health IT projects, and $118 million for the Office of the National Coordinator.
• In February 2007, the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense demonstrated that their Bidirectional Health Information Exchange could be the basis for a national system to exchange medical records securely. Collaboration on a joint electronic health record has been endorsed in House and Senate appropriations bills.

Health IT Legislation

• Although 51 pieces of health IT legislation were proposed in the last Congress, no federal legislation has been adopted since Executive Order 13335 was issued in 2004.
• There has been more legislative activity in the states. In 2005 and 2006, 36 bills were passed in 24 state legislatures and signed into law, and 121 bills that specifically focus on health IT were introduced in 30 states.
• Concerns for state and local governments include leveraging limited resources to deploy electronic health records, assuring privacy and confidentially of patient information, integrating quality goals into state-funded health IT initiatives and programs, building health IT into state-driven health reform plans, and developing sustainable business models.
• The last major piece of federal health IT legislation was passed in 1996. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ensures the privacy of patient records when healthcare providers and third-party payers transfer patient records via the Internet or any other electronic network. HIPAA regulations went into effect in 2001 and healthcare providers were required to implement them by 2003.

Accomplishments to Date
Although major health care legislation has not been enacted since HIPAA, accomplishments in several areas set the stage for providing nationwide electronic health records by 2014. Among the most important are:

• Three sets of "Interoperability Specifications" were approved by the American National Standards Institute. Federal agencies and private healthcare providers are now required to use these to make health IT systems, data and information more accessible, less costly and shareable for industry and consumers.
• The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology, a group of private health IT associations created in 2005 by HHS, certified 55 electronic health record products for office-based physicians. This will accelerate the adoption of health IT by assuring that systems meet national standards for interoperability, privacy and security.
• HHS created a network of non-governmental multi-stakeholder organizations--called Regional Health Information Organizations (RHIOs)--to oversee the business and legal issues involved in the exchange and use of health information. They will eliminate some administrative costs associated with paper records, provide quick access to automated medical test results, and offer a consolidated view of a patient's history.
• In January 2007, prototype technologies for a Nationwide Health Information Network were delivered to HHS. They would allow health IT interoperability for states and RHIOs.
• About 200 public and private healthcare purchasers, including states, counties and cities have committed to doing business only with vendors who adopt HHS interoperability standards for acquiring health IT systems as a start in developing a nationwide network of electronic health records. HHS calls for all purchases to be standardized beginning in 2007.

Areas to Watch

• Personal health records: Continuous records of one's diagnoses, medications, treatments and outcomes--portable and interoperable with electronic health records, clinical decision support and clinical data repositories--will dramatically improve continuity of care by 2014.
• Biosurveillance and public health: Public and private healthcare providers will make extensive use of biosurveillance when responding to natural disasters, epidemics and terrorist attacks, including identification and management of the psychological response to trauma.
• Access to health IT for disadvantaged, underserved and vulnerable patient populations: IT will help reduce disparities in healthcare distribution so that underserved populations are not left out.
• Role of the states: States will become much more involved in health information exchange initiatives and RHIOs, setting policies and monitoring service delivery to improve accessibility to evidence-based healthcare.
• Continuity of care for military personnel: Portable electronic health records will improve access to physical and mental health diagnostic and treatment services for veterans with physical injuries, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. To improve continuity of care, these records should include health information from all sources, from pre-deployment baselines to military hospitals to nursing homes and private health care.

Additional Information

• Executive Order 13335, Incentives for the Use of Health Information Technology and Establishing the Position of the Coordinator for Health Information Technology, the White House, April 27, 2004 http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/04/20040427-4.html
• Promoting Innovation and Competitiveness, President Bush's Technology Agenda, June 2004, http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/technology/
• Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, Statement of Organization, Functions, and Delegations of Authority, Federal Register, August 19, 2005 http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20051800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2005/05-16446.htm
• American Health Information Community, Background, Department of Health and Human Services, Information Technology, http://www.hhs.gov/healthit/community/background/
• Executive Order 13410, Efficient Health Care in Federal Government Administered or Sponsored Health Care Programs, August 22, 2006 http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/08/20080822.html
• eHealth Initiative, Summary - President's Bush's 2008 Federal Budget, http://www.ehealthinitiative.org/assets/documents/BudgetFinal082.doc

The International Academy of the Digital Arts and Sciences has announced the nominees for its 2007 "Webby" Awards, the leading international award for excellence on the Web. Nominees in approximately 100 categories, drawn from over 8,000 entries from 60 countries and 50 states, were named April 10.

Two awards in each category will be presented at in New York City June 3-5--a Webby Award and a People's Voice Award. Votes for the latter can be cast online until April 27.

Five nominees were named in the "Government" category. They are:

Webby Awards, called the "Oscars of the Internet," were established in 1996, in the early days of the Internet, by the Academy, a group of 550 leading Web experts, business figures and other "creative celebrities." The awards are presented for four types of entries: Websites, Interactive Advertising (Banners, Rich Media, Viral, etc.), Online Film & Video, and Mobile.

Also available in pdf 372 kb

IRMCO 2007
Williamsburg, VA
April 29 - May 1, 2007

Customer 2.0: A Web Customer-Centricity Summit for Government, Trade Associations and Non-Profits
Washington, DC
May 1

Collaborative Expedition Workshop: Potentials of SOA and Grid in conjunction with Third SOA for E-government Conference
Tysons Corner, VA
May 1 and 2

NASCIO Mid-year Conference
Chantilly, VA
May 1-4

Citizen Services in the Age of Electronic Government
Online
May 3, 2:00 p.m.

Government CIO Summit
Fort Myers, FL
May 6-8

GSA Expo
Orlando, FL
May 15-17

8th Annual International Digital Government Research Conference
Philadelphia, PA
May 20-23

ACT/IAC Management of Change Conference
Richmond, VA
June 3-5

National Association of Counties 2007 Annual Conference and Exposition
Richmond, VA
July 13-17

3rd Annual Government Health IT Conference & Exhibition
Washington, DC
June 14-15

Collaborative Expedition Workshop: Advancing Virtual Organizing: Potentials and Realities from Scientific Grid to Citizen-Service Communities
Arlington, VA
June 19

WITC Western CIO Forum
Denver, CO
August 5-7

2007 Executive Leadership Conference
Williamsburg, VA
October 21-23

Comments: We welcome your feedback.

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

Check out our previous editions at www.usa.gov/dotgovbuzz.

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

Darlene Meskell
Ted Cogdell
Bryant Jones
Ernestine Ramsay.