Aneesh Chopra, with his ready smile and gentle manner, is immediately identifiable as a pleasant fellow. His face glows when he talks about his new baby daughter. At a recent American Council for Technology conference in Richmond, he agreeably delayed his keynote speech to accommodate another speaker.

The glow of the spotlight, however, reveals a public servant with a very large presence in Virginia and with apparent great potential to have an impact on government nationwide.

Having not quite reached middle age, Aneesh Chopra has already accomplished more than many of us in our careers. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University in public health, with a Masters degree from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, he has been a venture capitalist, managing director of a large healthcare think tank, appointee of two governors to high-level committees, and the elected head of groups of entrepreneurs.

In 2006, despite his lack of formal IT training, he was appointed as the Commonwealth of Virginia's Secretary of Technology at age 33. He was expected to "expand our internal use of technology to better serve our citizens" and "effectively promote Virginia's business-friendly climate to technology companies," Governor Tim Kaine said in announcing the appointment.

Chopra is the first person of Indian heritage to serve in the Virginia Cabinet. Well-connected in the Washington-area Indian community, he has served as co-president of The Indus Entrepreneurs-Washington, DC Chapter. TiE-DC is part of a global organization committed to innovation and business ties between the United States and India, which claims to have created $250 billion in wealth by encouraging start-up businesses.

Not surprisingly, he is an avid supporter of opportunities for globalization and was well received when he led a Virginia trade delegation to India in 2006. He is sensitive to "what's happening to e-governance around the world that can be imported to help us," and poised to help find ways to benefit the state. "We should look to global markets for scale and bring it back to Virginia for marginal costs," he says.

An entrepreneur himself, he is co-founder of Avatar Capital, an $11 million venture capital network investment fund that invested in 18 start-ups during the dot-com boom. Although some of those ventures never took off, his interest in entrepreneurship remains strong.

At the Advisory Board Company, a publicly traded health care think tank serving nearly 2,500 hospitals and health systems, he helped launch the company's first technology-based product. It married a strong business intelligence platform with a consortium of hospitals willing to share their revenue analytics. In less than a year, this collaborative model attracted nearly 150 members willing to pay six-figure annual fees for business-intelligence capabilities. It still serves him as a model of the exceptional achievement that is possible through consortium-building.

It was his link to Indian-American technology entrepreneurs—business associates of former Governor Mark Warner—that brought Aneesh Chopra to government. Warner appointed him to Virginia's Board of Medical Assistance Services, to the state's Electronic Health Records Task Force, and to the Southern Technology Council, a 14-state regional, technology-based, economic development organization, which he eventually co-chaired.

Aneesh Chopra's wide range of accomplishments enables him to see the big picture and envision how to bring technology to bear to solve the state's pressing problems. He has a knack for bringing business, technology and program expertise together in an analytical approach to thorny government problems.

While he admits to having little knowledge of the inner workings of information technology systems, he says he is "a geek who likes technological devices." More importantly, he understands how to assess the capabilities of new technologies and how they can be applied to advance program objectives. "I focus on the root cause of the business problems that we are trying to solve and then seek the best technology approach to achieve my objective. It's not about automation, it's about value."

Chopra views innovative technology and Virginia's reputation as a technology-friendly state as essentials for economic development. He often speaks about ways to use technology as a tool for economic development—and not just in the sense of attracting high-tech industry to the state, but also to improve the lives of its citizens. "There is a global call for innovations to service the world's poor profitably," he says. "Why can't service-sector globalization lift up Virginia's poor?"

He believes Virginia can tap into the passion of engineering students in vocational-technical schools to "turbo-charge" their careers and the technical vocation field. "This is where I'll be spending my efforts in the future," he says. He also wants to improve training for state employees to help them develop new skill sets and to create an environment of interoperability and collaboration.

The Secretary of Technology is in the forefront of Virginia's efforts to expand broadband service to reach businesses in the rural areas of the state, and proud of the public/private partnerships (with CGI and Northrop Grumman) to implement an enterprise applications program and improve the state IT infrastructure that together will create over 700 jobs in the southwest region of the state.

Chopra is excited about the potential in supporting companies exploring emerging technologies such as nanotechnology and biotechnology, but he lights up when he talks about improving government by encouraging innovation.

In April, he entered an agreement with Google that will make government information more accessible to search engines—particularly data in the state's many databases, e.g., licensing records, consumer complaints and financial transactions. One of four states to adopt this partnering strategy, Virginia is now working with Michigan and Oregon to share its experience, insights and lessons learned.

"We need to create an environment in which our contractors create features that are shareable with other states. Why the heck are we all developing our own systems?" he asks.

With his collaborative instincts, enthusiasm, credentials, experience, and willingness to push the boundaries of possibility, Aneesh Chopra is leading the way in innovative technology practices and applications. The IT community in both the public and private sectors would do well to keeps its eyes on the Commonwealth of Virginia.

OMB, GSA and DOD announced 10 SmartBUY/ ESI contracts to purchase encryption software for government laptops and other portable devices. The contracts are the first available for use by state and local governments, according to Jim Williams, GSA's Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner.

The awardees are:

• MTM Technologies Inc.
• Rocky Mountain Ram LLC
• Carahsoft Technology Corp.
• Spectrum Systems Inc.
• SafeNet Inc.
• Hi Tech Services Inc.
• Autonomic Resources LLC
• GovBuys Inc.
• Intelligent Decisions Inc.
• Merlin International

The products they will provide are: Mobile Armor LLC's Data Armor; Safeboot NV's Safeboot Device Encryption; Information Security Corp.'s Secret Agent; SafeNet Inc.'s SafeNet ProtectDrive; Encryption Solution Inc.'s SkyLOCK At-Rest; SPYRUS Inc.'s Talisman/DS Data Security Suite; WinMagic Inc.'s SecureDoc; CREDANT Technologies Inc.'s CREDANT Mobile Guardian; and GuardianEdge Technologies' GuardianEdge.

The Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs) will offer three categories of software and hardware encryption products: full disk encryption (FDE), file encryption (FES) and integrated FDE/FES products. All products use cryptographic modules validated under FIPS 140-2 security requirements and have met stringent technical and interoperability requirements.

The contracts are as low as or lower than prices each vendor has quoted on the GSA Schedules and additional discounts on volume pricing range up to 85% based on tiers for 10,000, 33,000 and 100,000 users.

The BPAs, with an estimated value of $79 million, are available now.

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) is encouraging state CIOs to combine resources with other governments to achieve joint goals.

The benefits of collaboration, according to Getting Started in Cross-Boundary Collaboration: What State CIOs Need to Know, include reducing costs, providing increased or better services to citizens and sharing risk. Failing to collaborate could lead to fragmented services and increased costs.

State CIOs should provide leadership and vision, relationship management, negotiation and communication, NASCIO suggests. In seeking to implement cross-boundary collaboration, State CIOs should undertake the following:

• Define Goals
• Make a Business Case
• Gain Executive Buy-In and Support
• Understand the Environmental Landscape
• Determine Governance
• Examine Statutory Limits
• Establish Fiscal Responsibility
• Build Trust
• Communicate the Benefits
• Evolve to a Networked Community of Practice (CoP)

The brief also highlights challenges and benefits to participating in cross-boundary collaboration in areas such as Health and Law Enforcement.

At least 22 companies made Washington Technology's 2007 list of top federal prime contractors because they received more than $1 billion from government contracts in fiscal year 2006, according to data compiled by FedSources, Inc.

Lockheed Martin leads the list with $12.7 billion, nearly 75% higher than the second ranking company, Boeing, which reported $7.3 billion in government sales. The others in the top 22, in descending order, are:

• Northrop Grumman Corp.
• KBR Inc.
• Science Applications International Corp.
• Raytheon Co.
• General Dynamics Corp.
• Fluor Corp.
• L-3 Communications Corp.
• EDS Corp.
• Computer Sciences Corp.
• Battelle Memorial Institute
• Booz Allen Hamilton Inc.
• Bechtel Group Inc.
• BAE Systems Inc.
• ITT Industries Inc.
• Dell Inc.
• IBM Corp.
• Verizon Communications Inc.
• United Technologies Corp.
• Harris Corp.
• CACI International Inc.

The rankings were based on GSA's Federal Procurement Data System database of federal contract actions of $25,000 or more in FY 2006. Describing "How We Got Our Numbers," Washington Technology cautions that the data may be skewed because:

• Agencies report contract actions that are worth more than $25,000 and are obligated to prime contractors. Such amounts represent actual spending on a contract during the time period analyzed, not over the contract's life.
• The reports are for prime contracting only and do not include subcontracting dollars.
• GSA Schedule transactions of more than $25,000 are included, but some agencies are better than others at reporting their GSA spending.

FedSources recommends that companies encourage federal contracting officers to update the Federal Procurement Data System in an accurate and timely manner.

Clay Johnson, OMB Deputy Director for Management, told agencies in a May 22 memorandum that they must look at their use of Social Security numbers and devise a plan within 120 days to eliminate the unnecessary collection and use of Social Security numbers within 18 months.

"Safeguarding personally identifiable information in the possession of the government and preventing its breach are essential to ensure the government retains the trust of the American public," the directive states.

Agencies will have to develop and implement risk-based breach notification policies and protect federal information that is accessed remotely through encryption and time-out functions. The directive also requires agencies to train federal employees on their responsibilities to protect this personal information.

The requirements stem from work done by the President's Identity Theft Task Force, led by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras. The task force launched a website, www.idtheft.gov that offers guidance on how to prevent and detect identity theft and help victims recover.

Citizen satisfaction with online access to federal government information rose to a score of 73.7 out of 100 in the second quarter of Fiscal Year 2007, which ended March 31. The higher score represents a .4% increase over last quarter, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) E-Government Satisfaction Index. During the second quarter, there were 83 sites rated in the Index, and 36% of sites improved their scores.

The transactional/e-commerce category topped the other three categories (portals/department main sites, information/news sites and career/recruitment sites) with a satisfaction score of 76.8, which was 3.5% higher than last quarter.

GSA's Federal Citizen Information Center, with a score of 82, made the "top performers" category of sites this quarter.

A new memorandum issued by OMB provides recommended language for agencies that use Windows Operating Systems and/or plan to upgrade to these operating systems.

The recommended language is intended to ensure that such new acquisitions include common security configurations.

The June 1, 2007 memo was sent to agencies by Karen Evans, OMB Administrator for E-Government and IT, and Paul Denett, Office of Federal Procurement Policy Administrator.

The recommended language will ensure that all agencies with Windows Operating Systems and/or plans to upgrade to these operating systems have adopted these security configurations by February 1, 2008, the deadline set by OMB in its March 22, 2007, memorandum.

All federal IT desktop procurements must include the following three provisions:

• The IT provider "shall certify applications are fully functional and operate correctly as intended on systems using the Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC)," including Internet Explorer 7 on Windows XP and Vista.



• "The standard installation, operation, maintenance, update and/or patching of software shall not alter the configuration settings from the approved FDCC configuration. The information technology should also use the Windows Installer Service for installation to the default 'program files' directory and should be able to silently install and uninstall."



• "Applications designed for normal end users shall run in the standard user context without elevated system administration privileges."

To help agencies adopt these security configurations, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will continue to work with Microsoft to establish a virtual machine to provide agencies and IT providers' access to Windows XP and Vista images. The images will be pre-configured with the recommended security settings for test and evaluation purposes to help certify applications operate correctly.

Also, Part 39 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) will be updated to include the requirements for using the common security configurations, as appropriate.

NIST Frequently Asked Questions are posted at: C S R C - Systems Administration and http://csrc.nist.gov/itsec/guidance_Vista.html#FAQ. Additional questions regarding Windows XP and Vista adoption can be directed to: fisma@omb.eop.gov.

A May 31 memorandum from Clay Johnson, OMB Deputy Director for Management gives agencies until June 28 to send OMB their "proud to be" goals for the next two years. The goals are part of the implementation of the President's Management Agenda.

For the July 1, 2008 goals, agencies will have to identify the following:

• Standards for Success they expect to achieve.
• Milestones they intend to meet.
• Results they would be proud to achieve for each initiative.

For July 1, 2009 goals, only a brief explanation is needed in the June 2007 submission.

The May 31 memorandum from Clay Johnson also announced changes for the Expanded E-Government section that will go into effect on July 1:

• Green and yellow standards for Enterprise Architecture were modified to require agencies to demonstrate the use of Enterprise Architecture in making agency decisions and the results of those decisions.
• A Maintaining Green Standard was added for having a plan to meet necessary communication requirements for Continuity of Operations (COOP) and Continuity of Government activities.

OMB also released Guidance for Agencies' Quarterly Enterprise Architecture Program progress reports in a June 8 memo from Richard Burk, OMB Chief Architect, Office of E-Government and Information Technology.

GSA's USA Services Intergovernmental Solutions has published a newsletter on protecting Personally Identifiable Information that offers information about ways to protect PII.

The articles come from a variety of sources that were at the forefront of the 2006 controversies surrounding the vulnerability of personal information held in government and corporate electronic databases. Contributors range from the Department of Veterans Affairs to the President's Identity Theft Task Force to ChoicePoint, and from the State of California to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

The policies of other countries, including Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Japan are also discussed.

In other USA Services news, www.USA.gov, the U.S. government's official Web portal, has created a library of federal government blogs, and www.Webcontent.gov, which offers best practices and other tools for Web content managers, has posted guidance for government bloggers.

The American Council for Technology's (ACT's) John J. Franke Award went to Kevin Carroll, Department of the Army, Program Executive Officer for Enterprise Information Systems, for extraordinary long-term contributions to federal service. Carroll was honored at ACT's 27th annual Management of Change conference June 3.

The annual Intergovernmental Solutions Awards were also presented at the conference to eight winners out of more than 100 nominations. The awards recognize outstanding progress made at all levels of government through innovative use of technology for more efficient and effective business processes.

2007 Federal and Department of Defense Winners were:

• Army Knowledge Online, Department of the Army, PEO-EIS
• Electronic Death Registration (EDR), Social Security Administration
• eRulemaking Federal Docket Management System, Environmental Protection Agency
• IRRIS®, U.S. Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command Transportation Engineering Agency

2007 State and Local Winners were:

• KY-CHILD (Kentucky - Certificate of Birth, Hearing, Immunization, and Lab Data), Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services
• No Wrong Door Initiative, Virginia Department for the Aging
• Possible Criminal History and Case and Criminal History (PCH/CACH), State of Washington Justice Information Network
• Using Decision Support and Advanced Analytics for Innovative Fraud Detection, Michigan Department of Information Technology in partnership with the Michigan Department of Human Services

AFFIRM Leadership Awards Lisa Schlosser, CIO for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, received the 2007 AFFIRM Executive Leadership Award for Information Resources Management at an awards luncheon June 20. Other AFFIRM leadership awards were presented to the following:

Also available in pdf kb

Expedition Workshop: Towards Stability In Information-Sharing
Ballston, VA
July 17 -18

WITC Western CIO Forum
Denver, CO
August 5-7

AFCEA: LandWarNet Conference 2007
Ft. Lauderdale, FL
August 21-23

NASCIO Annual Conference
Tucson, AZ
September 30-October 3

Emergency Preparedness Information Sharing Initiative
Atlanta, GA
October 10-12

Emetrics Summit
Washington, DC
October 14-17

ACT/IAC 2007 Executive Leadership Conference
Williamsburg, VA
October 21-23

MILCOM 2007
Orlando, FL
October 29-31

The New New Internet: Web 2.0 Conference
Reston, VA
November 1

11th Annual eC3 Conference
Austin, Texas
December 3-5

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