As a new era in government begins with the swearing-in of the 44th President of the United States, Gopal Khanna, President of the National Association of Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) and CIO of Minnesota, sees an enormous opportunity for IT leaders to improve the ways government serves citizens.

The nation's changing demographics, coupled with the need for a new way of doing business in government, has created a "unique opportunity for CIOs in government to take the lead and elevate the quintessential back office role of IT in government to a more proactive and strategic posture similar to the private sector," Khanna says.

Khanna believes there is a growing recognition by policy-makers of the need to invest-in and leverage proven IT solutions that will make government operations more secure, efficient, effective and citizen-centric.

As President of NASCIO, he is impressed with the new President's tech savvy and vision for leveraging IT in government. "By using cutting edge tools to manage his campaign, President Obama has not only demonstrated how IT can be leveraged to gain comparative advantage, but has also shown the political leaders how IT can be used to organize, communicate, engage and stay connected with the public."

Khanna is also gratified by President Obama's decision to appoint a Chief Technology Officer (CTO), a technology czar who will improve IT management in government. The NASCIO membership hopes the CTO will engage IT leaders at all levels: federal, state and local, Khanna says. For example, in a cyber attack, state CIOs would act as first responders, so there is a need for state CIOs to be involved with the Department of Homeland Security in scenario planning, cyber-security policy-setting and developing proactive and reactive strategies, he explains.

As the details of the proposed federal economic stimulus package are being hammered out, state CIOs believe investment in state government IT should be part of the $825 billion package, Khanna says. "Investment in state government IT will create American jobs in the sector which offers the greatest competitive advantage for our country," he said. "It will result in an integrated government that can serve the digitally-enabled businesses and citizens in an open and transparent manner in real time."

Gopal Khanna knows first-hand how state government can leverage IT to bring about change. He was appointed the first CIO for Minnesota and has served since 2005. During that time he has developed a state IT governance structure, created a standards program for hardware and software and initiated several executive branch consolidation projects, including a single enterprise e-mail and calendaring system. "We have established an enterprise security program that has already greatly improved our security environment, simply by putting enterprise policies into place," he explains.

India-born Khanna has lived in Minnesota with his wife, two children and mother since 1990. He moved from Florida to join the American Hardware Insurance Group, where he held several senior management positions, including VP of operations, VP of systems and VP of IT and administration. He has an undergraduate degree in economics, mathematics and political science from Christ Church College in Kanpur, India, and an MBA from the University of Maine, after he immigrated to the US.

"Like millions before me, I came to the United States to seek the American dream," he says. "Since America has the finest education system in the world, when the time came to pursue graduate studies, I thought that it was only logical that I receive my MBA at an American university where I could learn and mingle with the brightest and the best," Gopal explains. His gamble paid off and he has held several corporate senior leadership positions and worked in IT, finance, operations, strategic planning, business development and consulting.

Khanna left the private sector in 2002 to work for the federal government serving as CIO, then CFO, of the Peace Corps from 2002 until 2005. Later he was appointed Chief Financial Officer of the Executive Office of the President, but resigned three months later to take the position in Minnesota.

One of his most notable achievements at the Peace Corps was transforming its financial management systems and delivering the first audited financial statements in the agency's 43-year history. He also successfully implemented a standardized computing platform for the Peace Corps' 72 posts worldwide; and designed and implemented an enterprise architecture program that serves as the framework for the agency's systems modernization strategy. Khanna was named one of the "Fed 100" winners in 2004 for his work at the Corps. He is also very involved in his community - he is a founding member of The Association of Indians in America and currently sits on the board of ec3, an intergovernmental IT organization.

At the Peace Corps, Khanna found a culture that tolerates risk-taking and encourages innovation. "There was tremendous loyalty to the mission, trust, commitment, and an appetite for risk-taking. These are elements that need to be in place in either the public or private sector in order for change to occur," he explains.

Khanna sees the role of IT in government changing dramatically over the next few years. More Americans are getting used to an on-demand service delivery model pioneered by the Amazons, eBays and Googles of the world and the government can't remain far behind in building and supporting "what I call a 'secure, ubiquitous self-service' model for the delivery of public service to citizens," Khanna explains. Time will tell if government is up to the challenge.

At 12:01 pm on Tuesday, January 20, a message was posted to the official website of the White House, WhiteHouse.gov, reflecting the priorities and agenda of the 44th President of the United States.

The administration posted its agenda for 23 topics, ranging from civil rights immigration to women. The technology agenda included a section on 'creating a transparent and connected democracy' that mentions the appointment of a Chief Technology Officer:

• Use technology to reform government and improve the exchange of information between the federal government and citizens while ensuring the security of our networks. Appoint the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to ensure the safety of our networks and lead an interagency effort, working with chief technology and chief information officers of each of the federal agencies, to ensure that they use best-in-class technologies and share best practices.

WhiteHouse.gov boasts a new design and promises to have more features that help citizens interact with government than previous versions of the site. The administration outlined three priorities for its online programs: communication, transparency and participation.

The administration says it will post all non-emergency legislation to the website for five days so the public can review and comment before the President signs it.

A few features of the website include:

• A 'Briefing Room' section will have information about the President's events and public statements, with photos, video, blogs, proclamations, executive orders and press releases.
• Citizens can sign up to receive RSS feeds from the blog or e-mail updates from the administration.
• A 'Contact Us' section allows citizens to e-mail questions, comments, concerns or well-wishes to the President and his staff.

Citizen satisfaction with federal government websites rose for 2008 to 73.9 on the American Customer Satisfaction Index's year-end scores. In 2007, federal government websites were favorably rated 73.4 by citizens. Again this year, federal government websites scored higher than federal government services, which had an overall score of 68.9.

"Government websites represent an increasingly important channel for delivery of government services and contribute to what some are calling the 'new face of government,'" the report states. "This evolution is motivated by a promise of both better services as well as improved efficiency with cost-savings for government."

Federal government websites were scored in four main categories. The top rated sites in each category (and their scores) are:

• News and Information Sites - National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, HHS, medlineplus.gov, (86)
• Portals and Department Main Sites - National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, National Institutes of Health, HHS, www.niams.nih.gov (83)
• E-Commerce and Transactional Sites - SSA Retirement Planner, www.ssa.gov/estimator, (90)
• Career and Recruitment Sites - Central Intelligence Agency, www.cia.gov/employment, (81).

In OMB's FY 08 Expanding E-Government: Achieving Results for the American People* report, which was released January 12, 87% of milestones were met and all 28 agencies had implementation plans that were mutually acceptable to OMB. In FY 07, only 81% of milestones were met.

The report also offers four opportunities for continued improvement:

• Information security management
• Information privacy
• IT workforce competency
• E-Gov initiatives' performance measures.

*at press time, the document was not available online

The E-Government initiatives serve citizens by delivering high-quality services more effectively and at a lower overall cost, Karen Evans, former administrator of E-Government and IT at OMB said of the initiatives in OMB's annual Report to Congress on the Benefits of the E-Government Initiatives. "Instead of expensive, single-agency operations, agencies work together to develop common solutions which achieve mission requirements at reduced overall cost, thereby making resources available for higher priority needs," she reported.

The report explains the purpose of the E-Gov and Lines of Business initiatives and highlights the benefits agencies receive from the initiatives they contribute to.

A few examples of how citizens and federal employees benefit from the initiatives are included in the report:

• GovBenefits.gov — In FY 08 the site received 4.65 million visitors, or 45% more than in FY 07. Since 2002, more than 31 million visitors have been to the site and have generated more than 23.4 million referrals to government benefit programs. This has resulted in 388,000 visits per month. GovBenefits.gov provides a single access point for citizens to find information and determine their eligibility for government benefits and services.



• Grants.gov — The site received 172,058, or 16% more submissions in FY 08 than in FY 07. In September 2008, it received the 200,000th electronic grant submission for FY 08. Grants.gov is a one-stop portal where potential grant recipients can find and apply for more than 1,000 grant programs. The grant programs represent more than $450 billion dollars awarded by the 26 grant-making agencies and organizations.



• Integrated Acquisition Environment (IAE) — Agencies realized an estimated cost avoidance of more than $5.6 million and an estimated cost savings of more than $30 million. The IAE is able to eliminate business process inefficiencies and storing duplicate information for federal acquisition through the use of government-wide business-oriented systems. The IAE is an operational, secure business environment that facilitates and supports the cost-effective acquisition of goods and services by agencies.

Since October, 180,322 interoperable, biometric credentials for federal employees and contractors have been issued in accordance with the Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12), according to a report from OMB. HSPD-12 calls for a mandatory, government-wide standard for a secure and reliable form of identification for federal employees.

Counting the newly issued credentials, nearly 1.8 million standardized credentials, or 31% of the total, have been issued. The first quarter report for FY 09, shows 70% of the 27 agencies measured by the scorecard have updated HSPD-12 information.

The percentage of adults who use social networks has quadrupled to 35% in the past four years, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project's December 2008 survey. In 2005 only 8% of adult Internet users had a profile on an online social network, such as MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn. Telephone surveys of 2,253 participants were conducted from November 19 through December 20.

Other findings from the survey show:

• White adults are less likely to have a profile on a social network, than African-Americans or Hispanics. Thirty-one percent of white adults have a profile, compared with 43% of African-American adults and 48% of Hispanic adults.



• 50% of the adult users of social networks have a MySpace account, while only 22% have a Facebook account and 6% have a LinkedIn account.



• Most adults use social networks to stay in touch with friends rather than for professional use.



• More than one-third (37%) of adult users visit their profile each day.



• More than 50% of adult users have more than one online profile.



• Nearly two-thirds of adults restrict access to their online profiles and the content within their profiles.

The Federal CIO Council has released a Transition Guide to help new political appointees understand the responsibilities of the Council and how to identify opportunities to share information that will improve government.

The guide describes accomplishments of the Council, including work done on the E-Government initiatives and Lines of Business.

Several topics are explored in the document:

• Empowering the Government through Information Sharing
• Protecting the Networks and Systems Required to Operate in the Information Age
• Tapping the power of a Collaborative Citizenry
• Leveraging Scale-Economies and Combined Expertise to Achieve Best Practices and Act as an "Enterprise"
• Ensuring the Federal Government is an "Employer of Choice"
• Focusing on Environmental Responsibility.

OMB has set up Shared Service Centers for Certification and Accreditation Services through the Information Systems Security (ISS) Line of Business that will provide IT security services to help minimize redundancy and increase efficiency. The ISS Line of Business enables agencies to protect the federal government's information systems through a set of controls and measures.

Four agencies were selected to be the Shared Service Centers:

• Treasury Department's Bureau of Public Debt
• Interior Department's National Business Center
• Transportation Department's Federal Aviation Administration Enterprise Service Center
• Justice Department.

The Department of Homeland Security's Chief Privacy Officer issued a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) on the state, local and regional fusion center initiative's risks to privacy. The December PIA was required by the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007.

Previous guidance had been issued to ensure fusion centers established privacy policies. Although the fusion centers have initiated the process to comply with the requirements, privacy risks were found in the Privacy Officer's analysis.

Seven risks to privacy are found in:

• Justification for fusion centers
• Ambiguous lines of authority, rules and oversight
• Participation of the military and private sector
• Data mining
• Excessive secrecy
• Inaccurate or incomplete information
• Mission creep

The PIA examines these issues, explains strategies to improve the risks and offers recommendations on additional action that will further enhance citizens' privacy. The Privacy Office will continue to train Homeland Security personnel and other fusion center representatives, monitor the progress of program participants and report on those findings in a future PIA.

The CIO Council released the charter for its Information Security and Identity Management Committee on December 19, 2008. The purpose of the committee is to identify high priority security and identity management initiatives, and to develop recommendations for policies, procedures and standards to address those initiatives that protect the federal government information technology networks. The charter defines the purpose, functions, membership and other facets of the committee.

According to the charter, the committee will recommend standard organization structures for information security committees across the federal government. It will also establish and oversee appropriate subcommittees, working groups and task forces.

Background

The Internet is governed by an intensely-scrutinized set of rules created and agreed upon by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a volunteer-based organization. From the Internet's earliest public stages until today, IPv4, or Internet Protocol version 4, has been the lead standard. But after more than a decade of development a new IETF standard, IPv6, is coming to the fore, only a short while before its predecessor's capacity is exhausted.

IPv4 uses a 2³² system for assigning addresses to locations on the web and therefore yields 232, or just under 4.3 billion, unique Internet addresses. This may seem to constitute an abundance of addresses, but IPv4's supply is projected to run out by 2012. Network managers have long worked around this problem using Network Address Translation (NAT), under which a single address represents many locations residing behind a translation router that delivers data to internal locations. The widespread use of NAT, however, limits Internet speeds. IPv6 solves address limitation and the need for NAT by using a 128-bit system, which yields a staggering number of unique addresses. In fact, comparing the number of addresses in IPv6 to those in IPv4 is like comparing the volume of the earth with that of a single marble. The result is a virtually inexhaustible address space.

IPv6 presents other advantages as well. By employing an enhanced yet simplified header, data transmissions can be prioritized according to type, greatly improving the quality of video and other data-intense functions. Two newly integrated header extensions are available, one to authenticate data sources and another to encrypt confidential information. The most impressive innovation, however, might be IPv6's network configuration capabilities. IPv6-enabled devices can automatically assign themselves addresses and recognize neighboring devices with which to communicate. These features will ease the difficulty of network management, empower mobile devices, and create the possibility of easy-to-use multi-node sensing grids.

IPv6 in the U.S. Government

The transition to IPv6 is a time-consuming, expensive, and complicated process, but success will yield impressive benefits to citizens. In August 2005, Karen Evans, Administrator for E-government and Information Technology at OMB, required all agencies to make their network backbones IPv6-ready by June 2008 and provided guidance for the transition process.

An amendment to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) was submitted in August 2006 "to require that Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) capable products be included in information technology procurements to the maximum extent practicable." It was subsequently placed on hold pending National Institute for Standards and Technology's (NIST) issuance of a government standard profile for IPv6-capable products and services. Since then, all agencies succeeded in meeting OMB's network backbone deadline, and NIST issued a standard profile in September 2008. The proposed FAR amendment is now under review by GSA's General Counsel.

The procurement of IPv6-capable hardware is expected to take place gradually as a natural part of maintaining infrastructure. OMB is urging agencies to choose IPv6-capable purchases whenever the option is available. In the near term, agency networks will continue to accommodate IPv4 assets; no date has been set for the complete elimination of IPv4 systems.

In December 2008, the Federal CIO Council's Architecture and Infrastructure Committee released a draft Business Case and Roadmap for Completing IPv6 Adoption in US Government. Interested parties had until January 19 to submit comments. The document defines the next phase of the government's transition to IPv6 and provides guidance regarding enterprise architecture, capital planning, deployment milestones, impacts to related federal initiatives, and the use of IPv6 as an "organizing principle for the next generation of Federal IT Infrastructure."

The document also addresses new information security threats. Although IPv6 does have enhanced capabilities for information source verification and the protection of confidential information, agencies will have to adjust to a new playing field and the risks it entails. The Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team has already published one full security risk report regarding IPv6, and maintains a Cyber Alert System for countering the latest threats.

Important Links:

Business Case and Roadmap for Completing IPv6 Adoption in US Government

NIST SP 500-267: A Profile for IPv6 in the U.S. Government - Version 1.0

OMB Memorandum for Chief Information Officers: Transition Planning for Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)

The E-Gov scores for the Departments of Energy, Interior and State and NASA improved to green (the best score) during the first quarter of 2009, according to the December 31st President's Management Agenda scorecard. None of E-Gov scores, for the 26 agencies measured in the report card, fell during that time period.

The State Department joined the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Labor and the Social Security Administration as the only agencies to receive green scores in all five categories: Human Capital, Commercial Services Management, Financial Performance, E-Gov and Performance Improvement.

The breakdown of scores for agencies measured by the stop-light system included: six red; nine yellow; and 11 green.

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers is accepting nominations for its National Technology Champion Award until January 30.

The Government Information Technology Executive Council is accepting nominations for its Project Management Excellence Awards 2009 until January 30.

The Interagency Resources Management Conference is accepting applications for individuals and teams for its 2009 IRMCO Awards until February 16.

The GSA Office of Citizen Services is accepting nominations for its second annual Citizen Service Award until February 20.

The Partnership for Public Service is accepting nominations for its 2009 Service to America Medals until February 27.

The American Council for Technology is now accepting nominations for its Intergovernmental Solutions Awards until March 13.

Also available in pdf 441 kb

GOVERNING's Outlook in the States and Localities
Washington, DC
February 3-4

Collaborative Expedition Workshop
Ballston, VA
February 9

Social Media for Government
Ottawa, Ontario
February 9-12

Department of the Navy Information Management/Information Technology Conference
San Diego, CA
February 10-13

AFCEA/USNI WEST Conference
San Diego, CA
February 11-13

IT Quarterly Forum: Cloud Computing
Washington, DC
February 27

FOSE 2009
Washington, DC
March 10-12

GSA's IRMCO
Cambridge, MD
April 19-22

Government Web Managers 2-Day Conference
Washington, DC
April 28-29

Knowledge Management Conference
Washington, DC
April 28-29

Digital Government Society of North America 2009 Conference
Puebla, Mexico
May 17-20

ACT/IAC 2009 Management of Change Conference
Norfolk, VA
May 31-June 2

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

Darlene Meskell
Andrea Noce
Bryant Jones.