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A new policy (a pilot program) in the US is that federal agencies must (with some important exceptions) release at least 20% of any in-house code they develop as open source.

On hearing this, my brother quickly whipped up a script to print every fifth letter in a text file. :)

I'm assuming that the intentionally vague title is just more slashdot trolling.

The UK government it talking about it -- the US government is requiring all government agencies to stop using HTTP, while ignoring the problems it might cause.

They're trying to get us to all go to HTTPS, but I'm planning on making everything available over FTP instead.

All part of the Fed Ramp program. http://cloud.cio.gov/fedramp
Probably one of the smarter things the government has done.

It"s about risks. It was a fair comparison.

Unlike your comparison, which is not.Near as I can tell, skylys ahs done nothing. Obama on the other hand has done a lot. Here is a short list of his accomplishments:
Legislative Prowess.
Despite the characterizations of some, Obama’s success rate in winning congressional votes on issues was an unprecedented 96.7% for his first year in office. Though he is often cited as superior to Obama, President Lyndon Johnson’s success rate in 1965 was only 93%. http://n.pr/i3d7cY

Fiscal Responsibility.
Within days after taking office, Obama signed an Executive Order ordering an audit of government contracts, and combating waste and abuse. http://1.usa.gov/dUvbu5

Created the post of Chief Performance Officer, whose job it is to make operations more efficient to save the federal government money. http://n.pr/hcgBn1

On his first full day, he froze White House salaries. http://on.msnbc.com/ewJUIx

He appointed the first Federal Chief Information Officer to oversee federal IT spending. http://www.cio.gov/

He committed to phasing out unnecessary and outdated weapons systems, and also signed the Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act to stop waste, fraud and abuse in the defense procurement and contracting system. http://bit.ly/hOw1t1 http://bit.ly/fz8GAd

Through an executive order, he created the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. http://bit.ly/hwKhKa

Improving the Economy, Preventing Depression.
Obama pushed through and signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, otherwise known as “the stimulus package,” despite the fact that not one Republican voted for that bill. In addition, he launched recovery.gov, so that taxpayers could track spending from the Act. http://1.usa.gov/ibiFSs http://1.usa.gov/e3BJMk

In his first year, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act created and sustained 2.1 million jobs and stimulated the economy 3.5%. http://reut.rs/i46CEE

Obama completed the massive TARP financial and banking rescue plan, and recovered virtually all of its costs. http://1.usa.gov/eA5jVS http://bit.ly/eCNrD6

He created the Making Home Affordable home refinancing plan. http://1.usa.gov/goy6zl

Obama oversaw the creation of more jobs in 2010 alone than Bush did in eight years. http://bit.ly/hrrnjY

He oversaw a bailout of General Motors that saved at least 1.4 million jobs, and put pressure on the company to change its practices, resulting in GM returning to its place as the top car company in the world. http://lat.ms/zIJuQx

Obama also doubled funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership which is designed to improve manufacturing efficiency. http://bit.ly/eYD4nf

He signed the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act giving the federal government more tools to investigate and prosecute fraud in every corner of the financial system. It also created a bipartisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to investigate the financial fraud that led to the economic meltdown. http://abcn.ws/g18Fe7

Obama signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act, which was designed to protect consumers from unfair and deceptive credit card practices. http://1.usa.gov/gIaNcS

He increased infrastructure spending after years

The question is really whether or not GSA can do that (Certify and accredit for the entire US govt)

Ultimately, it boils down to whether or not an Agency authorizing official will sign an authorization to operate (ATO) for their agency to use the system. Google isn't asking Agencies to just use it willy nilly; while GSA has provided an ATO, the ATO is limited in scope, and only covers specific controls (albeit most of them). There are, however, still specific controls that an agency must implement (like HSPD-12 compliant authentication for its users). Thus there is a unique specific implementation for each agency, and each agency issues an ATO for the combined mess. It's the concept of "accountability cannot be outsourced." The value in the GSA ATO is that those controls can largely be assumed operational, as they've already been assessed and are being monitored by GSA. Thus, it makes the agency's assessment, ATO, and continuous monitoring much simpler.

If you aren't familiar, you might find this interesting:

http://www.cio.gov/pages.cfm/page/Federal-Risk-and-Authorization-Management-Program-FedRAMP

Of course, this is the present, that is the past.

B.

SAML has been widely adopted, just not in the use case you're imagining. For B2B scenarios it is actually taking off quite well, and the US federal government is standardizing on it.

Now, it hasn't caught on in the world of consumer focused web sites, which is understandable given the architecture - no consumer authenticates at an authority before accessing sites, so it only makes sense for co-ordination between business partners who are providing services to the same users right now. Until a commercial site becomes an identity authority accepted by most consumer sites this will continue to be true. LiveJournal could have attempted to become this authority using existing standards far more easily than tackling the creation of new protocols and implementation platforms at the same time they try to build the business structure. But like most of us, they appear eager to reinvent the wheel.

I find it interesting though that on the one hand every techy's complaint about Passport et al was the monopolistic, centralized model, with all the very appropriate concerns about putting your eggs in one basket - and then when a decentralized model comes along, people wonder why it only catches on in small pockets. What exactly did you think decentralized meant? If you truly want a global SSO mechanism then you are asking for an identity monopoly. If you want different identity providers, you are going to have to deal with trust issues from each provider to whichever resources you want to access. This is a business problem, not a techical one. The standards and technologies to implement whatever world we want to create are there, we just need to figure out what we are really asking for.

HSD official obtained Ph.D. from diploma mill

A high-ranking career official in the Homeland Security Department apparently obtained her doctorate from a Wyoming diploma mill.

Laura L. Callahan, now senior director in the office of department CIO Steven Cooper, states on her professional biography that she "holds a Ph.D. in Computer Information Systems from Hamilton University." Callahan, who is also president of the Association for Federal IRM and a member of the CIO Council, is commonly called by the title "Dr."

Callahan's resume says she began her civil service career in 1984. Before joining HSD, she was deputy CIO at the Labor Department.

Hamilton University, according to an Internet search, is located in Evanston, Wyo. It is affiliated with and supported by Faith in the Order of Nature Fellowship Church, also in Evanston. The state of Wyoming does not license Hamilton because it claims a religious exemption. Oregon has identified Hamilton University as a diploma mill unaccredited by any organization recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

[...]

Sorry if someone else posted this already.

If you trust the source, this page contains Mr. Forman's contact info.

Also mirrored below in case of /.'ing

CIO Council
Chair, Acting
Mr. Mark Forman
OMB
725 17th Street, NW
Room 349, Eisenhower Exec. Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20503
mforman@omb.eop.gov
Phone: 202-395-1095 / Fax: 202-395-4995

(posting AC b/c yes, I am just a little paranoid.)

Here's the URL for the bill:

http://cio.gov/egov/s803/050101_press-bill%2520tex t.pdf