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They want someone to ensure that the WH's use of Youtube and Facebook complies with the Presidential Records act.
Good luck with all of that.

If they were the same government promising more openness would not be ramming near trillion dollar bills through Congress without a chance for public discussion, let alone reading of by the voting parties.

If Congress isn't doing it's job, then it's the fault of Congress, not the one that has to implement the laws they pass.

then again, change might mean soliciting bids for a system to systematically scrape all non-hidden data on popular sites like facebook and myspace
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=eec856940efb75b2b1c11e2b1d5660a4&tab=core&_cview=0&cck=1&au=&ck=

You mean archiving postings by the White House to third-party websites, and any replies to those postings by users of those websites, in the White House itself rather than relying them being archived by those third-party websites? Since we've already seen third-party content providers totally lose all their data, and since the White House is required by law to document its communications and what it does, this seems like a highly sensible project.

Why make it sound sinister?

its not like they are out to be serious. If they were the same government promising more openness would not be ramming near trillion dollar bills through Congress without a chance for public discussion, let alone reading of by the voting parties.

then again, change might mean soliciting bids for a system to systematically scrape all non-hidden data on popular sites like facebook and myspace https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=eec856940efb75b2b1c11e2b1d5660a4&tab=core&_cview=0&cck=1&au=&ck=

Change we can believe in, with all these CZARs the only thing apparent is that the public isn't paying attention to the other hand

The article is based on the IBM's press release and is misleading because of it. In fact, there are three competing teams - one lead by IBM, one lead by HP and one lead by HRL Laboratories. See also the FBO website for more information about this program.

It's so closed that a government website doesn't exist that lists every open non-security related active procurement in the federal government, along with all the related information (i.e. rfp, rfq, amendments, attachments) so that every citizen and business has the opportunity to review what the government is buying, how they are going about buying it, and to bid on selling it to them. I was unfamiliar with Mother Jones, but a quick glance at their front page makes it pretty clear where they stand. But do continue to froth at the mouth regarding the Bush administration, it makes it considerably easier to spot your bias and ignorance.

And by the way, outsourcing with oversight isn't a problem. In fact, Goddard Space Flight Center, the largest NASA space research laboratory, houses only 3,186 actual government employees, whereas the other 7,590 that report there work for the companies that NASA contracts to perform the work.

Here's what NASA has to say about it:

As the forthcoming National Academies panel report will note, industry has the flexibility to move engineers and managers among programs depending on customer needs, a key advantage for NASA in a constrained budget environment. Work contracted to the private sector also offers the agency the benefit of civil-military integration since so many aerospace companies maintain research and production lines in both sectors. Access to the people and technology in the companies that support the Department of Defense and Transportation will deliver significant benefits to NASA. We can summarize the third benefit of NASA contractor work in one word: relevance. Private sector work in the realm of aeronautics will ensure that federal research has relevance to engines and aircraft planned for public use. Research with product and application potential subsequently increases the nation's return-on-investment at several levels, such as job creation, increased tax revenue, new services, and technology spin-offs.

Private industry is also much more efficient than even an open government.

A "kill switch" as of now means an F-18A intercepting it and shooting it down.

The term "kill switch" was a journalistic flair added by Wired, and doesn't actually occur anywhere in the Request for Proposals.

From looking at the Request for Proposals, it doesn't seem like they're looking for something that's pre-installed, but rather something they can fire at a plane.

I mean, imagine the following scenario:

1. Bad guys want to kill Cheney. That seems quite plausible.

2. Secret Service anticipates this. NSA and the Office of the Sergeant at Arms of the U.S. Senate are tasked to establish and test a set of security controls.

3. Pursuant to applicable FISMA, OMB, NIST and DoD regulations, it is determined that Cheney's pacemaker must undergo Certification and Accreditation under DIACAP (Doing Information Assurance on Cheney's Automatic Pacemaker) throughout the VP's Life Cycle.

4. Since the responsible government employees want to CYA, it is determined that the C&A work will be done by Contractors. An RFP is put together and posted to FedBizOpps.

5. A consortium of contractors including SAIC, Booz Allen, and Northrop Grumman are awarded the contract, with the real work to be done by a Section 8(a) minority small business contractor out of Bethesda.

6. The DIACAP team is assembled, a set of 8500.2 security controls is agreed upon, and the Veep is called in for several days of Security Control Assessments.

7. The contractors decide that a full SCA is too much hassle, so an SP 800-26 risk assessment checklist is completed instead.

8. Cheney leaves Bethesda Naval Hospital hardwired to a golf cart full of equipment at a cost of $35 million.

Go to http://www.fbo.gov/ and search for FA877107R0001

US Air Force

Agency: Department of the Air Force
Office: Air Force Materiel Command
Location: ESC - Electronic Systems Center

http://vsearch1.fbo.gov/servlet/SearchServlet It's already available, why are they trying to re-legislate something that already exists?

sorry it's the PIP at:
http://www.fbo.gov/EPSData/ODA/Synopses/4965/BAA06 -36/urban_challenge_pip.pdf

The big challenge this time is that now real situational awareness is required. Much better sensing will be needed. There are some new technologies out there that can probably do the job. Last year's sensing systems were actually rather marginal.

Here's the formal solicitation from DARPA, which has more details. Basically, DARPA will provide a "road map", as a file, which indicates all the streets and stop signs. (Traffic light sensing is not required). Then, just before the start, DARPA will provide a "mission file", which specifies the start point, checkpoints to be passed, and the goal. Vehicles must be able to park, unpark, do a 3-point turn, discover that a route is blocked and switch to another route, and merge into traffic. The goals are ambitious, but I expect they'll be achieved within two cycles of this Grand Challenge.

As for applications, Dr. Tether said at the last GC that he now expects to field some of this technology within five years. I expect to see some automated driving for convoy vehicles deployed. The whole convoy might not be autonomous, but autonomous vehicles that can intelligently follow a lead vehicle will be very useful. The escort troops will be in something with armor and firepower, like a Bradley, while the trucks trail along behind. This will be popular with the guys whose current job description is "target".

This may be neat, but it's nothing compared to the kind of tiny flying bug that the US Department of Defense wants to develop!

From the article A TSA contractor collected 100 million records on those names.
That is what worries me- How thoroughly are the contractors being vetted? If you visit the Federal Biz Opportunities site http://fbo.gov/ you will see that the gov't contacts out incredible amounts of work. I trust the US Military with my security (We could argue about the military and privacy all day so lets not bring that up), but why is our security being contacted out? That is what worries me. Where is the accountability???

They don't care. They don't have to. They're the US Government!

--
telnet://sinep.gotdns.com -- TW2002 and LORD registered!

From the article A TSA contractor collected 100 million records on those names.
That is what worries me- How thoroughly are the contractors being vetted? If you visit the Federal Biz Opportunities site http://fbo.gov/ you will see that the gov't contacts out incredible amounts of work. I trust the US Military with my security (We could argue about the military and privacy all day so lets not bring that up), but why is our security being contacted out? That is what worries me. Where is the accountability???