- A Veteran’s Day Salute
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By Teresa Carlson, Vice President, Microsoft Federal
Veteran’s Day is a time to give thanks to the brave men and women that serve and protect our country, and on Monday we were honored to partner with the Washington Capitals, Federal News Radio and the USO of Metropolitan Washington for Operation USO Care Package Day. Chris Clark, Mike Knuble, David Steckel and Brian Pothier of the Caps joined over 100 Microsoft and USO volunteers to stuff over 5,000 care packages for our troops serving all over the world. The wounded warriors “Sled Dogs” team from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center even came out for photos with the Caps!
Elaine Rogers, President of USO of Metropolitan Washington, and I with the Caps!
Alex Ovechkin with the Sled Dogs!
David Steckel stuffing care packages
As part of Microsoft’s Salute to Our Troops program, the event also launched the Courage Caps initiative, which is in its third season and has raised nearly $70,000 in its first two years. Courage Caps are team-branded hats that will be sold through December at Capitals home games with all proceeds benefiting USO-Metro troops and their families. You can also go to WashingtonCaps.com to support this great cause.
Tonight the festivities continue as 50 wounded soldiers will be treated to a special Veteran’s Day Capitals game! Caps owner Ted Leonsis blogged about the Wounded Warriors program here, and we can’t thank him enough for his support. Once again we are so happy to bring this event to the DC Metro area and to let our service men and women know how much we appreciate all that they do for us. For more information on the program and how you can get involved, visit http://www.microsoft.com/industry/government/Salute_to_our_Troops/
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- Making Sense of the Data
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By Teresa Carlson, Vice President, Microsoft Federal
Open government promises increased transparency and public participation. To achieve It, agencies must make data available to citizens that they are able to access, understand, and use. For many, visualization is a key element in understanding information, which is why we recently added new features to Bing Maps and updated the terms of use to provide free licensing programs to certain government, education and non-profit Web sites.
Bing Maps allows organizations to build data visualization applications on top of map images to better identify trends and analyze themes within complex information sets. We want government and educational organizations to be able to offer this type of insight to citizens. For example, citizens interested in tracking stimulus initiatives are leveraging geospatial solutions to engage with information on funding and project status by location. There is NO limit on the types of visualization applications that can be built, and we’ve increased the freedom developers have when customizing Bing Maps. For example, Microsoft Silverlight Map Control allows for embedded video, Deep Zoom, fly-through, scaling views of landmarks and properties, and continuous panning. Additions also include Geocoding and search updates that allow users to easily locate addresses and businesses. Plus, our worldwide network of data centers ensures that organizations in any location will experience fast, reliable performance.
Licensing is free for all public-facing, non-password protected Web sites with up to 125,000 user sessions per year. To learn more about how Bing Maps can support your mission, visit www.microsoft.com/maps.
- The Next Wave in Social Computing
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By Teresa Carlson, Vice President, Microsoft Federal
Earlier this month Gartner released its 2009 Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace, and we are proud that Microsoft is positioned in the “Leaders” quadrant. We are ranked highest on the “Ability to Execute” axis, which reinforces the fact that our customers are finding real value in SharePoint’s social tools right now. The report mentions that “Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007) offers a broad set of capabilities that combine structured collaboration with core social computing capabilities.”
Many federal leaders are already using Gov 2.0 resources like blogs, wikis, discussion groups, and workflow tools to foster collaboration across teams and improve the way agencies get things done. For example, we’ve gotten very positive feedback on SharePoint’s “My Site” feature, a personal page that allows users to manage their documents, calendar, and contacts, while serving as a point of contact for other users to find information about their colleagues’ expertise and current projects. It’s almost like an internal Facebook, with options like newsfeeds and status updates to keep coworkers connected. And SharePoint’s social tools integrate with our Office applications and online productivity tools, so users can use them in conjunction with programs that they are already comfortable with.
There are challenges associated with implementing Gov 2.0 tools, and federal leaders are rightly concerned with security. To help agencies through the transition, last month we launched our Gov 2.0 Kit, which extends Sharepoint’s social networking capabilities while ensuring sensitive data is protected. The “My Peeps” template allows users to securely collaborate with colleagues in “government-only” mode, with the option to tag certain information for public sharing on sites like Twitter and Facebook. Auditing and “post-tracking” features allow federal leaders to track the information posted to agency-approved social networking sites, to make sure governance policies are being followed. And to help agencies increase transparency and improve citizen services, there are templates for starting conversations with the public through blog comments, idea portals and Q&A features. We released the kit as an open source application for the same reason – we want feedback and suggestions, and agencies are free to modify the solution themselves to suit their needs. (click here for a demo)
We’re building additional social functionality into SharePoint 2010 while supporting social technology innovation throughout Microsoft with the creation of Future Social Experiences (FUSE) Labs. FUSE is Microsoft’s new social computing research lab focused on exploring and developing collaborative solutions that touch all aspects of user experience, including media, search, and mobile devices. FUSE is working closely with Microsoft product groups to incorporate the latest social thinking into the tools our customers rely on. Web 2.0 technologies are changing the way we all think about software and computing, and federal agencies are starting to benefit from the next wave of solutions.
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- Federal Innovation
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By Teresa Carlson, Vice President, Microsoft Federal
This week a few of my Microsoft colleagues attended the annual ACT-IAC Executive Leadership Conference (ELC) in Williamsburg, and they all came back raving about the technical innovation that’s currently taking place in the federal government. Almost unheard of a few years ago, federal leaders today are becoming early adopters of technologies like cloud computing, and are leveraging new tools to increase transparency, facilitate collaboration and drive efficiencies to make better use of taxpayer dollars.
To enable innovation, our focus continues to be on providing our government customers with choice. As I’ve said in previous posts, in the world of software - choice means open standards. Our customers aren’t interested in how software was created – they care about the value it can provide. It’s a mixed IT world, with both open source and proprietary software being brought to bear, and federal agencies need the freedom to choose the best tools for specific needs. To promote choice, we’ve worked extensively with developers to improve the way open source applications run on Windows. For instance, we’ve engaged with the PHP community to ensure that applications like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Advanced Poll, WebCalendar, SugarCRM and many others run well on our platform. The common assumption is that these applications need to run on Linux, but that’s simply not true anymore.
Our focus is on increasing productivity for our customers, with a heavy emphasis on security, reliability and interoperability. I do take issue with recent claims that open source applications are inherently more secure than proprietary software. All developers have access to the same security tools and techniques, and that idea completely ignores rigorous, proven methods like our Security Development Lifecycle approach which has been statistically shown to significantly reduce vulnerabilities in our products.
Agencies also need choices as they begin weighing the decision to transition to the cloud, which means having access to solutions for hybrid environments (on-premise and cloud). Discussion at ELC 2009 focused on how we can continue to advance public sector cloud computing. To support the needs of federal agencies, we’re continuing to improve our cloud offerings like Exchange, SharePoint, Live Meeting, and Bing, among many others. Solutions such as Recovery.gov hold tremendous promise for government at all levels in terms of transparency and accountability, and we are exceedingly proud that the site leverages Sharepoint Server 2007 for content management and SQL Server for data warehousing.
It’s so exciting to see federal agencies setting best practices for technical innovation, and maintaining the fundamental role of competition in innovation. Choice will keep public sector competition strong, and will provide government with the best tools to provide the most value to citizens.
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- Cloud Security
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By Teresa Carlson, Vice President, Microsoft Federal
Earlier this month I wrote on cloud security because it’s one of the most important issues facing our federal customers. The post sparked interesting discussion, and it was great to connect with folks like Jaikumar Vijayan of ComputerWorld and Kim Hart of The Hill on the importance of the ISO 27001 standard and the details of our approach. In the video below, my colleague Bill Billings, Microsoft Federal’s Chief Security Officer, provides some additional insight into the standards we’re mapping to, the need for transparency and how to recognize internal threats.
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- Win 7 Launch!
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By Teresa Carlson, Vice President, Microsoft Federal
It’s an exciting week here at Microsoft as Windows 7 will be officially available tomorrow! It’s an operating system that was truly designed by our customers, with new features developed based on the feedback we’ve received over the past few years:
- In Vista we introduced User Account Control (UAC) to help increase security and lower total cost of ownership, and in Win 7 we’ve enhanced it to be less intrusive without sacrificing security. The new version has greatly lowered the number of the much-talked about alerts users receive, and has made the overall security control process more streamlined.
- For mobile workers and folks working remotely, we’ve introduced Direct Access, which allows users to securely access corporate or agency networks without having to go through a complicated credentialing process.
- BitLocker To Go is a feature that allows hardware like USB drives to be protected with a passphrase, securing sensitive data regardless of where it’s located.
(For a more comprehensive list of features and enhancements visit our resources page for enterprise customers.)
We’re encouraged by the response Win 7 has received so far, but I wanted to take a minute to clarify some information for government customers looking to upgrade.
First the price. There have been a lot of numbers thrown around in the media regarding the cost of upgrading for agencies, but the truth is that after volume pricing and discounts our federal customers will be able to move to Win 7 Enterprise for under $100 per user. While still a significant investment, it’s one that will pay off for agencies in terms of performance, security, and compatibility.
Second, migration time. Whether you’re upgrading from Vista or XP, the average install time takes between 30 – 40 minutes, with an additional 30 – 45 minutes for data migration. Reports citing 20 hours of install time are referring to power users transitioning massive amounts (over 600 GBs) of data. Typical users will have no problem migrating in under an hour, especially if they use our free Windows Easy Transfer tool. Customers upgrading from XP will require a clean install, but Windows Easy Transfer allows users to file their existing data and settings directly onto their hard drive, without requiring backup or restore. Additionally, Win 7 includes a “legacy mode” -- a virtualized environment that runs applications from previous operating systems. So in the rare event that an XP user is unable to run a program in Win 7, it will seamlessly run it in “XP mode.”
Many government customers have already participated in our Technical Access Program (TAP) and have provided invaluable feedback on Windows 7, and customers from the University of New Mexico to the State of Illinois to the City of Miami are investing in Win 7. We want to continue to receive feedback as government needs evolve, so check out our Win 7 government page to let us know your thoughts, chat with a specialist, get information on discounts or view a demo.
- Secure the Datacenter, Secure the Cloud
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By Teresa Carlson, Vice President, Microsoft Federal
I’ve talked a lot about the essential role cloud computing can play in creating a more agile, efficient, and cost-effective federal government, but when deciding whether or not to embrace cloud technology, agencies’ biggest questions rightly focus on security and privacy. That’s why adhering to top line standards in each of those areas is critically important.
Datacenters are the foundation of any organization’s approach to cloud computing, which is why Microsoft has built its datacenters to comply with the strictest international security and privacy standards, including International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 27001, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 and SAS 70 Type 1 and Type II. The ISO 27001 global certification is particularly important, as the highest international standard for information security. Todd VanderVen, president of BSI Management Systems discussed ISO 27001 in a recent research report, saying, "As the first major online service provider to earn ISO/IEC 27001:2005 certification, Microsoft is further demonstrating a commitment to making its company more secure and securing the information of its customers. By formalizing their documentation and processes and using ISO/IEC 27001:2005, Microsoft will be able to improve quality as well as security and continue to raise the bar for the industry, as they have done so well over the years."
Intersection of Security Standards
Part of the payoff for adopting the tougher ISO standard is increased transparency while still offering the highest levels of security. In a cloud environment, where vendors host government data, it is critical for customers to demand full transparency. ISO is the right standard and Microsoft continues to demonstrate a commitment to openness and transparency regarding our cloud. We’ve also recently entered into a partnership with the GSA to gain an Authority to Operate (ATO) Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite for them through FISMA accreditation by the end of 2009. Because we build security and privacy features into cloud solutions from the start, this allows us to satisfy government agencies security requirements such as FISMA as well as provide added measures like ensuring that domestic government data resides in the United States and a guaranteed 99.9% uptime.
As we help government customers maintain rigorous security and privacy requirements as they move mission-critical communications and collaboration solutions to the cloud, we are already seeing successes with cities like Carlsbad, California which uses Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite, and the University System of Ohio (the largest university system in the United States). By leveraging Microsoft’s hosted applications, these customers are lowering operating costs and freeing up vital IT resources and staff for more innovative and strategic projects. Customers also appreciate that they can continue to use familiar user interfaces (such as Office) after moving to the cloud, extending existing technology investments while accessing Microsoft’s round-the-clock support, backup, filtering, and compliance features during the transition.
Our approach to cloud computing has been developed through years of experience running not only massive-scale consumer cloud offerings like Hotmail®, Xbox Live, and Bing search but also Exchange Server for enterprises, which has a heritage of Common Criteria certification. As more customers ask the tough questions on cloud, Microsoft Federal is ready with some resources that can help. And for additional details on datacenter security, my colleagues at our datacenters have information that can point you in the right direction.
White paper: Securing Microsoft’s Cloud Infrastructure
White Paper: Security in Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite
Global Foundation Services Blog: Securing Microsoft’s Cloud Infrastructure
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- Web Tool Battles Swine Flu
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By Teresa Carlson, Vice President, Microsoft Federal
It seems like every time I open the paper, I read about another school or community affected by H1N1. It’s pretty scary stuff, and with the first wave of Swine Flu vaccinations being delivered all across the country this week, our nation’s health resources are being increasingly challenged by the H1N1 pandemic. Public health officials are concerned that doctors and hospital emergency rooms will be overwhelmed in the coming weeks by people who have, or think they have, H1N1. To help folks determine if they have the illness, and to allow healthcare professionals to focus on those that are sick, Microsoft has partnered with Emory University to create the H1N1 Swine Flu response center. The Web site, launched this week, includes a self-assessment tool (licensed by medical experts at Emory) that provides citizens information on their specific symptoms to help them determine whether it’s safe to recover at home, or if they should seek medical attention. The portal should also help to reduce the number of people that may be needlessly exposed to H1N1 while waiting in crowded hospitals.
If the self-assessment results suggest seeing a doctor, the Web site provides a “prepare-for-visit” tool that allows patients to collect relevant, necessary health information prior to their trip to the physician. The data is pulled from the assessment as well as the user’s account in Microsoft HealthVault, an online tool that allows people to store and manage their family’s health information. And if users agree, information from the assessment can be anonymously collected and given to public health, education and research organizations that are tasked with identifying H1N1 trends. Our best and brightest medical minds need access to this data to respond most effectively to this pandemic. To take the self-assessment or just to learn more about the illness, go to http://www.h1n1responsecenter.com.
- Recovery.gov
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By Teresa Carlson, Vice President, Microsoft Federal
Earlier this week, the federal government and the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board took a giant step toward increasing transparency and accountability across all levels of government with the launch of enhanced capabilities on Recovery.gov, a public-facing web portal that allows citizens and communities to track stimulus funding. Recovery.gov not only provides information on where stimulus funds have been allocated, but also updates citizens on how local projects are progressing and what additional funds may be available to help their communities. For information on local activity, citizens just have to type in their zip code and can access graphical representations of funding in their area. The portal also has the ability to analyze and track reports of waste, fraud and abuse, increasing accountability and helping to ensure the best return on taxpayer investment. To sum it up, the site is really designed to give us, as citizens, unprecedented visibility into how our tax dollars are being spent. Once you see recovery.gov – you start thinking, ‘why can’t I see this level of information around all government spending.’
Recovery.gov is a great example of Gov 2.0, as its interoperable technologies power the portal seamlessly to increase government transparency. Microsoft partners Smartronix and Synteractive led construction of the website, and talk about interoperability – the portal uses Microsoft SharePoint for content management, Amazon web services, Microsoft SQL Server for data warehousing, and solutions from ESRI and Business Objects Software for virtualization, analysis and reporting. Recovery.gov also integrates with social media tools like Twitter and Facebook, allowing citizens to share information and collaborate on solutions.
We are so proud to have played a role in this exciting new application, which can support millions of hits per hour. Additional data will be added to the website throughout October, and will be published to allow developers to work with it in new ways.
In the meantime, check out Recovery.gov today to access the government information that is now at every citizen’s fingertips.
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- Microsoft in the Cloud?
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By Teresa Carlson, Vice President, Microsoft Federal
Is Microsoft in the cloud computing business? It’s a question we hear all the time. The answer is YES, and we’ve been investing in cloud technology for a long time. In the video below, Stan Freck, Microsoft’s Director of Software + Services for the Public Sector, discusses the factors federal agencies need to consider when choosing cloud-based productivity solutions.
- Santa in DC!
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By Teresa Carlson, Vice President, Microsoft Federal
A Salute to Our Troops got off to a great start yesterday, as Santa and the Rockettes toured the DC area to hand out prizes, visit famous landmarks and spend some time with the troops at Fort Myer. Santa even made a stop at WFED to say hello to our friends at Federal News Radio. I’ve posted some photos from yesterday below, and we really want to thank WFED/WTOP, the Washington Capitals and especially the USO of Metropolitan Washington for their continued support of this great program. Don’t forget to visit the Salute website for more information on attending Radio City Music Halls’ Christmas Spectacular at the Verizon Center on December 20th!
- A Salute to Our Troops
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By Teresa Carlson, Vice President, Microsoft Federal
Santa Claus is coming to town early this year! In fact, he’ll be travelling around Washington D.C. tomorrow morning, handing out goodies to promote the 3rd annual A Salute to Our Troops program. A Salute to Our Troops is dedicated to recognizing and thanking our service men and women for their commitment to our country by providing entertainment for them and their families.
Microsoft created the program in partnership with the United Service Organization (USO), and the conclusion of this year’s program will include a complimentary showing of Radio City Music Halls’ Christmas Spectacular at the Verizon Center for 8,200 troops and their families. We are so excited to bring the program to D.C. for the first time this year, and we hope that through highlighting the courageous stories of our service men and women that we can inspire others to get involved and volunteer. The event is always such a great time, and the Washington Capitals will be adding to the fun this year through the Courage Caps program. On November 9th, the USO is partnering with WTOP/Federal News Radio and Capitals players to stuff care packages for our warriors overseas, and 50 wounded soldiers will be treated to a special Veteran’s Day Capitals game on November 11th.
Santa’s visit tomorrow morning officially kicks off this year’s festivities. After his tour through downtown, he’ll be meeting up with the Radio City Rockettes near the White House to do some site seeing before heading to Fort Myer, Virginia to visit with troops. If you spot him, let us know on Twitter (@FutureFed #salutesanta) and take a photo and send it to salutesanta@live.com for a chance to win a prize! Tomorrow I’ll post some photos of his tour, but in the meantime, visit SaluteSanta.com to get involved!
- Honoring Microsoft’s Warriors
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By Teresa Carlson, Vice President, Microsoft Federal
Today I am so honored and thrilled to be in downtown Washington, D.C. to accept a 2009 Employer Support Freedom Award on behalf of Microsoft. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, the Freedom Award is the highest recognition given by the President and the U.S. Government to employers for outstanding support of employees serving in the National Guard and Reserve. We take so much pride in work we perform for the military community, and to be recognized for supporting those in our employee family who loyally serve our country is extremely gratifying.
The award is also special because nominations come directly from current Guard or Reserve members, with ours coming from Tom Castellano, a Microsoft Technologist from Omaha, Nebraska. According to the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR), the DoD organization that manages the Freedom Awards, almost one-half of the U.S. military is comprised of the National Guard and Reserve, and we are grateful to the DoD for sharing extraordinarily talented people like Tom with us during their service. In support of our guardsmen and reservist employees, Microsoft has policies in place regarding leave, differential pay, and medical benefits to ensure that life remains as normal as possible during deployment. In addition to benefits, Microsoft has also established programs that ensure ongoing support for service employees and former service employees, like the Military Reservists at Microsoft and U.S. Military Veterans at Microsoft.
For more information on the Freedom Awards, visit http://www.freedomaward.mil/
- Microsoft Brings Service and Applications to the Cloud
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By Teresa Carlson, Vice President, Microsoft Federal
Yesterday, U.S. Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra unveiled the federal government’s vision for cloud computing, beginning with Apps.gov, an online storefront federal agencies can use to purchase cloud-based IT services. In his speech at the NASA Ames Research Center, Vivek made it clear that government must leverage cloud innovation to lower IT costs, efficiently pool resources across agencies and reduce energy consumption. Apps.gov will simplify and streamline the procurement process for agencies, but to ensure success, we in industry need to make certain that federal organizations have a broad set of choices, including solutions for mixed hybrid (on-premise and cloud) environments, complete with rigorous interoperability and security standards.
Already, Microsoft offers federal, state and local government agencies several cloud computing solutions, including popular products like Exchange, SharePoint, Office Communications Server, Public Sector On Demand, CRM, Live Meeting, and Bing Search and Maps. This set of hosted services is one of most comprehensive in the market and as government begins to increasingly explore online tools and services, Microsoft is confident it presents that most flexible, reliable and – importantly – safe and secure solution.
The best part about Microsoft's approach to cloud computing is that it enables government customers to continue to use familiar user interfaces (such as the Microsoft Office system) and to rebalance their infrastructure across on-premise offerings for mission-critical applications and to offload non-differentiating applications, such as collaboration messaging, to Microsoft and its partners to host and run from the cloud.
Microsoft’s commitment to hosted software and services is evident from heavy investment in datacenter infrastructure that’s been taking place over the past several years. Last year, Microsoft invested more in datacenter infrastructure than Google and Yahoo. Microsoft’s strategy is to offer customers the power of choice: run applications on-premises, via a hosted solution or through a hybrid of both. A hybrid model however demands an open environment for technology to work together. Interoperability ensures that agencies can leverage existing on-premise investments in conjunction with new cloud-based offerings, and allows federal organizations to migrate to the cloud at their own pace.
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- Day 2 Interop -- Discussions at O’Reilly Gov 2.0 Summit
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By Teresa Carlson, Vice President, Microsoft Federal
The dialogue continued in DC today at the O’Reilly Gov 2.0 Summit. From the IT infrastructure to the cloud, interoperability was a common theme, deemed critical by industry and government leaders, on par with reliability and security. In fact, Tim O’Reilly said today, “I’m a big believer in interop and want to see a world where cloud services are interoperable.”
I’m glad this topic bubbled to the top of the Summit today, because interop was the focus of a panel discussion led by Microsoft’s Federal Civilian CTO Susie Adams. Susie was joined by Susan Heystee, VP and General Manager of Global Strategic Alliances at Novell, and Bryan Kirschner, VP for Corporate Strategies at Greenberg Quinlan Rosner. In their “Getting to Gov 2.0” session, they explored how to enable interoperability in government IT and how an open platform with appropriate security, identity, and scalability fosters Government 2.0.
Susie Adams understands the challenges of getting to Gov 2.0 more than most. She’s in the trenches with our U.S. Federal IT pros every day. She explained how quickly evolving technologies can be a challenge for government purchasing decisions, decisions that are often 10 years out. Since technology evolves quickly in only five years, interoperability will help governments derive more value from their IT procurement, giving them flexibility and opportunities to benefit from the latest innovations.
Susan Heystee of Novell took us through what she described as a “controversial” and “landmark” interoperability alliance with Microsoft. She said that they took two companies that were fierce competitors, but as a result of customer realities and demands over mixed IT, they got creative with their technology and business agreements, and have been building bridges between our technologies and our intellectual property. As a result, together we share more than 350 customers, and are jointly developing innovative interoperable solutions for advanced virtualization, systems management, identity/federation and rich media. This allows governments to get more value from their technology, old and new.
Bryan reminded us all to take a step back and look at the human connection. Technology can help governments be more efficient and citizens more productive. But more importantly, he said, there is much productivity to be gained by broadening civic participation. He likened this to the idea to the Victory gardens of World War II, at time when many families grew their own gardens. This created early controversy then over fear that citizen gardens could destroy the commercial food industry.
With a sense of urgency, Bryan challenged governments and the IT industry to match that level of innovation in the Victory gardens and apply it to Gov 2.0 issues today. Susie and Susan said that Microsoft and Novell, respectively, are up for the challenge.
Here’s just a few snippets from their discussion...
