White House releases updated open data policy: On May 9th, the White House released an update to last year’s memorandum on open data and the resulting Digital Government Strategy. The new policy, accompanied by an Executive Order, aims to make machine readable data the default for government data, while helping to establish a framework for effective information management at each stage of the information’s lifecycle to promote openness and interoperability. See the OMB memo here.
Spires resigns as DHS CIO: After nearly two months on leave, DHS CIO Richard Spires officially resigned from the agency this week. No reason for the resignation was given. Spires had been at DHS for nearly 3 ½ years and in addition to his responsibilities at DHS, also served as Vice Chair of the CIO Council. While the rumors have been rampant about the reasons for his extended leave, most of the speculation has focused on a general dispute with senior DHS officials over the role and authority of the CIO, a subject sure to come more to the forefront as a result of this situation. Earlier this week, FCW published an op-ed that I penned on the evolving role of the federal CIO, which is linked here and FCW has full coverage of the Spires story here.
Jeff Zients steps down from OMB post: Jeff Zients, who had been Acting Director of OMB for more than a year, prior to Sylvia Burwell’s confirmation a couple weeks ago, announced that he was stepping down as Deputy Director effective May 1st. Zients, a former management consultant, was the nation’s first Chief Performance Officer, in addition to being the Deputy Director for Management. Lisa Brown has been handling the CPO duties while Zients has been acting OMB director. Zients departure, along with that of performance guru Shelley Metzenbaum, announced last week, leaves a significant gap in the “M” and OMB. No word yet on what the Administration plans to do to fill these positions, nor is there any word on what’s next for Zients who at one time had expressed interest in being the US Trade Representative. Federal Times has the story.
NIST issues updated security controls for federal IT systems: On April 30th NIST issued an update to the federal systems security controls contained in NIST Special Publication 800-53, Security and Privacy Controls for Federal information Systems and Organizations. The updated policy, the forth update to SP 800-53 and the first since 2009, addresses issues such as mobile and cloud computing, applications security, supply chain risks and privacy concerns. It also calls for maintaining routine best practices to reduce information security risks and pushes a renewed emphasis on secure software development. See the full text here.
FOSE to kick off May 14th: The annual FOSE Conference being held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center is set to kick off a big week for federal IT. General Stan McCrystal will open the conference with a keynote presentation on Tuesday morning followed by three full days of conference sessions on cloud, mobile, cybersecurity, and big data. Other keynotes include former Redskin quarterback Joe Theismann, Senator Tom Carper (D-DE), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Federal CIO, Steve VanRoekel. Yours truly will be moderating a session on leveraging government-wide acquisition vehicles (GWACS) to acquire cloud on Tuesday afternoon and SIIA is hosting a reception for conference attendees on Wednesday, May 15th. See more at the FOSE website.
Michael Hettinger is VP for the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG) at SIIA. Follow his PSIG tweets at @SIIAPSIG. Sign up for the Public Sector Innovation Roundup email newsletter for weekly updates.