Last week I was able to attend a briefing where IBM showcased how Watson is proliferating medical information and improving health care efficiency and quality.  While at this briefing I kept thinking about how this was a perfect real life case study of using big data and how it fit in with SIIA’s recent white paper  Data-Driven Innovation A Guide for Policymakers: Understanding and Enabling the Economic and Social Value of Data.

The briefing was led by Dr. Martin Kohn, the Chief Medical Scientist of IBM and Dr. Mark Kris, the Chief Thoracic Oncology Service at MSKCC.  During the briefing they showed us how Watson is able to use a patient’s record and look at relevant data to come up with a list of potential treatment plans and their odds of being successful.  If important information is missing Watson lets the doctors know what information it needs in order to make a decision.  Over time as the patient has new symptoms or gets back the results of certain tests or treatments or expresses preferences on treatment Watson takes all of these things into consideration when coming up new treatments and their probabilities of success.  Additionally based on the information Watson has received it can diagnose or change the diagnosis of a patient.

Dr. Kris believes that Watson is successful at diagnosing and offering treatments because it looks at everything not just what people believe are important.  The other reason he believes Watson is successful is because it goes about things the way a doctor would such as giving a list of possibilities not one definite solution and the likelihood of various treatments being successful.  Watson has the added ability to look at information collected by doctors in the field around the world and use their cumulative knowledge instead of just relying on what a few specific doctors at that hospital know.  Just like with people Watson is able to learn and remember things so the more patients it works with the better it is able to do in the future. 

While these initial results of transforming Watson from a games show winner into a doctor have been promising there are still many problems they have to work on fixing before using Watson at the hospital becomes a common occurrence.  The two biggest of which are that for Watson to come up with diagnoses and treatments requires it to analyze and store massive amounts of data which is very costly to do at the moment.  The second is that at the moment they need to figure out how to best maximize the use of Watson as it is only capable of working in a narrow field at the moment such as cancer instead of in the broader field of healthcare.  Both Dr. Kohn and Dr. Kris stressed that Watson at the time is a tool that can be used to support or come up with a second opinion on things but is not a substitute for an actual doctor. 

At the moment Watson is a useful tool at the MSKCC but there is a still lot of work that needs to be done before it is able to potentially revolutionize the healthcare industry.  The most important thing is to remember the use of big data to create Data Driven Innovation to create real world benefits is still in the early stages and the best thing we can do is to not put restrictions or limitations on how or why it is used or collected so that we don’t accidentally prevent monumental changes in how we do things from happening.

Denys Emmert is the Public Policy intern at SIIA. He has a degree in marketing and political science from Florida State University.

Denys Emmert is the Public Policy intern at SIIA. He has a degree in marketing and political science from Florida State University.

Chairman Issa and his staff have clearly recognized that, more than 16 years after Clinger Cohen became law, federal IT acquisition reform is long overdue. We’ve been working closely with the Chairman and the Committee, and believe that the marked-up version of the legislation is much improved and headed in the right direction.

SIIA remains supportive of the legislation’s objectives, but we continue to have concerns with several specific provisions and the impact they will have on federal IT marketplace. Following today’s mark-up, we will continue to work with Chairman Issa and the committee in order to make improvements in four key areas. We remain very hopeful that, with careful consideration and deliberation, Congress will develop an effective solution to this important concern.

SIIA is seeking changes to the legislation in a number of areas, including:

* Removal of the provision that would create a standardized approach to security assessments for cloud products and services. This provision would essentially establish the FedRAMP process in statute and could conflict with FISMA requirements, creating confusion for cloud companies seeking to do business with the federal government.
* Revising the software licensing provisions, which currently fail to recognize the value of resellers, the varying types of user licenses, and the overall scope of software licensing in the federal government. The current provisions could potentially create additional barriers to entry for small and minority businesses.
* Revising the provision asking agencies to justify not using the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative (FSSI) for any purchase of services and supplies offered under FSSI. The current provision appears to give an unfair preference for FSSI, and the vast majority of IT products and services purchased by the federal government are too complex to be effectively purchased using FSSI.
* Updating the section on website transparency to make open data the default for government and to embrace the use of open application program interfaces (APIs).

Read SIIA’s full comments.

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.

We have seen tremendous technological advances in communications and computing technology since 1986, when ECPA was enacted. The legal framework provided by this outdated statue leaves both providers and users of remote computing with a complex and baffling set of rules. These rules are both difficult to explain and to apply in this age of networked and cloud computing.

SIIA urges members of the Judiciary Committee to work with all deliberate speed to enact legislation creating a warrant requirement for law enforcement access to remotely stored electronic content.  It is critical to level the playing field for information Americans store in the cloud, ensuring that it receives the same protection as the information they store in their homes.

Ken Wasch is President of SIIA. Follow the SIIA Software team on twitter at @SIIASoftware.

This year’s event will feature discussions from a diverse group of influential government IT advisors, leading software executives and policymakers, including:

• Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman, Committee on Government Oversight and Reform, U.S. House of Representatives
• David DeVries, Deputy CIO, Information Enterprise, U.S. Department of Defense
• Dawn Leaf, Deputy Chief Information Officer, United States Department of Labor
• Peter Tseronis, Chief Technology Officer, U.S. Department of Energy

The conference will also gather a panel of government CIOs to discuss their move to the cloud and provide advice for other federal executives with organizational concerns. Other presentations will address emerging FedRAMP-related issues, the convergence of the cloud and “big data” analytics as well as a comprehensive look at federal policy changes that could impact cloud computing in 2013. Additionally, vendors representing all segments of the public sector will highlight the latest innovations in cloud-based government IT.

For a complete schedule of events, visit http://www.siia.net/cloudgov/2013/

Michael Hettinger is VP for the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG) at SIIA. Follow his PSIG tweets at @SIIAPSIG.

This year’s theme is “Big Data. Bigger Opportunities.”

As part of Data Innovation Day, ITIF will host panel discussions in DC on how government agencies are using data to make government work more effectively and efficiently, as well as highlighting interesting examples of how data innovation is transforming different sectors of the economy. DMA will also host a virtual event to celebrate data-driven marketing innovation – and to engage data-driven marketers in the growing data debate that is taking shape in Washington and around the world. For more information, visit the Data Innovation Day schedule of events.

A key theme unifying the work of SIIA on behalf of its members is an increased focus on advancing the effective collection and positive use of data. It is essential that public policy recognizes that innovation and business strategies are increasingly driven by data. Importantly, data-driven innovation not only holds the promise of advancing economic opportunity and jobs, but of providing tremendous consumer and societal benefits.

With so much at stake, SIIA is committed to actively promoting the economic and social value of data-driven innovation. Our efforts will involve direct outreach to legislators, along with a White Paper that includes recommendations for policymakers and governments. Our goal is to make certain that public policy helps enable the tremendous societal and economic benefits of data-driven innovation.

With members in both technology and information services, SIIA is uniquely positioned to highlight and address the public policy issues that arise from the increased salience of data-driven innovation. We began to focus more strongly on this issue in 2012, and it will be an even more important part of our work in 2013.

SIIA also announced its general tech policy priorities for 2013, along with policy priorities in the areas of: intellectual property; public sector IT, and; education technology.

Technology Policy Priorities

• Promote and enable the economic and social value of data-driven innovation, including through a White Paper with recommendations for policymakers and governments.
• Actively support voluntary, enforceable codes of conduct to provide enhanced data privacy protections, and oppose legislative and regulatory proposals that lack the flexibility to accommodate rapid technological innovation.
• Promote policies around the world that facilitate cross-border data flows, and develop interoperable legal frameworks that help to advance global implementation of cloud computing.
• Promote critical cybersecurity policies, in the U.S. and around the world, that will help the public and private sectors work together to more effectively mitigate this threat, without stifling innovation.

Intellectual Property Priorities

• Protect the economic interests and creative rights of software and content publishers by responding as appropriate to the Supreme Court opinion in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons Inc. and any other cases, policies or legislation relating to the copyright law’s first sale exception/exhaustion principle that may unduly limit their ability to license and control the distribution of their software and content products
• Encourage economic growth and innovation by working for further reform of the patent system to address the ongoing problem of patent trolls, including measures to restrict asymmetric discovery burdens.
• Monitor the ICANN’s domain name expansion process with the goal of enhancing and strengthening online transparency and accountability by working to ensure that domain name and IP address Whois databases remain publicly accessible, accurate, and reliable, as key tools to combat online infringement of copyrights and trademarks, and other fraudulent or criminal acts online.
• Actively monitor for, and act upon as necessary, hearings, legislative or regulatory copyright reform proposals in the United States and abroad, such as issues relating to orphan works, library exceptions and piracy, to ensure that they advance and do not adversely affect the copyright interests of SIIA members.
• Oppose changes to the CFAA that would unduly limit the ability of SIIA members to deter and prevent unauthorized access – and access that exceeds authorized access to databases, subscription services and cloud services.
• Ensure that any international treaty relating to copyright exceptions for the blind and visually impaired that may be adopted by WIPO includes adequate safeguards to protect the copyright interests of SIIA’s publishers.

Public Sector IT Priorities

• Encourage Administration IT initiatives for federal agencies to be more open, transparent and efficient, delivering better services to citizens, while reducing the overall cost of government. Information Technology has and will continue to play a role in the Federal government’s effort to deliver better services to citizens, while reducing the overall cost of government.
• Support a continuation of the effort to move agencies to cloud, consolidate the existing data center infrastructure and better leverage government data.
• Advocate for key administration initiatives that support the overall mission of the SIIA Public Sector Innovation Group including: Cloud First, Big Data, Data Center Consolidation, Digital Government/Mobile, and FedRAMP.
• Support reasonable reform of the Federal acquisition process, which needs to change to keep pace with the rapid pace of technology.
• Intervene to support member interest in the legislative consideration of the proposal by Chairman Daryl Issa to reform federal IT acquisition, which will serve as a basis for a broader discussion around the need to improve IT acquisition to keep pace with technology in 2013.

Ed Tech Priorities

• Seek increased investment in education technology and its integration into teaching and learning, including to personalize learning for each student.
• Reform outdated regulations in favor of 21st Century e-learning policies, especially the shift from seat-time to anytime, everywhere competency-based learning.
• Support education technology research and development through government-industry partnership, not government competition with the private sector.
• Support the value of the for-profit sector in providing education products and services to public schools, agencies and institutions.
• Encourage targeted STEM education, training and other workforce development policies to meet the economy’s needs for a skilled high-tech workforce.
• Actively translate public policies, programs and regulations into actionable market intelligence for SIIA members.

Ken Wasch is President of SIIA.

DHS Releases Continuous Monitoring RFQ:  In cybersecurity news, DHS, working through GSA, released a final RFQ this week seeking bids to meet requirements  of the new Continuous Diagnostic and Mitigation program and for continuous monitoring as-a-service.  The BPA includes 15 tools and 11 task areas aimed at improving DHS’s IT security.  The BPA has an estimated value of $6 billion and responses are due January 28, 2013. Federal News Radio has the details.

PSIG Members Featured in 10^th Anniversary of the E-Gov Act Event:  This week marked the 10^th anniversary of the E-Gov Act and SIIA PSIG Members Doug Bourgeois of VMware, Mark Forman of Government Transaction Services and David Mihalchik of Google all were featured prominently in the event marking the anniversary.  Other SIIA members were included as well, including Dan Chenok of IBM and former Congressman Tom Davis, now of Deloitte.  C Span covered the event, which focused on the advances made in government technology since passage of the E-Gov Act.  See the video here.

 Appian Receives FISMA Moderate Certification from GSA:  Appian announced this week that it had received FISMA moderate certification from the General Services Administration for a major business process management application, built on Appian Cloud.  Appian Cloud is built on Amazon Web Services.  See the press release for more information.

Federal News Radio to host live chat with CBP CIO:  Our friends at Federal News Radio are hosting a live chat on January 3^rd at 11am with DHS Customs and Border Protection CIO Charlie Armstrong and are encouraging interested parties to submit questions in advance.  See the link for more details.

Michael Hettinger is VP for the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG) at SIIA. Follow his PSIG tweets at @SIIAPSIG.

His intervention is a welcome attempt to set the record straight before these erroneous beliefs become widespread and entrenched.  It was accompanied the release of State Department white paper that dispels the misconceptions about the U.S. legal system and government access to information.

The fact is that the U.S. has a well-developed and established system to protect individual liberties from government intrusion.  We have a general distrust of a powerful government and are suspicious of anything that advances the growth of government power.  Our bias is in favor of a limited government that lets people chose their own good in their own way.  As a result we are far less tolerant of government intrusion into our private lives than other countries, and have set up a system whereby the U.S. extends privacy protections to non-U.S. citizens as well.

At the same time, the U.S. is more tolerant of the use of information for innovative and productive use by businesses than other countries, to our great advantage in the race for economic growth, business development and job creation.  Our system of protecting the individual privacy in the business context shows that this can be done while maintaining strong and effective protections for consumer privacy. This system also respects the rights of non-U.S. consumers established in other privacy regimes.

None of this means that the U.S. system is perfect.  We think that steps can be taken to improve the consumer privacy system for mobile app notifications and are actively working with the U.S. Commerce Department and other stakeholders on a voluntary code of conduct and an effective system of screen notices.  We have joined with others in the Digital Due Process Coalition to modernize the 1986 U.S. Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which needs updating to fit the realities of email and document storage in the cloud.

But the need for these reforms does not suggest that the current U.S. system is a threat to privacy or justifies a move away from cloud computing as a way to avoid government scrutiny.  Ambassador Kennard is to be commended for his strong defense of the U.S. approach to privacy in the cloud.

Mark MacCarthy, Vice President, Public Policy at SIIA, directs SIIA’s public policy initiatives in the areas of intellectual property enforcement, information privacy, cybersecurity, cloud computing and the promotion of educational technology. Follow the SIIA Public Policy team on Twitter at @SIIAPolicy

GSA pulls the plug on Apps.gov: The federal government pulled the plug on Apps.gov this week. The cloud application storefront, which was the brainchild of former Federal CIO, Vivek Kundra, was intended to provide a one-stop-shop for cloud apps for the federal government and make it easier for federal IT personnel to acquire cloud services. The initiative never took off as intended. GSA didn’t give a reason for decommissioning the initiative, but noted that everything that was available through Apps.gov, would still be available through Schedule 70. Information Week has a story.

NextGov Prime highlights procurement reform, big data: NextGov held its first-ever Prime Conference at the Ronald Reagan Building this week. The event included a keynote panel featuring Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and Rep. Gerry Connelly (D-VA), ranking member of the panel’s Technology Subcommittee, two leaders pushing an update to the 1996 Clinger-Cohen Act. The intent of the legislation, which SIIA has been tracking closely and which is expected to be introduced early in the next Congress, is to improve the speed and efficiency of federal IT purchasing. FCW has the wrap up. The event also had a heavy focus on big data and how data analytics can make the government more effective. FCW covers that angle as well.

Michael Hettinger is VP for the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG) at SIIA. Follow his PSIG tweets at @SIIAPSIG.