White House Moving Forward on Open Data Initiative: According to a blog post earlier this week from Nick Sinai, the federal government’s Deputy Chief Technology Officer, the Obama Administration is moving forward with the open data initiative announced earlier this year and continues to seek the public’s input on how to improve transparency, what types on information should be released and how open data can enhance government services. The White House is accepting comments on this through September 23rd. See the full blog post on the Open Data Initiative website here.

IBM Issues Guide to Federal Acquisition: Earlier this week the IBM Center for the Business of Government released a report by Trevor Brown of the Ohio State University entitled A Guide for Agency Leaders on Federal Acquisition: Major Challenges Facing Government. The report is viewed as a how-to guide designed to assist government executives with understanding the federal procurement process, one of the most complex processes in the government and one that has put more than one agency leader in an uncomfortable position. The report aims to answer eight key questions about federal procurement, believing that a better understanding of the process is the key to a successful tenure for agency leadership. Read the full report here.

NARA Focused on Email Archiving: The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) launched a new initiative for email management known as Capstone. The goal of the program according to NARA is to make it easier for agencies to archive the millions of emails generated annually by federal employees. Capstone will help agencies meet the requirements of the OMB Managing Government Records Directive including complying with the December 2016 deadline. FedNewsRadio has a report.

Budget Uncertainty Hurting Feds and Contractors Alike: Rep. Gerry Connolly told “In Depth with Francis Rose” this week that the budget uncertainty, and the prospect of a short term continuing resolution, coupled with issues like the debt ceiling and the long term impact of sequestration is having a strongly negative impact on the federal government as well as contractors, as agencies hold back on making long term contract commitments. The result is an overall slowdown in federal investment and a general nervousness in the contracting community over what the next few months will bring. See the full report from FedNewsRadio here.

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.