Bridging Low Tech and High Tech for Improved Disaster Preparedness

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September is National Preparedness Month. This public service campaign is run out of the Department of Homeland Security and is focused on educating citizens about the importance of preparing for disasters and emergencies that could happen at any time. The 2022 campaign has a theme of "A Lasting Legacy," urging people to "Prepare for disasters to create a lasting legacy for you and your family."

This theme of legacy also applies to how the government responds to disasters to aid communities in prevention and recovery. Increasingly, emergency managers are relying on Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, and more to model and plan for disaster response. However, when disaster hits and electricity is unavailable, high tech solutions no longer function and first responders must rely on analog methods to communicate and execute response plans. Incorporating legacy low tech solutions into a high tech world is a critical challenge for emergency preparedness organizations. Continue reading →

FITARA 14 Serves as Reset on Modernization Measurement

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After issuing the last set of Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) scores, the parties responsible for the program said they would begin examining ways to evolve the measurements to be more meaningful to today's modernization goals. The latest report was issued in July of 2022 and reflected a shift to new measures resulting in eight agencies with declining marks and 15 agencies holding steady with the previous grades. This backslide and stasis is not bad news and was expected given the removal of data center consolidation goals, an area all agencies had mastered with "A" scores.

This 14th FITARA scorecard should be viewed as a measure of where agencies are in relation to newer IT modernization goals. One such measure that drove low scores is the fact that many agencies have not fully transitioned to the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract. Numerous agencies report that they are close to finalizing the plans to do so and could be compliant with this measure by the next report. Continue reading →

Strengthening Cyber Resilience With Collaboration

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Today's organizations know that stopping 100% of cyber-attacks is not a realistic goal. Rather, the focus has shifted to cyber resilience, "the ability to anticipate, withstand, recover from, and adapt to adverse conditions, stresses, attacks, or compromises on systems that use or are enabled by cyber resources."

A critical pillar in becoming resilient is communication and collaboration. The Cyber EO focused on improving the nation's cybersecurity and highlighted the need to improve collaboration with threat intelligence sharing between public and private organizations as well as the creation of cross-government cyber boards. In recent months, key strides have been made in facilitating information sharing around cyber best practices, resource availability, as well as process and policy. Continue reading →

Virtual Court is Here to Stay

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Like many industries, the pandemic forced the court system to rethink how they deliver services and carry out everyday business. Courts had been slow to adopt technology with e-filing and e-notarization being the biggest digital changes over the last several decades. Hearings were still in person with remote testimony a rarity. This meant that lawyers might have to travel hundreds of miles for a 15-minute hearing. Even in the face of this inefficiency, there was no big push to change. Then came COVID.

More Than a Pandemic Fix

Zoom-based hearings became commonplace to facilitate cases while keeping all participants safe. But as the pandemic restrictions on in-person extended, courts nationwide started seeing huge benefits to the online process.

Virtual hearings increased participation by defendants. In Arizona, between 2019 and 2020, a Pew study found that there was an 8% drop in default judgments - judgments where the plaintiff wins simply because the defendant failed to appear. Attendance among jurors also increased. Texas saw a big spike in juror attendance after the transition to an online system. Continue reading →

IoT in Government: How Government is Using Digital Twins

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Digital twins are virtual, 3D representations of buildings, neighborhoods, or products built with real-world data collected from internet-of-things (IoT) devices like sensors, video cameras, and other enterprise data applications. These twins allow researchers, planners, and policymakers to experiment with changes to the object or environment to see if the desired results of that change are achieved. Applications include infrastructure improvement, sustainability planning, emergency response preparedness, and research and development. IoT in government is being driven by the results digital twins can achieve. One report showed that cities can expect to save $280 billion by 2030 with the deployment and use of digital twins. Continue reading →