NSF Reaches Out to the Public on Federal Government-wide Digital Strategy

Agency asks citizens to help prioritize its data sets for expanded access

NSF is working to make agency data and services more useful and dynamic, key goals of the recent Digital Government Strategy, and is seeking the public's input to decide what information should be first in line for expanded openness.

The Digital Government Strategy, announced on May 23, 2012, sets forth a bold plan to give citizens and an increasingly mobile federal workforce access to high quality, digital government information, data and services, and also build an information technology (IT) infrastructure that supports digital government in the 21st century. Ultimately, the Digital Strategy aims to enable more efficient and coordinated delivery of digital information across all federal agencies.

Starting today, NSF is asking the public to help it prioritize which data sets, or digital collections of information, to open more broadly through the use of interactive search and display functionality. The foundation has set up a new website, nsfdigitalstrategy.ideascale.com, to allow everyone to vote for collections of information that are under consideration for expanded access. Broader access would be achieved through the use of technologies known as APIs. An API, or Application Programming Interface, is a type of code used by one computer or device to access or retrieve information from another computer or device. Web developers can use APIs to join previously unrelated data from disparate online sources, enabling government information to be viewed and "mashed up" in new and innovative ways.

The public can provide feedback on which NSF data sets it considers to be of highest value until Aug. 22.

Additional information about NSF and the Digital Government Strategy, including updates on data set priorities will be available on a new website, NSF Digital Strategy.

 -NSF-

CJIS: Serving the Nation for Two Decades

Construction of CJIS main building in 1993 in Clarksburg, West Virginia. The main complex was dedicated in May 1997. 

Twenty years ago this month, then-FBI Director William Sessions approved the consolidation of the Bureau’s criminal justice information systems—at that time spread across several FBI Headquarters divisions—into a singular entity to be known as the Criminal Justice Information Services Division that would be located in Clarksburg, West Virginia. The reason for the consolidation was two-fold. First, to ensure that as those systems grew and as new systems were developed, they would be closely integrated in order to “talk” to one another. And second, to offer our local, state, federal, and international partners access to the state-of-the-art identification and information services they needed to effectively perform their missions in an ever-more challenging criminal justice environment.

Since 1992, we have continued to enhance our existing information systems—including the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, the National Crime Information Center, and our Uniform Crime Reporting program. We have also developed new systems and initiatives during the past 20 years—like the Law Enforcement National Data Exchange (N-DEx), the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), and the Next Generation Identification (NGI). And as we move forward into the future, we will continue to innovate our information and identification systems to equip our law enforcement, national security, and intelligence community partners with the criminal justice information they need to protect the U.S. while preserving our nation’s civil liberties.

Securing Our Nation's Cyberspace

The National Science Foundation (NSF) supports a wide range of cutting-edge interdisciplinary research and education activities aimed at building a cybersecure society and protecting our nation's vast computing infrastructure. Cybersecurity has become one of the most serious economic and national security threats to our nation. Corporations, agencies, national infrastructure, and individuals have all been victims of cyber-attacks. Securing our nation's cyberspace requires long-term investments across statistical, mathematical, economic, human, computational, and computer sciences and ultimately in the transition of new concepts and technologies into practice.

The Foundation's Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) investment aims to provide the scientific basis for designing, building, and operating a cyberinfrastructure that can resist attacks and be tailored to meet a wide range of technical and policy requirements. The effort also encourages state-of-the-art research in the design of incentives that either reduce the likelihood of cyber attacks or the negative effects arising from them. This innovative research will improve the resilience of operating systems, software, hardware, and critical infrastructure while preserving privacy, promoting usability, and ensuring trustworthiness through foundational research and prototype deployments.

The Federal Cyber Service: Scholarship for Service (SFS) program will increase the number of qualified students entering the fields of information assurance and cybersecurity. The program will improve the capacity of the U.S. higher education enterprise to produce professionals with cybersecurity expertise. This program provides funding to colleges and universities for scholarships and capacity building in the information assurance and computer security fields.

The development of cutting-edge technology and an educated cadre of information technology professionals in cybersecurity is paramount to ensure the protection of our nation's information technology infrastructure and for building a cybersecure society.

-NSF-

Join NITRD in Marking Two Decades of Game-Changing Breakthroughs in Networking and Information Technology

Just two decades ago ...

•Only 30 percent of Americans used computers and only 15 percent of households owned personal computers.

•Computing power was conglomerated in a few select supercomputing centers at major research institutions and national labs.
•The fastest supercomputer in the world, a CM-3, could perform 14 billion floating-point operations per second (flops) or 14 gigaflops.
•The world was only able to store 16 million terabytes or 16 exabytes of data in total.
•The World Wide Web just opened to the public, featured only a handful of web pages that described the project itself.

Today ...

•Over 75 percent of all Americans use the Internet. Some 44 percent of them own smartphones; 56 percent of people who bought a new phone in the last 3 months chose a smartphone.

•The current iPhone has 60 times more processing power and 1/500th the size of Macintosh's first commercially available computer under $1,000, the Macintosh Classic.
•The fastest supercomputer on earth clocks at more than 10 thousand trillion flops or 10 petaflops.
•Global Internet traffic is estimated at over 21 million terabytes or 21 exabytes/month and the indexed World Wide Web contains over 8 billion pages.

Join us in describing and discussing these and other profound changes, the myriad of breakthroughs that enabled them, and the "big ideas" that will shape our future at a symposium marking two decades of the Federal Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program. NITRD, established by the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991, is the coordinated, multi-agency computer science research and development program.

Under this umbrella, 15 partner agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Department of Energy and National Institutes of Health have sponsored the fundamental research that has changed the world.

With a keynote address by former Vice President Al Gore, and talks on advances and prospects in networking and information technology research and development--from how it touches people on a daily basis to the advances in other areas of science and engineering that it is enabling--and discussion of the profound impact of this work on our nation's competitiveness, this symposium promises to be high profile and chock-full of information.

What: The Impact of NITRD: Two Decades of Game-Changing Breakthroughs in Networking and Information Technology--Expanding Possibilities Ahead.

When: Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012, 8:15 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Media Accessibility: The entire program will be Webcast starting at 8 a.m.

Reporters may also attend this invitation-only symposium from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. in order to watch the "Future Big Ideas" panel, as well as attend the reception, visit the agency showcase, and interview participants.

The Future "Big Ideas" Panel from 4:30 to 5:15 p.m., on the 7th floor of the Newseum's Knight Conference Center, will feature Tom Kalil, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (moderator); Peter Lee, Microsoft Research; Elizabeth Mynatt, Georgia Institute of Technology; Stefan Savage, University of California, San Diego; and Charles Vest, National Academy of Engineering.

The Reception & Agency Showcase from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on the 8th floor of the Newseum's Knight Conference Center, will spotlight each NITRD agency's research accomplishments and prospects for the future via flyers, posters and demos.

RSVP: Please RSVP to Lisa-Joy Zgorski, lisajoy@nsf.gov, to attend the portions of the program open to reporters.

ONR's Information Discovery and Sharing Environment Undergoes 'Marathon' Experiment

By Katherine H. Crawford, Office of Naval Research

ARLINGTON, Va. (NNS) -- The ability to catch international smugglers and terrorists became easier with a Jan. 12 demonstration of collaborative software funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR).

The Mission-Focused Autonomy (MFA) program was put into practice for the Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF) South in Key West, Fla., during an exercise dubbed "Marathon." The collaborative information discovery and knowledge-sharing tools sift through government agency databases to support efforts by federal law enforcement for information on foreign nationals intent on harming national security and those smuggling drugs and weapons.

The software is expected to prove invaluable to Sailors and Marines, for whom "everything is dependent on what you know-and when you know it-about your adversary," said Dr. Allen Moshfegh, program manager for ONR's MFA program, part of the Command, Control Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance department. "The more rapidly we know about our enemies - their know-how, tactics and state-of-the-art technologies - the better we are prepared and therefore can make the right decisions."

MFA fosters collaboration among organizations reluctant to share information due to its sensitivity, their differing policies and procedures, and the resources expended in attaining it. The system finds information from different agencies without having to reveal confidential or proprietary data. The software searches participating agencies' databases and returns either information-documents, photos, videos, etc.-cleared for sharing or confirmation that further material is available within a particular database.

"The goal is to develop a trustworthy system that pulls data and connects the dots for humans, who are the final decision makers on whether to allocate assets for further action," Moshfegh said. "It's a tool that speeds up the decision-making process by orders of magnitude, providing the right information at the right time to put scarce ships and airplanes in place."

MFA also can be tailored for various layers of command hierarchy, from the 'big picture' view needed by a senior leader to an in-depth, operational-level view. "The objective is to decompose a complex problem into something simple," Moshfegh said.

The system runs on ONR's Command and Control Rapid Prototyping Capability (C2RPC) software, which was designed to pull together large amounts of data from disparate sources, sift and validate it. It was funded by ONR and developed by ONR, the U.S. Pacific Fleet and the Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence.

"With C2RPC we have seen enormous manpower and time savings," said Gary Toth, ONR program manager for command and control, who spearheaded C2RPC. "It minimizes the amount of time spent in information gathering and coordination, so you spend that time actually making decisions and executing a variety of mission outcomes."

To test MFA, ONR partnered with JIATF South, a multi-agency command that focuses on drug interdiction and also serves as an elite counterterrorism organization for U.S. Southern Command. JIATF South wanted help assessing tips and clues quickly and accurately, making decisions and monitoring events on the ground.

This demonstration is the first in a series, and it is part of a multi-phase process where cycles of research and development are followed by testing. "Each phase lasts approximately one year and contains three demonstrations to ensure that the research progresses in line with customer needs and requirements," Moshfegh said.

ONR provides the science and technology necessary to maintain the Navy and Marine Corps' technological advantage. Through its affiliates, ONR is a leader in science and technology with engagement in 50 states, 30 countries, 1,035 institutions of higher learning and more than 900 industry partners. ONR employs approximately 1,065 people, comprising uniformed, civilian and contract personnel, with additional employees at the Naval Research Lab in Washington, D.C.

Salient Federal Solutions Deepens Training Leadership Team

Retired U.S. Air Force Officer and Chief Master Sergeant Bring Depth and Experience to Company’s Aviation and Logistics Training Programs

FAIRFAX, VA and SAN ANTONIO, TX – January 9, 2012 - Salient Federal Solutions, Inc. (Salient), a leading provider of information technology, engineering, and intelligence analytic services to agencies in the intelligence, defense, homeland security and cyber domains, today announces that retired U.S.  Air Force Lt. Col. Jim Mullin and retired U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. James Perdue have joined the company under the Responsive Mission Support Solutions (RMSS) business unit, which provides government agencies with certified instructors who are proven performers on a platform and scientifically assured to conduct in-person or distance-based learning.

Mullin will serve as a program manager for Salient’s aviation and logistics training programs, supervising program management and technical support, as well as supporting capture and proposal development. Perdue will serve as a project coordinator responsible for the development and management of client relationships. He will also serve as a liaison with government agencies and offices in contract execution and follow-on efforts.  

“Our military workforce is among the most well-trained and best in the world,” says Linda Harris, senior vice president of Salient. “With the addition of Jim and James to our training leadership team, we are working to ensure that we provide the Air Force the most effective curriculum, featuring the information that is most pertinent right now in serving and protecting our country.”

Mullin comes to Salient with a broad range of expertise in aircraft maintenance, training, operations, and program management. He has supported F-15s as the deputy maintenance group commander at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan; as the commander of the 362d Training Squadron at Sheppard Air Force base in Texas; and as the Field Training Detachment commander at Kadena Air Base in Japan. He supported the RSAF AWACS program while assigned to the AWACS System Program Office and 552d Air Control Wing. He has commanded four USAF squadrons during his nearly 28-year career both as an enlisted Airman and USAF officer.

Perdue brings more than 20 years of aircraft maintenance management experience and 30 years of experience maintaining the precise avionics subsystems for aircraft. His most recent assignment spanned three years as the Chief Enlisted Manager, 362d Training Squadron, Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas. In that capacity, Perdue supervised all aspects of training management and evaluation for more than 250 USAF tactical aircraft maintenance instructors providing training on the F-15 and every other aircraft in the USAF inventory. He has been involved in multiple deployments worldwide, including in the Middle East.

“By integrating our Mission Impact Diagnostic with our Talent Operations Methodology, Salient engineers outstanding achievement instead of just performance,” says Bill Parker, Salient COO.  “For training, space, and environmental initiatives we provide people who are precisely qualified to help agencies define success—and then deliver it.”

Mullin and Perdue will be on hand at the upcoming Air Education and Training Command (AETC) Symposium, an annual event focused on current and future environments of recruiting, training and educating Airmen. The event takes place January 12 to 13, 2012, in El Paso, Texas. Salient will exhibit at booth #528.

 
About Salient Federal Solutions: Salient Federal Solutions is a leading provider of federal IT, engineering and analytic services that enable government and industry to respond quickly to new or surge mission requirements with exactly the right people, skills, expertise and technical solutions. The company works to accelerate mission impact by delivering highly adaptable technology services, engineering solutions and domain expertise that enable customers to rapidly meet the pressing requirements of today, while anticipating tomorrow's evolving challenges. Salient is headquartered in Fairfax, Va., with offices in Colorado Springs, Orlando, San Diego and Tampa. More information is available at www.salientfed.com. 

For more information:

Kari Walker
For Salient Federal Solutions
703-928-9996
kwalker@encstrategy.com

NASA Releases New Interactive Space Communications Game

Joshua Buck
Headquarters, Washington

Jessica Culler / Huong Nguyen

Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calf.

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- NASA has released an interactive, educational video game called NetworKing that depicts how the Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) network operates. The release of the video game coincides with the close of World Space Week, Oct. 4-10.

Developed by the Information Technologies Office at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., NetworKing gives players an insider's perspective into how astronauts, mission controllers and scientists communicate during space missions.

"For any young person who ever dreamed of one day contributing to space missions, NetworKing lets players develop a kingdom of multiple space communication networks working together to support space missions," said Barbara Adde, policy and strategic communications director for SCaN at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

To successfully construct fast and efficient communication networks, players must first establish command stations around the world and accept clients conducting space missions, such as satellites and space telescopes. Resources are earned throughout the game as players continue to acquire more clients. Players can strategically use accumulated resources to enhance and increase their networks' capabilities.

Players with the most integrated communications networks will have the ability to acquire more complex clients, such as the International Space Station, Hubble Space Telescope and the Kepler mission.

"As a simple and fun introduction to the complex world of space communications, NetworKing gives players the opportunity to enjoy a challenging game while absorbing the basic concepts of space communication," said Daniel Laughlin, games researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "It's an engaging way to increase interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics areas of study and open minds to potential careers in those fields."

NetworKing is available to the public for play on the NASA 3D Resources website. Players can access the game using an Internet browser. It can be downloaded and run on both a PC and Macintosh operating system. To play the NetworKing game, visit http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/3d_resources/scan.html.

In conjunction with NetworKing, the 3D Resources website also links visitors to the Station Spacewalk Interactive Game and the SCaN Interactive Demo that demonstrate the interaction between SCaN's ground-and-space facilities and NASA spacecraft.

Declared by the United Nations General Assembly, World Space Week is an annual international celebration of science and technology commemorating the launch Sputnik 1, the first human-made Earth satellite, and the signing of the Outer Space Treaty. The theme for World Space Week 2011 is "50 Years of Human Spaceflight."

For more information about SCaN, visit https://www.spacecomm.nasa.gov/spacecomm/default.cfm.

For more information about NASA's education programs, visit http://www.nasa.gov/education.

For more information about World Space Week, visit http://www.worldspaceweek.org/.

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Tradition Meets Technology in Air Force Libraries

If you're into military technology, you'll probably like police technology just as much!

By Erin Tindell Air Force Personnel, Services and Manpower Public Affairs

SAN ANTONIO (AFNS) – Air Force libraries continue to adapt to emerging technologies and changes in the way Airmen and families want information.

Whether a customer wants to check out a printed publication, download the latest bestseller novel for their e-reader or find a quiet place to study, Air Force libraries continue to meet the literary needs of customers in an evolving digital world.

“All of us, including our customers, are on the move these days,” said Melinda Mosley, the Air Force Services Agency administrative librarian. “We’re using mobile devices like tablets, netbooks and smart phones more than ever; we’re interested in providing service to our customers anywhere, anytime, in addition to providing face-to-face services at our libraries.”

The explosion of the Internet as an information medium serves librarians as both a flexible resource and a useful tool, said Rodolfo Rodela, the supervising librarian at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas.

“Through the Web, we make the library available at the point-of-need and nearly free of the restrictions of time and space,” Rodela said. “It’s a common event nowadays: an Airman lives and works in Cairo, yet can still ‘visit’ and do research at an Air Force library in Texas through our Web-based journals and books.”

While Airmen and families can “visit” online libraries at their convenience, the value of installation librarians has not diminished, Rodela said.

“Librarians build bridges and remove barriers to information,” Rodela said. “Nothing improves your searching prowess like expert guidance from an experienced librarian. Search engines return too many questionable sources for efficient research. We’ll show you how to use the library’s e-journals to find only relevant and vetted sources.”

Air Force librarians have also embraced social media as a way to reach out to Airmen and families. Social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, are used to inform customers about new Department of Defense programs, events and local happenings, said Dorothee Bennett, a library technician in charge of outreach, programs and marketing for the library at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.

“We see more and more Air Force libraries using social media,” she said. “Many of them have Facebook pages, YouTube accounts and some write their own blogs. With more acceptances of these mediums by the Air Force, base libraries have been able to capitalize on what we do best — connect our customers and the information they want with the information we have.”

Connecting customers to what they want doesn’t stop at social media posts. Air Force libraries also use an online library called OverDrive that allows Airmen and families to ‘check out’ e-books, audio books, music and movies. Customers keep the items from three to 14 days and may have five items checked out at any one time, Mosley said.

“Since we started the program in 2007, there have been more than 56,000 checkouts,” she said. “We’ve been adding titles each year. In the last 12 months, there have been more than 25,300 checkouts, so our use has increased greatly in the last year due to additional titles, more publicity and the popularity of digital devices.”

To keep pace with the latest digital devices, some Air Force libraries also host technology fairs to teach Airmen and families about the latest mobile applications, devices and resources they can use to meet their reading needs. The Eglin AFB library hosts a semiannual “Technology Petting Zoo.”

“We highlight e-book readers, tablets and smart phones and answer questions about the devices as well as e-books available for check out on OverDrive,” Bennett said. “We also post new developments on e-book technology on our Facebook page. For example, we post updates on new e-readers that are now compatible with OverDrive.”

While Air Force libraries continue to reshape their programs around evolving technology, the main mission of a librarian will continue to be the same, Rodela said.

“We collect and organize information; we advocate free speech and open access to information; we foster literacy in young and old, and we support every individual’s desire for self-development and education,” Rodela said.

Visit a local Air Force library to sign up for an OverDrive account. For more information about Air Force technology and quality of life programs visit MyAirForceLife.com.

I am SAILOR

If military science interests you, you’ll probably love police technology.

By Nicole Collins, Public Affairs Specialist, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command

SAN DIEGO – When is the last time you tucked away your iHome, iPad or HDTV instruction manual in the nearest junk drawer at home? Is Google your first source when troubleshooting a problem when your home technology goes array?

Today, information technology (IT) sailors in the fleet are enjoying a recently deployed technology, SAILOR 2.1, which allows sailors to simply download technical manuals to troubleshoot on board ship software and hardware operating systems. Version 2.1 officially launched and was available to the fleet and some Marine expeditionary sites Sept. 15.

Once plagued with cumbersome technical manuals that cost the Department of Navy, and ultimately the Department of Defense, a pretty penny, SAILOR (SPAWAR Acquisition Integrated Logistics Online Repository), is leading the charge in assisting with fleet readiness, training and ensuring that all systems are operational prior to deploying.

Developed by the Navy’s Information Systems Dominance Command, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR), and originally designed for sailors between the ages of 18 and 30, SAILOR provides a comprehensive interface that includes video streaming capabilities, and offers features such as “tech tube,” similar to You Tube, that allows sailors to download “how to” troubleshooting videos.

Sound complicated? Not really. SAILOR allows the fleet to complete training, trouble shoot ship operating systems and provides technical support from a live help desk, something that was not possible before.

Additionally, sailors underway can exchange information with the SAILOR help desk through blogs and forums that rapidly decreases troubleshooting response time in getting systems fully operable while underway.

Today, sailors can ditch the cumbersome technical manuals and sign online to SAILOR 2.1 when needing assistance with trouble shooting.

Feel free to check out the website and watch the new SAILOR 2.1 video below!

NASA Announces Web Enterprise Services And Technology Contract

Katherine Trinidad

Headquarters, Washington     

WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected The Portal Group (TPG) Consulting of Long Beach, Calif., for the Information Technology Infrastructure Integration Program's Web Enterprise Services and Technology (WEST) contract.

Under the contract, TPG will install and operate hardware, software and provide support services. The consulting group also will develop or acquire and implement new services or enhancements to existing systems primarily at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The work includes agency websites' support and services; infrastructure support, bandwidth provisioning; and security, search and collaboration services.

The WEST contract is part of NASA's Information Technology Infrastructure Integration Program, also known as I3P, managed by the agency's Office of the Chief Information Officer. The firm-fixed price, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract has a maximum potential value of approximately $82.6 million. The contract has a two-year base period with three one-year options.

For more information about NASA's CIO, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ocio.

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit http://www.nasa.gov.

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Protecting Critical Infrastructure by Securing Information Technology

From power grids to trading floors, every aspect of the Nation’s critical infrastructure is dependent on information technology to operate. That’s why securing critical IT infrastructure is so important to our homeland and economic security, public health and safety, and public confidence.

Today, the Department of Homeland Security and the Information Technology Sector Coordinating Council, which includes representatives from major IT companies, released three IT Sector risk management strategies to address risks to the Nation’s IT infrastructure as part of an ongoing collaboration between government and private-sector stakeholders.  The first of these strategies relates to domain name resolution (DNS) services and was released last month. It allows Internet users to access services, such as Web pages, e-mail, instant messages, and files, by typing in a host name instead of the more difficult to remember IP address.  Almost all Internet communications today rely on the DNS, making it as critical to the Internet as the Global Positioning System (GPS) is to navigation. 

The strategies inform industry and government organizations of the IT Sector’s risk management priorities and activities by identifying risk responses and prioritizing risk mitigations. They address products and services, incident management, and Internet routing.  Completing these strategies ensures that public and private sector resources are applied where they can most effectively respond to the threats, vulnerabilities, and consequences facing critical IT Sector functions.

The IT Sector Products and Services Risk Management Strategy includes a portfolio of risk mitigation activities, such as:

•Enhancing supply chain delivery mechanisms to minimize counterfeiting and tampering;

•Developing, establishing, and/or adopting IT Sector standards and/or best practices;

•Increasing awareness among buyers and suppliers of IT products and services of the need to manage business risk.

The IT Sector Incident Management Strategy includes a portfolio of risk mitigation activities, such as:

•Improving redundancy and distribution of resources and data;

•Educating the workforce to recognize falsified information and validate sources (training and awareness); and

•Investing in or developing alternative data delivery capabilities to use when primary ones are unavailable.

The IT Sector Internet Routing Risk Management Strategy includes a portfolio of risk mitigation activities, such as:

•Formulating and applying appropriate local routing policy;

•Taking extensive steps to secure facilities from physical attacks and natural disasters; and

•Developing a comprehensive incident management and incident recovery plan.

These IT assessments and risk management strategies are key not just to protecting the IT sector, but protecting all the critical infrastructure and key resource sectors that we rely on every day. All of these strategies are in response to a national-level IT Sector risk assessment produced by government and the private-sector IT experts.

NASA And Tech Partners Encourage Information Exchange

Katherine Trinidad

Headquarters, Washington     

 

Elizabeth Sabet

Random Hacks of Kindness, New York

WASHINGTON -- NASA, Google, HP, Microsoft, The World Bank and Yahoo! are inviting software developers, independent computer experts and students to participate in the Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) event on June 4 and 5 at several worldwide locations.

RHoK is a "hackathon" that brings together the best hackers from around the world to use their skills to make the world a better place by building a community of innovation. They volunteer their time to develop new approaches to disaster relief challenges.

"NASA encourages RHoK developers to use open data sets to create cutting edge applications that can help solve global challenges," said NASA's Chief Information Officer Linda Cureton. "We are excited to support RHoK and explore new ways NASA data can help the world."

RHoK also is an opportunity to meet and work with top software developers and experts, create new applications and win prizes. Events are planned in Hartford, Conn., Philadelphia, Atlanta, Seattle and Silicon Valley. International venues are in Berlin; Toronto; Aarhus, Denmark; Basel, Switzerland; Bangalore, India; Buenos Aires; Kampala, Uganda; Lusaka, Zambia; Melbourne, Australia; Nairobi, Kenya; Trento, Italy; and Santiago, Chile.

During past events, participants worked on applications that are already making an impact. "I'm OK," a service that lets people inform their families about their status, was used during the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile in 2010. The World Bank is piloting software for visualizing landslide risk in the Caribbean. Other apps have received support and interest from government and non-government organizations around the world.

For more information about the RHoK, the event and registration, visit http://www.rhok.org.

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit http://www.nasa.gov.

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Penn State Students Learn Navy IT

By Tia Nichole McMillen, NAVSISA Corporate Communications

MECHANICSBURG, Pa. (NNS) -- Pennsylvania State University Information Technology (IT) students visited Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) Navy Supply Information Systems Activity (NAVSISA) Apr. 15 to learn about challenges and opportunities using SAP software.

Students received several presentations including U.S. Navy IT evolution and unique SAP coding.

"It was a great experience to have fresh, intelligent minds straight from the Penn State Business School visiting NAVSISA, said Capt. Doug Newell, Commanding Officer, NAVSISA. "I was impressed to hear questions and perspectives from students studying SAP—the future of our supply chain. I look forward to enhancing our relationship with these students in the future."

Newell invited the students for a tour of the Defense Information Systems Activity Defense Enterprise Computing Center. Later, a NAVSISA panel answered questions about employment in the federal government.

A product from SAP supports the Navy Enterprise Resource Planning Program, which allows the Navy to unify, standardize and streamline all business activities into one completely integrated system. The result is that the Navy will achieve the highest standards for secure, reliable, accessible and current information; everyone involved in conducting the Navy's business will work using the same procedures and reports.

NAVSISA is the Navy's premier Information Technology provider with responsibility to design, develop and maintain information systems supporting numerous activities in the functional areas of logistics, supply chain management, transportation, finance and accounting.

SAP is a market leader in enterprise application software. SAP (which stands for "Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing") has sales and development locations in more than 75 countries worldwide.