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US: Vereinigte Staaten / United Staates

USA: The Rise of Gov 2.0
At the close of President Obama’s first 200 days in office, the administration has demonstrated a willingness to experiment with new technologies and their potential role in making government more participatory and accountable. New e-government tools have been deployed to keep track of government spending, gather public input on policymaking, and convey the status of government projects. These tools may hold the potential to give Main Street the same voice in government traditionally reserved for K Street.
USA: The secret is out: DHS launches state-local network
The Homeland Security Department is deploying a new “secret” data network to pass classified information to hundreds of state and local officials, DHS officers said at a congressional hearing today.
The Homeland Security Information Network-Secret (HSIN-Secret) is an “immediate, inexpensive and temporary approach to reach state and local homeland security and law enforcement sites that can receive secret-level information,” Matthew Broderick, director of the Homeland Security Operations Center, said in testimony today to the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment.
USA: The Secret to Success of Telemedicine: “It’s All About Access”
Telemedicine as a technology is advancing so rapidly that it seems like something you might have seen on Star Trek.
Telemedicine as policy has become an integral part of the law as $27 billion was earmarked for health care information technology as part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) stimulus plan.
But telemedicine as a successful practice or an everyday tool for physicians and patients has remained a mystery. Until now.
USA: The Sisyphean Struggle for Biometric Security
"We are constantly forced to deal with the question of 'good enough' in security," said Scott Crawford, a managing research director at Enterprise Management Associates. "While in some cases the 'good enough' approach is inadequate, as shown by the large number of data breaches reported, the practical approach is to weigh all one's options."
Biometric security -- which employs systems that read people's fingerprints or compare their voiceprint or retina scans to information in data banks in order to authenticate them -- is being heavily used in some of the United States' most critical installations.
USA: The standouts: Agencies share management reform successes
Almost three years ago, President Bush laid out ambitious goals to reform federal management.
Today, only a handful of agencies can claim success in any of the five reform categories Bush outlined: strategic work force management, increased competitive sourcing, improved financial performance, expanded electronic government and better integration between budgets and agency performance.
USA: The State Of Broadband
Only by keeping pace with the latest in regulations, competition, and technology will companies rise above low-capacity, high-priced telecom networks.
We all remember the bad old days of having to load data into removable media in order to send it off to the data center. After all, it would have taken days to transmit the necessary data over slow telecom links.
Problem is, the bad old days aren't over. Instead of shipping tapes to data centers, organizations now regularly ship entire hard drives to cloud providers. Despite tremendous advances in line speeds, it still can take a week or more to transmit very large data sets, even if your line speed is 10 Mbps. Of course, companies don't regularly need to transfer terabytes of data over the internet, but the current level of sneakernet that's necessary for the transfer of even a few hundred gigabytes seems a bit high for the 21st century.
USA: The stimulus stress test: ‘Data dumps,’ overwhelming feedback
The $787 billion stimulus package requires unprecedented levels of transparency — and some federal managers and auditors are worried those requirements will place unfair scrutiny on their agencies.
That’s in part because agencies have to depend on state and local governments to provide accurate data about their stimulus programs. And much of that data will be posted immediately on the Web, without giving agencies a chance to review it first. That has some managers concerned about presenting potentially inaccurate data to the public.
USA: The Tangled Web of E-Rate

Congress created the E-Rate program as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 in a bid to provide Internet access to schools and libraries that otherwise would not have been able to afford broadband cabling and associated equipment, such as routers and servers.
In the years since, the E-Rate program has come under fire partly because of its arcane and incestuous administrative structure.
USA: The taxman cometh--electronically
With the April 15 tax deadline approaching, taxpayers are on track to break last year's record of 53 million e-filed returns. So far, there have been 48.5 million returns filed online, over 60 percent of returns overall. That's a gigantic leap from 1997 when just 14 million citizens sought out the Web to file their returns.
USA: The test of e-gov: efficiency and effectiveness

OMB requires project data to help quiet Hill critics
Although the Office of Management and Budget has long touted savings as the chief benefit of e-government initiatives, some current and former government officials say the White House could be leaving out a critically important measure—effectiveness—in their efforts to gain congressional support.
USA: The town of St. Pauls launches website
The town of St. Pauls tapped into the global online community Thursday with the launch of its first Web site, and town officials hope the plunge into cyberspace will be a catalyst for economic growth.
In addition to kick-starting the town's economy, St. Pauls officials say the site will benefit residents by allowing them to pay their utility bills online and communicate with town officials via the Internet.
USA: The Truth about Security of Electronic Health Records
Ensuring protection of EHR’s through updated technology
Electronic health records (EHR) are being heralded by the Obama Administration and many within the health profession as a way to improve record keeping and prevent inaccurate medical records. President Obama is pushing the industry to make all medical records computerized by 2014.
Adoption of EHRs has been steadily growing, but still does not encompass 50% of physicians. According to a recent study conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, 44% of physicians reported using an EHR in 2009.
USA: The Virtual Visit May Expand Access to Doctors
Americans could soon be able to see a doctor without getting out of bed, in a modern-day version of the house call that takes place over the Web.
OptumHealth, a division of UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest health insurer, plans to offer NowClinic, a service that connects patients and doctors using video chat, nationwide next year. It is introducing it state by state, starting with Texas, but not without resistance from state medical associations.
USA: The wait is over: HHS unveils ‘meaningful use’ plan
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Office of the National Coordinator today released its long-awaited proposal for “meaningful use,” a detailed, 700-page master plan for improving healthcare value and quality by accelerating the use of health IT by doctors and hospitals.
Nearly a year in the making, the proposed rules set the stage for a nationwide digital healthcare system by offering doctors and hospitals tens of thousands of dollars in financial incentives for meeting three stages of progressively more demanding goals for using health IT in their practices.
USA: The wild, wild world of Wi-Fi
One of the greediest moves ever by big telephone companies appears -- for the moment -- to have run amok, if not backfired.
Telecom giants, including Verizon and SBC Communications, have been pressing legislatures to stop cities from sponsoring their own high-speed wireless networks -- no matter if the cities' goal is to improve efficiency of municipal services ("e-government") and deliver lower-cost broadband Internet services to citizens and businesses.
USA: The world on a wire
High-speed broadband unlocks the potential of the Internet age. So why is the U.S. so far behind?
The U.S. ranks 15th in the world in high-speed Internet adoption, behind Denmark, South Korea and even sprawling Australia, according to one international study.
And that's not good enough, many experts say.
Federal Communications Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, speaking at a conference last month in Boulder, said the country's economic growth depends on a stronger broadband policy.
USA: Think tank slams Bushs e-gov efforts
A Democratic think tank harshly criticized the Bush administration’s e-government effort, saying the administration “has failed to make a serious commitment” and e-government has made “at best, halting progress.”
USA: Third Ohio County Selects Hart InterCivic's eSlate Electronic Voting System
The Portage County, Ohio Board of Elections has unanimously selected Hart InterCivic's eSlate(tm) Electronic Voting System to replace the County's existing punch card voting system.
Portage County, home to approximately 98,000 registered voters, will implement the new voting system in time for the County's Special Election in August 2004. Portage County, whose major city is Ravenna, joins Ashtabula and Williams Counties in selecting the eSlate. All three Ohio counties unanimously decided to purchase the eSlate System after reviewing electronic voting systems available through the Ohio purchasing program.
USA: This Tax Day, Are You Ready for a New Tax on the Internet?
Following Easter Recess, the U.S. Senate will vote on taxing Internet access. If Americans think their tax bill is bad now, how will they feel about paying an entirely new tax just to remain connected to the Internet?
With millions of Americans filing their income taxes tomorrow and as the Senate prepares to vote in a matter of weeks on whether or not to allow taxes on Internet access, the Consumer Internet Access Coalition (CIAC) issued the following statement urging the Senate to enact a permanent moratorium on taxing Internet access.
USA: Thomasville key in Georgia Telemedicine Program
In southwest Georgia, specialists in dermatology and other fields are few and far between. But telemedicine technology is changing that. "Patients who are in areas devoid of my sub-specialty can access specialists such as myself," said determatologist Dr. Cheryl Barnes. Today, using telemedicine she was able to consult with this patient in Douglas.
"They get to stay with their local, family care doctor who they have a relationship with," explains Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine. Beyond the comfort factor, Dr. Harriett Loehne, Clinical Educator for Wound Management, adds its extremely convenient to assess a patients condition over the computer. "I can do a consult live with the patient right there, and I don't have to travel, nor does the patient have to travel via ambulance or whatever to come down here," says Loehne. Cardiologist Dr. Gerald Kadis adds, "We do sit in a relatively rural part of Georgia and it is difficult for some people to travel around."