Federal Drive Show Blog – May 30, 2013

On the Federal Drive show blog, you can listen to our interviews, find more information about the guests on the show each day, as well as links to other stories...

This is the Federal Drive show blog. Here you can listen to the interviews, find more information about the guests on the show each day and links to additional resources.

Today’s guests:

Bob Tobias
director of Public Sector Executive Education
American University

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A few months into the sequester, what are we to make of all this fiscal austerity? Some agencies have rescinded furlough notices. They say forcing employees to take unpaid leave isn’t necessary after all. Others, like the departments of Defense and Justice, are still planning on multiple weeks of furloughs.

Vivek Kundra
executive vice president
Salesforce.com

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Vivek Kundra was President Barack Obama’s first federal chief information officer. He launched the cloud computing initiative and the idea of mobile government. Lately, he’s been an evangelist for online software at Salesforce.com We spoke to him when the company staged an event in Washington. First we asked Kundra why agencies are, one by one, adopting cloud computing.

Federico Pena
former secretary
Transportation Department

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The president has nominated Katherine Archuleta to become director of the Office of Personnel Management. She was the chief of staff for former Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. But perhaps no one knows Archuleta better than Federico Pena. She was his chief of staff when he was mayor of Denver and later when he was Transportation Secretary in the Clinton Administration.

From Our Reporters

Two years ago, the Navy set out to reduce its IT spending by 25 percent, mostly through efficiencies. Officials say they’ve been successful, but the overall budget picture hasn’t gotten any rosier since then. Federal News Radio’s Jared Serbu reports, the service will turn to IT for still more reductions.

Open data advocates are worried about a possible loophole in the open data policy. The section would let agencies withhold data they believe could create a mosaic effect. The mosaic effect is the idea that multiple data sets taken one-by-one provide no private information. But taken all together, the information could shed light on personal or classified data. Steve VanRoekel, the federal chief information officer, sat down with reporters recently to talk about the open data policy and other issues. Federal News Radio’s Executive Editor Jason Miller was there and brings us back excerpts from that discussion, including why VanRoekel says the mosaic effect isn’t that big of a deal.

MORE FROM THE FEDERAL DRIVE

DOJ report shows spike in reservation crime cases (Federal News Radio)

Obama to name ex-Bush aide to head FBI (Federal News Radio)

Media Advisory – Census Bureau Issues Challenge to App Developers (Census Bureau)

Former EPA chief Lisa Jackson heads to Apple (The San Jose Mercury News)

Former OMB performance guru Metzenbaum lands new job (Federal News Radio)

HUD & VA team up to provide permanent homes to 9,000 homeless vets (HUD)

EPA cuts furlough hours (Federal News Radio)

Petraeus gets job with investment firm KKR (Federal News Radio)

China says it has no need to steal U.S. military secrets (Reuters)

DHS kicks off $100 million employee ID project (Nextgov)

DON issues update about NGEN contract(s) award (Navy)

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