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5 Fallacies of Government?

Go to any conference and listen to different speakers, or hear what those in Congress say and invariably someone will perpetuate a stereotype of the federal government. The government wastes money when it buys goods and services. Federal employees don't work hard. Several thousands of federal employees will walk out the door in the next year or two or five. These are among the most common observations made about the federal government. And over time, these statements have developed their own lives. But are they really true? Or are they just fallacies, like urban myths, no one has ever tried to prove wrong? FederalNewsRadio is taking on these perceptions to once and for all see if these stereotypes are indeed fact or fiction. All this week, we go myth busting and will analyze five common observations about the federal government and let you decide if the depictions are deserved.

The government is behind on the technology curve

October 23, 2009 - 5:50pm

What is the real state of government IT? Why do some agencies and some programs require the use of MS-DOS, Windows 95 or any other outdated technology? Which agencies employ the developers who will revolutionize IT? We'll speak with the the people who make the technology decisions, the private sector supplying the technology and hear from one agency on the leading edge of the nation's security.

With billions of dollars spent annually for government technology, is the federal government on the cutting edge or behind the curve? What's the truth behind the stereotype? Concluding our week-long series, 'The Five Fallacies of Government', Federal News Radio's Max Cacas examines the stereotype: "The government is behind the technology curve."

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REPORTS, COLUMNS AND OP-EDS

Office of Naval Research is proof of government's technology cutting edge
With billions of dollars spent annually for government technology, is the federal government on the cutting edge or behind the curve? What's the truth behind the stereotype? Concluding our week-long series, 'The Five Fallacies of Government', Federal News Radio's Max Cacas examines the stereotype: "The government is behind the technology curve." To read the full story, click here.

DHS science and technology puts innovation first
Dr. Roger McGinnis details the projects that DHS S&T is sponsoring to change how the country secures itself. Some of these initiatives may be up to five years out, but McGinnis calls them high-risk, high-reward game changers. S&T hopes to bring technology into the commercial marketplace that lets airline passengers fly with more than 3 ounces of liquid or significantly decrease the chances of a electrical blackouts. To read his column, click here.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Federal News Radio wants to know what you think! Is the federal government behind the technology curve? Join your peers in discussion on this topic at GovLoop.com. All this week, Federal News Radio will be hosting discussion boards on GovLoop, a social networking site for feds, where you can weigh in with your thoughts on each of our topics.

Additional Material

Technologies the government commercialized

3D computer graphics

Every time you watch movies such as Cars, or Wall-E and most recently "UP" from Disney Pixar studios, you can thank the federal government.

The computer hardware behind the CGI animation started out as a need by the government, aerospace and medical industries. The technology originally was used for high-end imaging applications at a cost of a million dollars a workstation.

The book, To Infinity and Beyond: The story of Pixar Animation Studios, says the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency funded early computer 3D graphics work at the University of Utah in the 1960s and early 1970s. That effort helped spawn several other technology companies including Adobe and Netscape.

GPS

The Air Force in 1993 completed the first network of 24 satellites to create the Global Positioning System, or GPS, according to the National Academy of Sciences.

GPS actually made public debut during the 1991 Gulf War. U.S. troops used it for navigation on land, sea and in the air, for targeting of bombs, and for on-board missile guidance. GPS allowed U.S. ground troops to move swiftly and accurately through the vast, featureless desert of the Arabian Peninsula, according to the National Academy.

Now that little computer screen is commonly seen suction-cupped to the front windshield of many cars providing drivers step-by-step directions through this technology.

Internet

The Internet is one of the most famous examples of how the government invented and elevated a technology that is routinely considered one of the top inventions in the last century.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency funded research at several universities in the late 1950s and early 1960s. But it wasn't until 1969 when researchers sent the first data transmission over, what we now call an Internet network. DARPA says researchers at UCLA sent others at Stanford a message based on the concept of host-to-host connections.

By 1970, federally funded university research offices were connected through the ARPANET. Four years later, the number of nodes spread across the country had dramatically increased. DARPA ended ARPANET in 1989 just as the Internet was getting off the ground commercially.

Now, 1.7 billion people, or about 25 percent of the world's population, are online, according to the World Internet Usage Statistics Web site.

Technology developed for commercial video games

The Office of Naval Research and the Air Force saw the potential in artificial intelligence and funded initial efforts in the late 1950s, according to Funding a Revolution by the National Research Council.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) pushed AI into the large scale development starting in the early 1960s.

And Funding a Revolution states that NASA provided a grant to GE to create the first flight simulator in 1967. Since then, AI is the basis of a billion dollar a year industry for commercial video games.

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