The Open Government Initiative set forth by the Obama Administration in 2009 requires Federal agencies to take immediate steps to achieve milestones in transparency, participation, and citizen collaboration. Most Federal, state, and local organizations have jumped on the social media bandwagon as a tool for communicating with citizens and making their agency’s goals transparent. However, the average American largely still feels disconnected from large impersonal agencies. An excellent example of the inability of large organizations to genuinely connect with citizens is their Twitter feeds. Most agency Twitter feeds are merely pushing out information, not engaging in conversation. An article published by the Campaign for a Stronger Democracy, an independent group, noted “if you work for a government agency, and you’re interested in social media, ask yourself, can any average person name one person from your agency? If they can’t, you have failed at social media for your organization.”

An ever growing area of concern within Federal, State and Local governments is how to manage mobile devices securely- and how implement a policy allowing employees to use whichever device(s) they’d like. As these devices and applications become critical to an organization’s success, IT is challenged with efficiently managing the full lifecycle management of devices across the enterprise. Mobile Device Management provides IT organizations the control they need to securely manage mobile devices throughout their entire lifecycle, simplifying these processes across multiple device types and mobile operating systems in a single console. With discovery, configuration, apps, and policy management, organizations now have the peace of mind that their mobile devices, critical data, and networks are secure from potential threats.

Since the passing of the Federal Information Security Management Act in 2002 (FISMA), the Office of Inspector General (OIG) has been required to perform yearly audits on their agencies IT security programs. After the completion of the FY2012 audit for the General Services Administration, it appears the IT Security Program has some work to do. The audit released today uncovered three glaring security control deficiencies, majority seemingly the result of inattentiveness.

The technology phenomenon that is cloud computing is one that has spread like wildfire throughout the private sector. However, despite an ever-growing IT establishment, the Federal government has been much more prudent in their shift toward cloud computing. According to many Federal IT professionals, inefficiency, the need for consolidation and pending budget cuts has clearly made cloud computing a solution in dire necessity. The Department of Defense in specific is facing an estimated $178 billion budget cut over the next several years, reforming their IT system is a ploy that could potentially save them nearly $37 billion. Yet despite the potential savings for this department and many similar situations alike, a recent surveyof Federal agencies showed that over 96% of the agencies have less than 1/3 of their IT infrastructure on cloud computing. So why is this the case?

Federal, state, and local government agencies are embracing social media outlets, mobile apps, and real-time monitoring as new approaches for providing critical updates to citizens. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was the ultimate wake-up for FEMA, the National Guard, and federal and state executives that our country lacked a resilient communication network. The three levels of government failed to communicate and present a coordinated relief effort. On an individual level, the citizenry was also left defenseless without updates for several days in the heat of the crisis. In the years following, public and private officials have invested resources in streamlining relief efforts and exploring social media and mobile devices as communication channels during an emergency.

Recently, the New York Police Department and Microsoft teamed up to develop an all-seeing surveillance system to be implemented downtown. This offers to potentially bring in an incredible amount of revenue, as New York City stands to make 30% of all revenue that Microsoft will make from this “Domain Awareness System.” As stated by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, this technology “will fund more new crime-prevention and counter-terrorism programs.” When this surveillance system is put into effect, the NYPD will have a lot of power, that some may argue, dwells into peoples’ right to privacy. With the recent allegations of the NYPD probing terrorist activities beyond their jurisdiction in Rutgers University, Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, and many others in the Northeast, this new technology has to raise eyebrows for the general public. People have to be concerned with how the NYPD will utilize this new technology, and whether or not they will use it for justice or another violation of citizens’ civil rights.