On their second day in charge of the House, Democrats debuted H.R. 1, the For The People Act, which features a wide range of election security and modernization measures, including cybersecurity standards for voting machines, an election security bug bounty program, and a requirement for online voter registration.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai announced Friday that FCC will investigate last week’s nationwide CenturyLink outage, which impacted 911 service across the country. The outage, which primarily impacted Western states, began shortly after 8 a.m. ET on Dec. 27 and was resolved by 9 p.m. ET on Dec. 28.
The Tennessee Department of Human Services (DHS) tackled a customer service dilemma that had reached critical mass by implementing a new customer service management (CSM) solution, and came out of the ordeal with lower customer wait times, a renewed and energized staff, and a demonstrably strong value proposition to satisfy the bottom-line demands of the state’s Federal funders and support a statewide service rollout.
The nature of work–the jobs performed and the cross-departmental collaboration required to get them done–has not changed much in the past two decades, but the means to perform those jobs can be revolutionized in the next three to five years, said John Donahoe, president and CEO of cloud platform provider ServiceNow.
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. If any state IT pros are still looking for a Valentine, they should look no further than digital innovation.
As the new year gets underway, MeriTalk is looking back to some of the top innovators in Federal, state, and local cybersecurity. At the Symantec Government Symposium, MeriTalk’s founder Steve O’Keeffe sat down with the 2017 Cyber Award winners to discuss their success, and what they learned as they worked to stay ahead of cyber threats.
FirstNet released its Tribal Consultation Policy, which outlines the consultation process FirstNet will use with tribal nations regarding the deployment of the nationwide public safety broadband network. The new policy will give tribes an avenue to express their public safety needs through a nation-to-nation relationship between FirstNet and the 567 Federally recognized tribes, according to a FirstNet release.
This hurricane season has already been one of the most destructive on record. Verizon is stepping up its efforts to support public safety and relief efforts in storm-battered states. Most importantly, the company is focused on repairing damaged communications networks and infrastructure to help governments focus on other restoration efforts.
The Commerce Department is asking for public opinion on its Next Generation 911 Grant Program, which would modernize 911 services so that citizens can use IP-based, broadband-enabled technologies to coordinate emergency responses.
Seattle hosted its “City for All” hackathon, which gathered data scientists, designers and urban planners, and software developers to search for solutions for challenges connected to aging and accessibility within the city. The hackathon was hosted in partnership with the Age-Friendly Seattle initiative, part of Seattle’s commitment to residents of all ages, including senior citizens who wish to age in place.
