General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service commissioner Jim Williams has opted to retire.  On April 3, he will step down from his position, he said in a message, with confirmation coming from the GSA shortly after.
“I feel like I have been incredibly blessed and fortunate to have been able to serve our great nation for [...]

A report issued by the National Research Council has indicated multiple issues in an environmental impact statement from the U.S. Army regarding its expansion of biocontainment laboratories at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md. The report was requested by Congress. However, the report also indicates that “current safety procedures and regulations at the labs meet or [...]

Last week, District of Columbia Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Bryan Sivak announced the launch of the first common platform for “Open 311.”  Open 311 provides free Application Programming Interface (API) access to city 311 systems for non-emergency city services.
Addressing the common complaint of citizens’ concerns buried in government bureaucracy, Open 311 allows citizens to control [...]

The U.S. Small Business Administration’s announcement of a new rule to boost opportunities for Women Owned Small Businesses (WOSB) turned heads, and now new details about the specifics of the initiative are coming to light.
In order to be eligible for the five percent of contracting dollars available, a particular firm must be at least 51 [...]

The General Services Administration has scrapped a previous quotation request for cloud infrastructure services and is planning to offer a new one, after absorbing feedback from various agencies and vendors.
“Eleven months in cloud computing time is really about 11 years,” Dave McClure, associate administrator for GSA’s office of citizen services and communications said. “The market [...]

The GSA needs your help.
According to a note published in the Federal Register, General Services is looking for comments and feedback on the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information Systems (FAPIIS) – the new database aiming to keep government contractors honest.
GSA faces some problems in the early stages of the project, such as how [...]

The Department of Defense (DoD) has re-launched the National Resource Directory Website, to improve the ease of use for the ill and wounded veterans who use the site.
“We worked closely with users of the National Resource Directory to find out how to make the information they need easier to find,” said Noel Koch, deputy under [...]

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) is making some new moves towards sustainability. The Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings has moved from the Public Buildings Service to GSA’s Office of Government-wide Policy, and GSA’s Public Buildings Service established a new position of Chief Greening Officer.
The move by the GSA follows an executive order on [...]

The U.S. General Services Administration and the Defense Information Systems Agency reached an important benchmark in devising a common marketplace for commercial satellite communications services.
FedBizOpps, the government’s official procurement solicitation site, has refreshed the Federal Supply Schedule 70 that includes two new special item numbers for COMSATCOM services.
The solicitation contains instructions to vendors detailing how [...]

The ongoing movement towards success in the Open Government technology will get a multi-billion dollar boost in fiscal year 2011, with almost $80 billion allocated for information technology.
The money will be aimed at several initiatives that play major roles in the process of Open Government – notably “dashboards” or sites that detail progress on federal [...]