A recent IDC study describes how the Department of Health and Human Services has deployed blockchain technology to monitor acquisitions across the agency, Nextgov reported Friday.

The study was written by IDC Government Insights Research Director Shawn McCarthy and was released in September.

In the study, McCarthy talks about how, under the HHS Accelerate program, the government agency keeps track of procurement activity across the entire organization using a distributed ledger.

McCarthy explains how blockchain technology allows the HHS to maintain a detailed transaction record in real-time, and how it facilitates collaboration, allowing the agency’s different departments to compare transaction information.

McCarthy describes blockchain as “a very powerful tool” but notes that “as with any tool, it must be used in the correct way.”

Unless the technology is properly integrated into an agency’s processes, “the promise of blockchain will not be realized,” McCarthy says.

The House Armed Services Committee has asked the Defense Department to provide more data on how it would establish and fund the new “space force,” SpaceNews reported Friday.

HASC Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) has called on DoD to submit the data by Nov. 16 before the House panel endorses an approach to form the new space-focused service, according to a copy of the Oct. 4 letter obtained by the publication.

The committee looks at four options to establish the new military branch: a space corps model; an enhanced version of the model; independent military department; and a model based on Space Operations Command.

Thornberry asked DoD to categorize the information into four categories, including existing and future resources to back each option and possible changes to current DoD authorities.

The letter was addressed to Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
 

The U.S. Library of Congress will introduce a crowdsourcing program on Wednesday, Oct. 24, in an effort to facilitate access to its physical and digital collections through tagging and transcription.

A blog post published Wednesday says the program is part of its new Digital Strategy and strategic plan, which seeks to facilitate connections with citizens through a digitally enabled, data-driven and user-centered approach.

The Digital Strategy aims to leverage technology to build up the library’s services, address geographical divide, expand reach and access and optimize resources through investment and connections.

The institution also announced the appointment of three new staff members who will form a group of community managers to oversee the crowdsourcing practice.

Lauren Algee, formerly digital curation librarian at DC Public Library, will join the Library of Congress Labs team that is now part of the digital strategy office led by Kate Zwaard, head of digital strategy.

Elaine Kamlley, who came from the General Services Administration’s 18F unit, will serve as technical project manager and oversee the open-source development of the transcription and tagging application Concordia.

Victoria Van Hyning, who oversaw the development of research and humanities projects at crowdsourcing platform Zooniverse.org, will help establish a process to determine collections that would benefit from transcription with the institution’s library services directorate.
 

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the U.S. Navy’s 2019 shipbuilding proposal would, on average, cost $28.9B in 2018 dollars per year throughout the plan’s three-decade duration.

The CBO detailed in a recently-published report a financial analysis of the Navy’s battle force build-up plan, which involves the construction of 301 combat and support vessels from fiscal year 2019 to 2048.

According to the CBO, the shipbuilding program’s projected average annual cost would be 80 percent higher than the average annual funding that the Navy has received for the past 30 years.

The Defense Department submitted the 2019 naval shipbuilding plan to Congress in February 2018. The plan seeks to establish a 355-ship fleet, or 70 vessels more than its total size as of September last year.

Based on CBO’s computations, the plan would cost $801B in 2018 dollars in total.

An official at the Office of Management and Budget recently underscored the importance of equipping federal agencies with the ability to collect and leverage data when making decisions and formulating policy, FCW reported Thursday.

Speaking at a recent Urban Institute event, Diana Epstein, head of the Evidence Team at the OMB, endorsed the use of learning agendas to promote the adoption of evidence-based policymaking, a strategy that several agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Small Business Administration, are already implementing.

The Trump administration earlier this year proposed reforms that would allow agencies to conduct data-generating activities, noting that “[if] we expect agencies to test innovative strategies and execute effective programs, we must enhance federal agencies’ ability to conduct program evaluation and other evidence building activities.”

“Bringing evidence to bear in decision-making is a critical component of good government,” the administration said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has opened a hub where it can coordinate with public and private sector entities to address concerns and initiate developments in financial technology.

The agency said Thursday the Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology hub, or FinHub, will serve as a space where the SEC and the public can resolve issues in distributed ledger technology, automated investment advice, digital marketplace financing and artificial intelligence or machine learning, among other things.

The site will also allow the SEC’s personnel to internally collect and distribute information about FinTech, as well as inform domestic and international regulators about modern financial, regulatory and supervisory technologies.

The SEC appointed Valerie Szczepanik, senior advisor for digital assets and innovation and associate director of the SEC’s corporation finance division, to oversee the operations within FinHub.

Szczepanik noted that through the innovation center, the SEC will work to support entrepreneurs, developers and their advisers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is hosting its annual Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation in cooperation with The Ohio State University’s National Center for the Middle Market.

The event, taking place Dec. 12 at the university’s Fawcett Center, aims to help small businesses adopt additional measures in capital development, the SEC said Thursday.

“Holding this event in Columbus, one of the top five best cities for entrepreneurs and startups, will give us the opportunity to hear directly from small businesses and their investors on ways to improve our regulatory system,” said SEC Chairman Jay Clayton.

The forum will feature a morning panel discussion on capital formation options for small businesses, with a follow-up session where participating groups will provide policy recommendations.

Interested participants may either attend the event’s breakout sessions in-person or via teleconference.

Registration for the event is open through Dec. 7.

Lt. Gen David Berger, commanding general of U.S. Marine Corps Combat Development Command, has said the service is working on speeding up its technology experimentation and deployment process, National Defense Magazine reported Thursday.

He noted during the National Defense Industrial Association’s recent Expeditionary Warfare Conference that Marine Expeditionary Force commanders have started initiating experiments for future combat, as past exercises only trained troops for present situations.

“The Marine Corps is really rapidly trying to learn faster, get stuff out to the field faster in … a 70 percent prototype sort of mode,” Berger added.

Brig. Gen. Christian Wortman, commander of the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab, said that the lab has begun taking on major experiments such as the Advanced Naval Technology Exercise. Wortman added that MCWL is set on executing the next ANTX, which will run for an entire year and focus on operating in contested environments to keep pace with adversaries developing anti-access/area denial or A2/AD weapons.

The upcoming activity will be held in April or May 2019 and include both Marines and Navy sailors.

NASA is eyeing the moon as an observational platform from which scientists can gather data on the sun or other celestial bodies.

Steve Clarke, NASA deputy associate administrator for exploration, said such efforts can serve as a step toward developing capabilities to embark on future Mars missions.

Missions to the moon have the potential to collect information about its external surface, such as heat flow, wind strength and atmosphere, Clarke noted. These findings would then be used to design technologies for Mars explorations.

“The strategy is that these will help us prepare for more complex future missions such as: searching for usable resources; building up a seismic network to understand the moon’s internal structure; and studying the lunar mineralogy and chemistry to understand the moon’s origins,” Clarke added.