The American public increasingly interacts with the U.S. government digitally and relies on digital media to access services and information, according to Federal Chief Information Officer Clare Martorana.

For this reason, the September 2023 memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget titled “Delivering a Digital-First Public Experience” is likely to have a significant impact in 2024, Martorana, a Wash100 awardee, told Federal News Network in an interview.

The memo contains guidance that implements the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act, which mandates government agencies to make their services available to the public in a digital format that is designed to be secure, usable and accessible.

For the federal CIO, the American public deserves “the best possible customer experience,” and in order to achieve this, “we must fix the digital experience.”

Martorana also believes that the December 2023 OMB memo titled “Strengthening Digital Accessibility and the Management of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act” will have “an immediate, positive impact” in the current year.

That memo calls on federal agencies to incorporate into their operations “digital accessibility,” or the development and implementation of information and communication technologies that can be used by individuals with disabilities.

According to Martorana, all Americans, regardless of one’s disability, have a right to equal access to government services. The Digital Accessibility memo is key because “it helps build and sustain an accessible Federal technology environment that delivers for everyone.”

Chief information officers from the U.S. government and industry will gather at the Potomac Officers Club’s 5th Annual CIO Summit, which will take place on April 17. Register now to attend this important event!

Gen. James Mingus, vice chief of staff at the U.S. Army, said network changes and counter-unmanned aerial systems are some of his priorities within the service branch, Breaking Defense reported Monday.

Mingus said the military branch is focusing on its networks under the umbrella terms “C2 Fix” and “C2 Next” covering current and future programs.

Near-term projects fall under C2 Fix, which seeks to ensure that warfighters can communicate and fight on the battlefield.

C2 Next is the Army’s prototyping effort with industry focused on experimenting with a “data-centric” command and control system powered by network transport. The initiative is focused on scalability, open and advanced modular architectures and the ability to quickly iterate.

The general highlighted the critical need to advance the development of next-generation C2 platforms.

“We’re integrating a lot of things. We’re figuring out how to do things faster as a joint force but until we start to accelerate convergence, common platforms, common messaging, common standards, convergence of data, that’s got to be the next evolution out of this,” Mingus commented.

When it comes to counter-UAS, the former director of the Joint Staff hinted at the need for a joint organization responsible for developing and procuring systems for the services.

“We’re probably at a crossroads of not, you know, a complete wholesale reorg but how could we reorganize ourselves even a little better than we are now,” Mingus remarked. “Instead of independent services developing their own counter-UAS, maybe a joint entity that’s working that problem set together, the power of all the services together to try and solve that problem in scale and mass to keep pace.”