The IT Pioneers

he winners of Government Executive's eighth annual Government Technology Leadership Awards are riding into the new frontier aided by high-powered processing and a renewed sense of just who their customers are.

Agencies are doing everything from aerial 3-D mapping to protecting citizens from tornadoes and thunderstorms through early forecasting technology. The U.S. Geological Survey has created a new online National Atlas. The Navy is providing weather reports not only for warships but recreational boaters. Other agencies are interacting with citizens via the World Wide Web.

This year, 21 programs were selected from 109 nominations. The winners will receive their awards at a ceremony during the third annual Government Technology Leadership Institute this month at the Reagan International Trade Center in Washington. The Institute's corporate sponsors are American Management Systems, BMC Software, Computer Associates Inc., Dell Computer Corp., Logicon Inc./Northrup Grumman, MCI Worldcom Inc., Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp. and SAS Institute Inc.

FAA
Weather Support to De-Icing Decision-Making

Icy weather is a matter of life or death for the Federal Aviation Administration. Ten airline accidents during takeoffs between 1978 and 1997 are attributed to ice forming on jets. This includes the legendary 1982 Air Florida crash into the Potomac River in Washington. As a result, the FAA established tougher rules for aircraft de-icing on the ground.

But de-icing is not a simple task. There are three types of de-icing fluids, each with different potency and cost. Plus, Environmental Protection Agency rules require all de-icing fluids be recovered once used. And as if that weren't enough, de-icing can become an unworkable mess when you throw in delays, unpredictable weather, and the difference between wet snow and dry snow.

The FAA's answer is the $4.6 million Weather Support to De-Icing Decision-Making (WSDDM) project. WSDDM uses Doppler radar, surface weather data and snow gauges to help pilots, controllers and dispatchers make de-icing decisions.

"Water dilutes de-icing fluids," says David Sankey, product lead for weather sensors and research at the FAA. WSDDM indicates how much water will result from precipitation so authorities can choose the most effective de-icing fluid.

The system helps save money on de-icing fluid and can help prevent delays.

New York's LaGuardia Airport, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and Denver International Airport were test beds for the project.

NOAA/NWS
Advanced weather interactive processing system

On May 3, more than 70 tornadoes ripped through Oklahoma and southern Kansas. The tornadoes left hundreds injured, took almost 50 lives and caused more than $1 billion in damage. Had the National Weather Service been caught unaware, casualties could have been worse.

Thanks to NWS' new $540 million Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS), forecasters were able to issue warnings with an average lead time of 32 minutes before severe weather hit.

The Norman, Okla., office issued 70 tornado warnings and 46 severe thunderstorm warnings over 10 hours on May 3. NWS attributes part of their successful coverage to the use of multiple AWIPS workstations that enabled NWS forecasters to divide their areas of responsibility geographically.

"We've put in place a new line of super computers for atmospheric modeling," says Mary Glackin, AWIPS program manager. "The key element of this is AWIPS. It brings all of these new data sets right to the forecaster on one display and allows for data analysis in a short amount of time."

Glackin says speed in forecasting is vital. "Many hazardous weather events happen in a short time frame, like flash flooding or tornadoes," says Glackin. "We can manipulate the data and get a warning out virtually within seconds."

"With AWIPS we are able to pick up precursors of significant weather events," adds Glackin. "Even a few minutes improvement makes a lot of difference."

Glackin says that AWIPS employs an open systems architecture that allows the NWS to continually modify the system. "Our intent is not to let it get obsolete. Ultimately the goal is to keep pace with the sciences of meteorology and hydrology."

Navy
WxMAP

The Navy Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center specializes in forecasting weather over the ocean. Up until January 1998, Fleet Numerical distributed raw data to Navy ships and bases, where it was massaged by rendering software.

"This allowed customers to create exactly what they wanted," says Joseph Cannon, a Fleet Numerical computer specialist. "But others wanted a quick view of a forecast map instead of building the graphics themselves."

With the help of software initially written at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Fleet Numerical is now providing Web-based forecasting maps on its Internet site, www.fnmoc.navy.mil. "WxMAP is strictly Web based," says Cannon. "The customer doesn't need rendering software on his machine."

Now, instead of customers building images, Fleet Numerical builds them and posts the data on its Web page. Fleet Numerical selected the most common parameters that forecasters desire for the Web site.

And while Fleet Numerical still provides raw data to its users, a new set of commercial customers has emerged. "Television broadcasters, radiomen, scientists and even the general public use WxMAP," says Cannon.

Army
'Meandering Path' Geophysical Explorations

Military base closures have left an estimated 15 million acres contaminated with unexploded bombs, artillery shells and other ordnance on land that is now privately owned.

The Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for decontaminating those sites. Some are as small as a dozen acres, but others cover hundreds of acres. Regardless of the size of the property, the danger of searching for hidden ordnance on overgrown and possibly dangerous landscapes always looms large.

In the past, the Corps would deforest an entire site at a cost of up to $2,500 an acre. Engineers used standard surveying techniques, which require a clear line of site. The Corps also used geophysical surveying, sending signals into the ground to investigate its contents.

With advances in Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, the Corps now can send a team out into the woods armed with a GPS receiver and a mobile geophysical surveying unit. The team takes what is called a meandering path through the brush collecting data on the possibilities of buried ordnance. Computers and statistical models tell the engineers how far they have to walk to accurately investigate a given site. After synchronizing the geophysical data with the GPS technology and uploading it to computers, the team can get an idea of where the site is contaminated.

Now teams clear forests only where they are sure of contamination. "We've got sites where we are digging up the most current ordnance the military is shooting," says Roger Young, a senior geologist in the Corps' Huntsville Center. "There are other sites where we are looking for Civil War ordnance and everything in between. At one site at West Point we are looking for Revolutionary War ordnance."

The ordnance just sits there and remains dangerous for long periods of time, Young says.

USGS
The National Atlas of the United States

When the first National Atlas of the United States appeared in 1970, it weighed 12 pounds and was limited to a production run of 15,000 copies. Almost 30 years later, in a meeting between U.S. Geological Survey officials and Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., the senator hefted a copy of the 1970 behemoth and asked, "When are you going to do another one of these?"

In 1997, the USGS received the first $1 million of $5 million in congressional funding for its National Atlas project. However, this National Atlas is very different than its predecessor-it's on the World Wide Web. Users can create their own maps at
www-atlas.usgs.gov using data from the USGS, Census Bureau, Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies.

"This has been a leadership role for the USGS and as much a coordination role as anything else," says Jay Donnelly, the Atlas' managing editor. "With the World Wide Web as the publishing medium we no longer have to restrict content. We can make the digital representations of maps available to the public regardless of theme."

This means users can create maps using a standard Web browser. The maps can combine demographic, environmental, geographic, geologic and even biological data. For example, users can create a map that displays the nation's streams and watersheds overlaid with data on toxic releases or Superfund sites.

USGS has produced hard-copy maps for the project, but the days of the 12-pounder are gone. These are separate maps on specific subjects such as the nation's principal aquifers/groundwater resources, watershed boundaries and the distribution of federal and American Indian-owned land. Most recently the USGS released a shaded relief map of North America. It will issue a map on the nation's wetlands next. All printed maps have Web-based counterparts.

EPA
EnviroMapper

Now the Environmental Protection Agency can deliver environmental and regulator data to just about anyone who needs it via the Web. EnviroMapper (www.epa.gov/enviro/html/em/index.html) includes data on water quality, toxic releases, hazardous waste and Superfund sites.

The EPA spends $400 million each year to collect data from regulated facilities. Now that the data is accessed directly from EPA's Web server, the agency estimates it will save $5 million annually.

EnviroMapper was developed after EPA had tried and failed to deliver geographic information system (GIS) technology to its workers via the desktop. Between software licensing fees, database administration costs and the complexities of GIS, EPA scrapped its plan after only six months. EPA then found that by posting its vast amount of GIS and regulatory data on the Web, all users-not just EPA personnel, but environmental activists, corporations and concerned citizens-could have access.

Now, users can create customized maps via the Internet using the exact data they need without any help from EPA.

NASA
Airborne LIDAR Topographic Mapping System

Until now, accurate elevation data was difficult and expensive to produce. Such mapping used radar or an aerial surveying process called photogrammetry. Now, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, in partnership with the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC), has found a better way.

By mounting a laser on an airplane, NASA and HARC scientists have revolutionized airborne 3-D mapping. The Airborne Light Detection and Ranging Systems Topographic Mapping System (ALTMS) has been refined down to a 300-pound unit that can be mounted onto even a small plane. ALTMS sends out laser beams and has an accuracy range of 1 foot or better.

"With computers we're able to produce complete replicas of a city," says George Alcorn, ALTMS project manager at Goddard Space Flight Center's Technology Commercialization Office. "We've been able to make a completely 3-D map of Harris County, Texas, where Houston is located."

According to Alcorn, the system offers "super state of the art mapping." ALTMS uses include floodplain mapping, highway design simulation, shoreline and erosion mapping, habitat assessments, forest and biodiversity mapping, hydrologic modeling, pipeline and utility surveys, and studies of rooftop heights for communication antennas.

DOT
Docket Management System

When the Transportation Department prepares new rules on air bags or hazardous material transport, each new regulation is tracked with a bulging file of petitions, public comments and final decisions called a docket.

In 1993, Transportation operated nine docket rooms, each with its own staff. Researching a docket sometimes meant long, hot waits. Then there were the trips between the docket rooms only to find a docket was missing and presumed lost forever. So the agency formed a central docket room in Washington. And then DOT went one step further: It moved the whole process to the Web. No more lawyers gnashing their teeth over a prized docket.

Now, interested public and private-sector parties can stay up to date by looking at the Docket Management System (DMS) Web site at http://dms.dot.gov. All information that is contained in a single paper-based docket--commentary, adjudications, extensions--is now available to everyone at once.

DMS lists the top-requested dockets on the system. Last fall, for example, the leader was a Maritime Administration docket on attempts to re-register eight ships designed to carry liquefied natural gas under a foreign flag. It had chalked up more than 12,000 hits. Interested parties include everyone from the petitioning companies and concerned citizens to the sailors on the ships that would be affected by such re-registration.

Commentary and official documents can be submitted on paper or via e-mail. Decisions handed down by DOT officials are listed as well. DOT is in the process of putting its entire backlog of paper-based dockets online.

IRS
Alternative Electronic Payments Initiative

In January 1999, the Internal Revenue Service accepted its first credit card payment. Spurred by the 1997 Taxpayer Relief Act, the IRS took less than a year and a half to make this happen.

"Accepting credit card payments is something the IRS has wanted to do for some time," says Larry Faulkner, project manager of the Electronic Tax Administration's Alternative Electronic Payments Initiative. "We wanted to enable taxpayers to pay taxes the way they would normally pay for things in the commercial world."

Another factor in the IRS' mandate to accept credit cards was that 30 percent of those who file their taxes online have a balance due. So taxpayers still had to mail in a check or money order to the IRS. "We thought it would be easier for them just to pay online," Faulkner says.

While this task might sound simple, the IRS had significant issues to address before accepting such payments. "We had to figure out how to reconcile payment to tax return and how to post the payment to the taxpayer's account correctly," Faulkner says.

IRS also had to get the word out that credit card payments were now available. The IRS put together a nationwide campaign and trained its customer service representatives. "It was a monumental task upgrading our customer service," says Faulkner. "We knew that people would expect world-class service from the IRS from day one."

This year, 20,000 taxpayers have used credit cards.

Army
Internet Tumor Board

After a patient has been diagnosed with breast cancer, hospitals often convene a tumor board, a panel of cancer specialists and general practitioners, to discuss care options and treatment management. But for Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii, such consultation wasn't that simple. Tripler is the place service members and their dependents come from far-flung bases in Guam, Japan and Korea when diagnosed with breast cancer.

Because "most [military] facilities don't have cancer specialists, they would just blindly send patients to us," says Mary Nilges, project manager for Tripler's Internet Tumor Board. This meant patients would show up without appointments and would spend months waiting to see a specialist.

Now, Tripler conducts tumor boards on the Internet, effectively making it "a medical center without walls," as Nilges likes to say. The Internet Tumor Board, held every Wednesday using Microsoft Corp.'s NetMeeting software, allows doctors to review digitized radiology pictures mailed to them and type in comments during the session. "It is such a simple idea," says Nilges. "All the doctors need is a PC, a telephone and Internet access."

Over the past two years, the Internet Tumor Board has prevented 19 unnecessary medical evacuations at a cost of about $5,000 each. Tripler has also added a nursing case manager who schedules all appointments with specialists such as surgical and radiological oncologists. This eliminates the long waits for specialists. "Now, the day patients hit the runway they are actually seeing specialists," Nilges says.

National Biological Information Infrastructure

The information age began in 1994 for the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII). The infrastructure was launched that year by the fledgling National Biological Survey (NBS) after a National Research Council report recommended a national partnership for the sharing of biological information resources.

Over time, the NBS was integrated into the U.S. Geological Survey, but the information infrastructure didn't fade away.

Today, NBII has bloomed into a federation of biological data gatherers that uses the Internet as a backbone. "We try to link together existing sources of data whether they are federal- or state-based, or from universities and museums," says Anne Frondorf, NBII program manager. "We provide the infrastructure to get collaborators to work with us to agree on standards and protocols so users will be able to find particular information."

If users were looking for information about the invasive zebra mussel species, for example, they would be able to find all data on the mussels-from the distribution of the species to its control-in one place. "We intended the NBII to be a way to make it easier for people to find what information on the zebra mussels is out there."

Frondorf says USGS is always searching for more information and coordinating its inclusion into the NBII (www.nbii.gov).

GSA
Government Services Express

In an effort to bring government services more directly to the public, the General Services Administration has partnered with federal and state agencies to create Government Services Express centers. The centers are staffed with employees who answer questions. Kiosks at the centers enable citizens to do everything from printing out tax information to filing tax returns online. They can even get copies of their W-2 filings.

The first center opened in March 1999 in the Milpitas Great Mall in the San Francisco Bay area. GSA partnered with the Internal Revenue Service and the California State Franchise Tax Board to open the center. The second opened in Danvers, Mass. at the Liberty Tree Mall near Boston.

The centers offer TTY service for the speech- and hearing-impaired. Video teleconferencing equipment also is on site if a citizen needs expert advice from the agencies represented by the center.

The idea is to enable citizens to do all the things they would be able to do at a government office in a high-traffic, consumer-like setting.

PRC
Operating Online

The Postal Rate Commission was inundated with millions of sheets of paper. The PRC's regulatory role involves conducting hearings on proposed postal rate increases, post office closings, rule-making cases and customer complaints. Pleadings to the PRC in each case can include up to 35,000 pages in documents. This data was then copied up to 149 times, which could equal more than 5.2 million printed pages.

Pleadings take the form of legal proceedings. A rate increase case, for example, is a 10-month process. The various phases include discovery, written cross-examinations, hearings, briefs and finally the commission's recommendation to the Postal Board of Governors.

"All these steps produce paperwork," says Leona Anasiewicz, information resources analyst and PRC librarian. Enter Operating Online, the commission's electronic filing system. Operating Online is essentially a document management system. Files that aren't submitted electronically are scanned into the system and stored as graphic files. Users have access to all files via the PRC's Web site at www.prc.gov.

The PRC began its Web presence in 1996. By 1998, all new case filings were available via its Web site. The PRC is converting its old pleadings into electronic formats for search and retrieval purposes. This means attorneys and others will be able to search the commission's database for similar cases. "It brings a certain added value to see what has been done in the past when creating something for what you are doing today," says Anasiewicz.

This $370,000 project could save the commission $150,000 per year.

Norden Huang has figured out a way to analyze data from moving objects, also known as nonlinear data. This is a grander feat than it might sound. The Hilbert-Huang Method allows scientists to more accurately process and study data on everything from ocean waves, heart arrhythmia, earthquakes and the structural soundness of the nation's bridges.

Huang studies the air-sea interface as a research scientist in the NASA Goddard Earth Science Directorate's Laboratory for Hydrospheric Processes. "When the wind blows over the ocean it makes waves," says Huang. "Then the waves get bigger and absorb energy and momentum. When waves break [they] create spray and give water droplets back to the atmosphere."

But Huang had a problem. Data analysis methods didn't take into account that ocean waves are actually moving objects. So, he created a solution. "If you give me data, I will identify the maximum and minimum and that will form an envelope that covers all data," Huang says. "Then I get the average and can derive oscillatory data. This gives you an idea of how the data varies and is much more adaptive."

Huang's method uses a transformation defined by mathematician David Hilbert.

Now Huang works with almost 60 different universities and government laboratories. Huang says his method even can be used to identify the electrical characteristics of a brain suffering from epilepsy. "During an epileptic seizure, brain waves suddenly go haywire," Huang says. "People lose control of their faculties. The method is to take the data apart to see how it varies."

Huang is working with the Navy to help develop quieter submarines. "Overall, the most important criteria for a submarine is stealth," Huang says. "I am helping analyze a submarine's wake structure and how it generates noises. If you can totally conceal yourself, that is the greatest thing."

The Department of Housing and Urban Development's Community 2020 planning software helps states, localities and nongovernmental organizations spend their federally appropriated dollars more wisely. The software uses Geographic Information System technology to display data on demographics and HUD activities.

But as with most software, users need training. HUD provides live training for grantees, nonprofits and educational groups. But live training is expensive and time-consuming. That is why HUD's Office of Community Connections created the Community 2020 planning software CD-ROM training package.

"After research, we decided nothing can replace live training," says Pamela Glekas Spring, chief of the Application and Marketing Branch in the Office of Community Connections. "However, the next best thing is providing employees with computer-based training." Also, it frees up the agency to specialize the live training it has to provide, she says.

The training package guides the user through a community with characters that take the shape of buildings, a mailbox, a traffic light and a bus. The package includes six modules and a final test called the 2020 Challenge.

DoD
Management Reform Memorandum #15: Reengineering the Defense Transportation Documentation and Financials Process

Transportation isn't trivial business for the Defense Department. It pays $1.3 billion per year in commercial freight costs and uses 625 freight carriers for rail, trucking, sealift and express mail services. DoD makes more than 17 million shipments to more than 700 domestic locations. Of those shipments, 14 million are express mail.

Under the 1997 Defense Reform Initiative, DoD began looking at incorporating commercial best practices. One of the initiatives is Management Reform Memorandum #15: Reengineering the Defense Transportation Documentation and Financials Process (MRM 15).

After looking at the costs of doing business, DoD found it took 30 to 90 days to pay commercial carriers for freight. Also, transportation documents arrived at ports late 30 percent of the time.

"We found our paperwork was more data intensive rather than using commercial standards," says Alan Estevez, assistant for traffic management. Because government documentation wasn't based on transportation industry standards, it cost commercial carriers almost double to process a DoD charge.

DoD looked at a number of solutions and decided to try credit cards. However, after a trial period, DoD found that didn't work. DoD finally settled on a U.S. Bank product called PowerTrack, an online payment and transaction system.

Now, the solution has grown into DoD's $18.8 million initiative to adopt "transportation industry best commercial practices." MRM 15 includes the adoption of standard commercial documentation and PowerTrack, which will reduce payment times to contractors from an average of 60 days to three. DoD projects annual savings of $11.2 million.

GSA
Information Technology Solution Shop, Integrated Task Order Management System and GSA Advantage

The Federal Technology Service's $8.5 million end-to-end procurement system and the Federal Supply Service's multiple-awards schedule online mall, GSA Advantage, have resulted in a shopping bonanza for General Services Administration customers.

The Information Technology Solution Shop (ITSS) is GSA's procurement automation piece of the suite. It engages both vendors and government purchasers in the task order and award process. "ITSS is an electronic task ordering system," says John Prahm, IT Solutions Fusion Group leader. "We want to bring both clients and their partners into the process."

"Government buyers come to ITSS to give GSA their requirements--what it is they want to buy," says David Griffin,
ITSS project manager. "When complete, the whole order goes into an Integrated Task Order Management System (ITOMS), which is the financial system that tracks the billings and the invoices."

Before ITSS and ITOMS, all financial transactions were paper-based. That meant double and even triple re-keying of data into GSA's financial management system. Now all data goes first into ITSS, the single point of entry. Then the data is passed electronically to ITOMS, which creates transactions that GSA's National Electronic Accounting and Reporting system can process.

"We found a 10-day decrease in the financial posting time," says Prahm. "It used to be a 17-day cycle. Now it is seven." Prahm expects the cycle time to decrease as time goes on.

GSA has also focused on making its multiple-awards schedule online mall easier to use. GSA Advantage (www.gsa.gov/advantage) has added a feature which e-mails government buyers whenever the status of an order changes.

INS
Integrated Card Production System

The days of the Immigration and Naturalization Service not being able to produce enough green cards are gone. INS had only one facility producing the cards, and it just couldn't keep up with demand.

To make matters worse, INS had created more types of cards over the years. This meant different systems producing the different cards. But INS has put those days behind it with the Integrated Card Production System by Information Spectrum Inc.

The Permanent Resident Card, known as the green card, and the Employment Authorization Document are produced on the system. INS also produces the LaserVisa for the State Department.

"What we wanted to do was bring all card production onto one platform," says Marion Metcalf, document production director and project manager for the Card Production Management Team.

The green card utilizes optical technology for data storage and security. "Think of it like a CD-ROM on steroids," says William Alsbrooks, executive vice president at Information Spectrum and program manager for the project.

HUD
Real Estate Assessment Center Inspection System

The Department of Housing and Urban Development houses 6.1 million people in its 44,000 projects. Each of these housing projects must meet safety standards, but keeping up with annual inspections has been impossible.

Now, HUD's Real Estate Assessment Center is using a new inspection protocol, which will enable it to perform baseline inspections of all 44,000 projects. Housing inspectors are using pen-based computers to collect and record data. The pen-based computers download site information at the beginning of the day and upload the inspection results at the end. The data transfer occurs via the Internet. Once the data has been analyzed by the assessment center, reports are provided to public housing authorities.

Since November 1998, HUD has inspected 26,000 projects. "We'll have all the projects done by the end of the year," says Donald J. LaVoy, project manager of the new system. LaVoy says the new system will enable HUD to inspect all 44,000 projects at least once a year.

U.S. Mint
Consolidated Information System

Business was booming at the profit-oriented U.S. Mint, but the agency was struggling to keep its books and used three disparate financial management systems. Whenever the books closed, it took 30 days just to get everything straight. Plus, the Mint had looming Y2K problems.

"What you had was a dynamic agency reinventing itself without the right financial data and manufacturing solutions," says John Mitchell, deputy director of the U.S. Mint and project manager of the Consolidated Information System (COINS). "We had a tough time closing the books on a quarterly basis."

In May 1997, Mint officials decided to implement an enterprise resource planning system. They chose PeopleSoft Inc. and began to reap the benefits in October 1998. Now, $42.3 million later, COINS coordinates the Mint's accounting, manufacturing, distribution, mail order and catalog sales. It includes a computerized maintenance management system and has made the agency's systems Y2K compliant. "Now we close our books on a monthly basis," Mitchell says. "And it takes no longer than 10 days to do it."

"Without COINS we would not be able to have the successful e-commerce site that we have now," Mitchell says. "Basically, one came from the other."

Indian Health Service
Indian Health Performance Evaluation System

The Indian Health Service does more than just run hospitals and health-care centers across the nation for American Indians and Alaska Natives. It closely monitors the health risks that are unique to those groups.

To this end, the Phoenix Area Indian Health Service created a customized performance measurement system for IHS hospitals. The Indian Health Performance Evaluation System (IHPES) "is a system that was developed in response to new hospital accreditation standards by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations," says Michael Gomez, program manager of IHPES. "The idea was that [the Phoenix Area] could develop something that would satisfy these standards but do it more economically and be more responsive to Indian health issues."

IHPES supports 31 out of 49 IHS hospitals as well as tribally operated facilities.

Among the health indicators IHPES tracks are signs associated with diabetes. "There is an epidemic of diabetes in the Native American population," says Gomez. "Some indicators IHPES tracks deal with checking if blood sugar is under control. Others deal with diabetics receiving nutritional education or counseling, annual eye exams and dental exams."

This Year's Judges
The Government Technology Leadership Awards judges include, Carlo Reitveld, The World Bank, Jack Arthur, Forest Service, Timothy Clark, Government Executive; Frank Reeder, Reeder and Associates, Anne F. Thompson Reed, Agriculture, Dennis Fisher, General Services Administration, Jasmeet Seerha, Office of Management and Budget, Alan Paller, CIO Institute, David Borland and Miriam Browning, both of the U.S. Army.