Anyone involved in government IT asset management knows what a headache it can be to keep track of hundreds or thousands of pieces of computer equipment.
It's a daunting task to get multiple federal agencies to agree on an Extensible Markup Language standard for data sharing.
The Microsoft Windows .Net platform is emerging as a powerful toolbox for integrating Web services with applications. Although .Net can work with multiple types of systems, it's mainly for Microsoft-centric sites.
The typical citizen probably thinks of the Internet as something that appeared in the mid-1990s. But most government employees likely have a better understanding of the Net's history.
In the next few months, the Internet will reach a most regrettable milestone: Spam will amount to more than half of all e-mail traffic on any given day. It's now at nearly 40 percent and climbing fast.
Internet wireless services can push photos, public records and other information out to police and border guards. If the price point drops low enough, such wireless access could extend to every maintenance engineer, social worker or government parking lot manager.
The federal government is pouring a substantial amount of energy and dollars into e-government service to citizens. But it's not all for private citizens.
The time has come to certify information security processes in much the same way that the International Standards Organization grants ISO 9000 certificates to manufacturers with consistent quality-control processes.