Adobe has been lauded and criticized for its role in enabling open government. So declares Adobe Director of
Government Solutions, Rob Pinkerton.
He is of course referring to volume of government information which remains difficult to discover wrapped inside Adobe’s ubiquitous Portable Document Format.
Adobe is taking pains to address that. “If you don’t believe me,” he writes in a blog posted this week on the web site, Govfresh.com, “look to our current collaboration on Design for America with the Sunlight Foundation and PDF best practices forum on GovLoop as evidence of this commitment.”
But the real purpose of his blog is to challenge the decision makers at Apple for making decisions that limit or, worse, “close down” the openness of the Internet. That, he concludes, is exactly what the iPad and iPhone strategy does.
Related Story: IPad's big risk
“Will you read the Open Government Memo on an iPad?” he asks. “Of course you can, but if you do I hope you will recognize the irony in doing so.”
Pinkerton acknowledges his view is colored, in part because Apple has decided not to support Adobe’s Flash software, the engine that drives online video, audio and animations oN the Internet.
Still, he makes the case that Apple’s approach represents a curious contradiction to the principals of open government — and specifically the pillars of transparency, participation and collaboration that the Obama Administration has been championing.
Posted on Apr 23, 2010 at 7:05 PM1 comments
U.S. software-makers are improving the security of their products, but the country’s cyber infrastructure is still far from secure, according to comments by Richard Marshall, the Homeland Security Department’s director of Global Cybersecurity Management in the National Cybersecurity Division.
Marshall spoke this morning at FOSE, saying that, despite progress, laws are inadequate, education needs to be improved and the public and private sectors need to work together. GCN Editor-in-Chief Wyatt Kash was at Marshall’s talk and sending observations to Twitter. Other FOSE attendees also contributed to the flow of tweets.
According to their posts, Marshall said government can't solve the cyber problem alone, and neither can the private sector. It’s everyone’s job.
He also talked of the need for more secure software and of the need for academic centers of cyber excellence and training in all sciences/disciplines using the Internet.
Marshall discussed such security problems as the Defense Department’s purchase of counterfeit Cisco routers and the ongoing difficulties of dealing with logic bombs, back doors and other threats. He said laws currently are inadequate for dealing with these problems. He did, however, note that hackers are saying that U.S. software is getting harder to compromise.
Later, CNN Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley talked about the broader political landscape. Among her points: The November elections will be the “first act” on the just-passed health care reform bill.
Keep up with more news from FOSE today via Twitter at @govcomputernews or take a peek at what other FOSE go-ers are talking about.
Posted on Mar 24, 2010 at 7:05 PM2 comments
Over at the GovSec conference, running concurrently with FOSE at the Washington Convention Center, Security Products magazine today announced the winners of its GovSec Awards, which honors outstanding products being exhibited at GovSec.
The award winners, by category, are:
Access Control: Quantum Secure’s SAFE for Government Solution.
Disaster Recovery: Edwards Information’s Edwards Disaster Recovery Directory.
Homeland Security: Patriot3’s XPS-G2 Extreme Protection Series and Southwest Synergistic Solutions’ Emergency/Triage Light (E/T) Lights.
IP Video: Axis Communications’ AXIS M3114-R Network Camera Series and Enhance Technology’s UltraShare NAS 8000 Series.
IT Software Security: Sunbelt Software’s VIPRE Enterprise Premium.
Wireless Security: Berkely Varitronics Systems’ Bloodhound Cell Detector.
Tomorrow afternoon at FOSE, GCN will announce the winners of its Best of FOSE awards. Be sure to check in with us then.
Posted on Mar 23, 2010 at 7:05 PM0 comments