Patrice McDermott, Director OpenTheGovernment.org www.openthegovernment.org 202.332.OPEN (6736) - White House Breaking Records Law? By Paul Kiel - March 15, 2007, 2:24 PM A number of readers have pointed out that Karl Rove's deputy at the White House, Scott Jennings, used an outside domain, gwb43.com, for his emails. The domain, it turns out, is owned by the Republican National Committee. Now Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has sent a letter to House government reform committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) requesting an investigation of whether the White House has been violating the Presidential Records Act -- in an attempt to keep certain correspondence away from prying eyes. more [TPMMuckraker] [thanks to Reporters Committee] CREW letter ALSO E-mails released yesterday show that White House deputy political director J. Scott Jennings communicated with Justice officials about the appointment of Tim Griffin, a former Rove aide, to be the U.S. attorney in Little Rock. Jennings used an e-mail account registered to the Republican National Committee, where Griffin had worked as an opposition researcher. Democratic congressional aides said they will investigate whether using the private address for government business violated laws against using taxpayer resources for political work or signaled that White House officials considered the firing of U.S. attorneys to be primarily a political issue. Jennings did not return a call to his office seeking a comment. "As a matter of course, the RNC provides server space and equipment to certain White House personnel in order to assist them with their political efforts," RNC spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said. more [WPost] *** - Critical Infrastructure: Challenges Remain in Protecting Key Sectors. GAO-07-626T, March 20 ...Challenges most frequently cited included the lack of an effective relationship with DHS as well as private sector hesitancy to share information on vulnerabilities with the government or within the sector for fear the information would be released and open to competitors. GAO's past work has shown that a lack of trust in DHS and fear that sensitive information would be released are recurring barriers to the private sector's sharing information with the federal government... more [GAO] Plus ça change... *** - NIST to decide on standards for e-records BY Jason Miller Published on March 20, 2007 The National Institute of Standards and Technology is determining whether to make standards developed by the E-Records Management e-government project a governmentwide requirement or just a guidance. ... One approach OMB might take is to add the validation of records management standards to the work the agency inspector generals already do. IGs certify how agencies meet the Federal Information Security Management Act as well as privacy mandates. "If it becomes a governmentwide standard configuration, then it solves the technology part because we will not need to figure out how to transfer records," Evans said. "Agencies can build all of this into the lifecycle of their investments." more [FCW] *** - CIO Council honors Schlarman, Andreessen with Azimuth Awards BY Jason Miller Published on March 20, 2007 The CIO Council picked two winners of the 2007 Azimuth Award that couldn't be more different. The federal executive toiled in the government 34 years before retiring last December. The industry executive was a millionaire by the time he was 34, and now at 36 is heading up at least two new companies. ... Glenn Schlarman, who worked for the FBI, Energy Department and the Office of Management and Budget before stepping down last year, led the federal effort to secure information and keep it private all the while understanding the importance of information dissemination and accessibility. In some ways, Schlarman had competing and complimentary jobs. ... Schlarman, who slipped the presenter of his award, OMB's Deputy Director for Management Clay Johnson, a note asking why he was there, truly was surprised by the honor. "I did not know I was going to make remarks tonight so I'm as excited to hear them as you are," Schlarman said with his usual dry wit. "I am here because of Karen. She allowed me to do a lot of things to people - well, for people. She gave me a long leash that permitted us to do the things we can do." more [FCW] *** The Government Domain: GovTrack and OpenCongress Go Beyond THOMAS By Peggy Garvin Published March 18, 2007 It is springtime, and a thousand flowers are blooming in the world of open web congressional data. I would like to focus on two projects: GovTrack and OpenCongress. A few additional, related sites that I won't cover in detail are listed at the end of this column. more *** - ICANN participation website The Lisbon meeting for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number (ICANN) is being held between 26-30 March 2007, and this is its online participation website. Available here will be: a rundown of each meeting complete with full details, including panellists; topics for discussions; links to resources and presentations; and links to webcasts and audiocasts where available. more [thanks to beSpacific.com]
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