Government Bits

Although I believe the media is creating unnecessary fear among the public over Swine Flu (and apparently I am not alone), the idea of a pandemic presents a good example of why telework should be part of any agency's continuity of operations (COOP) planning. In the case of an emergency that affects public servants' ability to get to the office, or safely work in the office, telework allows government workers to continue to serve the needs of the public from a remote location. But waiting for that emergency to materialize is not the best approach. Cindy Auten of the Telework Exchange says it best - "One of the key strategies in having a business continuity plan and incorporating telework into it, is ensuring that you're testing it often and you build telework as a part of your standard operating procedure -- so it's not a frantic, mad rush to the door to actually start your telework program at the last minute." Does your agency have a telework strategy? If so, is it part of day-to-day operations or is it a just-in-case strategy? We'd like to hear from you.

Posted by Beth Lovett at 1:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The day after his inauguration, President Obama issued a memo calling for an "unprecedented level of openness in Government."  Many agencies are going through the process of identifying what open government and transparency mean to their operations.  Others are already in execution mode - including the US Department of State. 

In early March, the State Department broadcast Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's address to the European Parliament.

More recently, President Obama's Town Hall meeting in Turkey was available for world citizens to view online - and provide comments and feedback.

Both of these meetings were conducted using Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro. Acrobat Connect Pro allows the State Department, a geographically dispersed organization, to bring together agency staff and the public in live virtual meetings.  Attendees can provide immediate feedback and meetings can be recorded for future viewing.  By providing the public with access to official events, the State Department is doing its part to make government more open and encourage public participation.

For more information on Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro in action, check out the blog

Posted by Beth Lovett at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The United States Department of Defense Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) has certified both Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader version 9.

Many programs supporting the Department of Defense missions require security services, such as authentication, confidentiality, non-repudiation, and access control. The JITC certification demonstrates compliance with DoD policy as well as showing confidence that the applications are properly and securely using Public Key Infrastructure.

Here are the direct links for certification of Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader

Certification was also achieved for Acrobat and Reader version 7 and version 8.

Posted by Beth Lovett at 2:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)