IfG.CC - The Institute for eGovernment

Österreichische Bundeseinrichtungen soll ihren Einkauf katalogfähiger Produkte künftig nur noch online abwickeln. Der dafür eingerichtete e-Shop der Bundesbeschaffung GmbH (BBG) geht im Januar 2006 in den Echtbetrieb. Im Laufe des Jahres sollen die über 300 Lieferantenkataloge in den e-Shop eingebaut werden. Weiterhin offline erfolgen selten anfallende Vertragsabschlüsse wie der Einkauf von Kraftfahrzeugen oder Strom; das Besorgen von Kriegsgerät und Schusswaffen ist der BBG gesetzlich untersagt. Da die Behördenmitarbeiter gesetzlich verpflichtet sind, alle von der BBG vermittelten Produkte über diese zu bestellen, erfolgt automatisch eine schrittweise Umstellung auf den Online-Einkauf in alle Amtsstuben des Bundes. 2007 soll der e-Shop-Umsatz rund 50 Millionen Euro betragen.

One of the many hard lessons New Orleans learned from Hurricane Katrina was that traditional telephone and mobile phone services can fail, so the city is unveiling its own Wi-Fi network Tuesday that will be free to its citizens.

The city, still digging out from the ravages of the storm, will build on an existing relationship with Tropos Networks, which has supplied several municipalities with its metro-scale networks.

A grade of 63 is barely passing by most accounts, and one that the Department of Health and Human Services promises to improve.

According to the auditors at the Government Accountability Office, in a report issued Monday, the HHS has established 63% of the foundation practices that it needs to manage its IT investments individually when judged against GAO's framework for IT investment management, which measures the maturity of an organization's investment management processes. Even worse, GAO contends Health and Human Services has established only 30% of the practices needed to manage its IT investments as a portfolio.

The city of Tempe, Arizona was poised Monday to have a "cutting the wires" ceremony to formally launch what it claims is the largest city-wide wireless network in the U.S., which will cover a 40 square mile area.

The network will provide wireless access as well as voice-over-IP to residents and businesses of the city. In addition, a separate, parallel network will provide access for government functions.

When hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf Coast, they destroyed not only homes and businesses but thousands of paper medical records, too. In the storms' aftermath, health-insurance companies were able to re-create basic electronic health records for many customers by tapping into their insurance and drug-prescription databases.

Now the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services seems ready to follow their example and spur the creation of electronic health records that would be accessible to people displaced by natural disasters, wherever they might go.