FedPod: CIO privacy report, fed petition and Gangnam Style

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Looking at the CIO Council’s privacy report, fed petition for Christmas Eve off hits milestone and NASA goes “Gangnam Style.”

FedScoop 50 Q&A: Graves, Wolf, Calabrese

During the FedScoop 50 Awards reception, FedScoop passed out a fun questionnaire to award winners and nominees to get to know them better outside of the office. Below we’ve compiled some of their answers for your enjoyment.

Margie Graves

Title: Deputy Chief Information Officer

Agency: Department of Homeland Security

What was the first award you ever won?

Barrel racing at horse camp

What’s on your playlist?

Viva La Vida – Coldplay

What is your favorite weekend activity?

Biking

Are there any movies you’ve watched more than 5 times?

3 Days of the Condor

What was the first concert you ever attended? Or the last?

Deep Purple/ Black Sabbath

What is your favorite show or event to watch?

Big Bang Theory – Sheldon is the ultimate geek.

What’s your favorite DC hangout?

OYA

What is your favorite piece of consumer technology?

iPhone – apps make it!

Allison Wolff

Title: IT Labs Program Manager

Agency: NASA

What was the first award you ever won?

Work: Johnson Space Center, go the extra mile award. Non-work: Presidential Academic Fitness Award (8th grade).

What’s on your playlist?

Iron + Wine, Neon Trees, Sparkle Horse

What is your favorite weekend activity?

Not laundry

Are there any movies you’ve watched more than 5 times?

Sound of Music

What was the first concert you ever attended? Or the last?

First: Sting. Last: Reverened Horton Heat

What is your favorite show or event to watch?

Fringe

What’s your favorite DC hangout?

The NASA OCIO Swing Space

What is your favorite piece of consumer technology?

I’ll admit it, I’m an iPhone app hoarder! I can’t help myself.

Anthony Calabrese

Title: Web Manager, Healthcare.gov

Agency: Department of Health & Human Services

What’s on your playlist?

Florence and the Machine, Foster the People, Bob Marley, DJ Shadow, Vampire Weeherd, La Roux, Ellie Goulding, Otis Redding

What is your favorite weekend activity?

Going on long walks with our new dog, Duncan.

Are there any movies you’ve watched more than 5 times?

Usual Suspects, Ghostbusters, Karate Kid, The Matrix, Underworld

What was the first concert you ever attended? Or the last?

First: Nine Inch Nails. Last: DJ Craze

What is your favorite show or event to watch?

How I Met Your Mother, Election Results

What’s your favorite DC hangout?

The Diner, The Four P’s (RIP), Liberty Tree (H St.)

What is your favorite piece of consumer technology?

The iPhone, hands down. And iPad

Former ARPA-E director heading to Google

Arun Majumdar, most recently the director of the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy, has joined Google to lead its energy strategy.

“One of the world’s biggest challenges is bringing reliable, sustainable and affordable energy to everyone,” said Matthew Stepka, vice president of Google.org. “We need a new energy blueprint for the future—the latest advances in technology have the potential to bring us closer to that goal than ever before.

Majumdar’s bio:

Dr. Arun Majumdar served as the first Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), the country’s only agency devoted to transformational energy research and development, from October 2009 to June 2012. In addition, he served as the Acting Under Secretary of Energy.

Prior to joining ARPA-E, Dr. Majumdar was the Associate Laboratory Director for Energy and Environment at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. His highly distinguished research career includes the science and engineering of energy conversion, transport, and storage ranging from molecular and nanoscale level to large energy systems. In 2005, Dr. Majumdar was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for this pioneering work.

At Berkeley Labs and UC Berkeley, Dr. Majumdar helped shape several strategic initiatives in the areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and energy storage. He also testified before Congress on how to reduce energy consumption in buildings. Dr. Majumdar has also served on the advisory committee of the National Science Foundation’s engineering directorate, was a member of the advisory council to the materials sciences and engineering division of the Department of Energy’s Basic Energy Sciences, and was an advisor on nanotechnology to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Additionally, Dr. Majumdar has served as an advisor to startup companies and venture capital firms in the Silicon Valley.

He received his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay in 1985 and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989.

Gangnam NASA style

NASA’s new “Gangnam Style” parody is out of this world.

A group of students at NASA Johnson Space Center has done its own parody of the popular pop song from Korean entertainer Psy, mimicking the star’s dance moves as well as altering the lyrics in their version titled “NASA Johnson Style.”

The parody has already received nearly 800,000 views on YouTube as of Monday afternoon and includes cameos from astronauts Mike Massimino and Clayton Anderson.

5 highlights from CIO Council digital privacy controls strategy

The federal Chief Information Officers Council released new recommendations on Friday for how the government can standardize digital privacy controls.

The strategy, “Recommendations for Standardized Digital Privacy Controls,” recognizes that federal agencies must adopt strong privacy, confidentiality and security safeguards to prevent the improper use of personally identifiable information when developing and delivering digital services and programs.

Below we look at five key points made in the strategy:

1. A secure data-centric approach: Requires that federal agencies move from simply managing documents to a more data-centric approach that emphasizes discrete pieces of open data and content. It also calls for agencies to adopt a more customer-centric approach to digital services by presenting data through many different delivery modes.

With that said, these approaches cannot come at the expense of privacy and security. In order to enable the most open and flexible use of data, federal agencies must identify and address privacy issues and risks at the earliest stages of developing digital services and programs “well before” data about individuals are collected, used, retained or disclosed.

2. Create a digital personal identifiable information inventory: Instead of just having a PII inventory of existing PII holdings, agencies should – as part of the privacy risk management process – create a catalog of prospective PII inventory. Doing so early in the privacy impact assessment process will help agencies avoid unanticipated privacy risks later, the strategy says.

The strategy also says that no PII inventory or catalog can be complete without a sufficiently broad understanding of what personal information should be considered identifiable.

For example, a common misconception is that PII only includes data that can be used to directly identify or contact an individual (e.g., name, e-mail address), or personal data that is especially sensitive (e.g., Social Security number, bank account number). Data elements that may not identify an individual directly (e.g., age, height, birth date) may nonetheless constitute PII if those data elements can be combined, with or without additional data, to identify an individual.

3. Agencies need digital privacy impact assessment plans: A PIA analyzes how information will be handled to ensure such handling conforms to requirements regarding privacy, to determine the risks and effects of disseminating such information and to examine and evaluate protections and alternative processes for handling the information to mitigate potential privacy risks.

The PIA process must be documented and must explain:

• what PII will be collected, maintained, or disseminated, including the nature and source of the data;
• why the PII is being collected (i.e., purpose);
• intended use or uses of the PII;
• with whom the information will be shared or disclosed;
• options and methods for individuals to exercise choice or give consent for collection or use;
• how the PII will be secured; and
• whether a system of records is being created under the Privacy Act of 1974.

4. Agencies must give notice: Federal agencies are required by law give notice to individuals, when collecting information from them, of the authority, purpose, and uses of PII when such data will be maintained as agency records that will be retrieved by individual name or other identifier.

When agencies use a website to collect or share data, they must post a privacy policy, as required by Section 208 of the E-Gov Act and Office of Management and Budget guidance. Additional privacy notice requirements may apply, depending on other factors such as what digital technology or platform is being used. For example, agencies must give notice when using social media or other third-party sites or applications to communicate with the public if PII will be available to the agency.

5. What agencies can expect: By adopting the recommended best practices outlined in this document, agencies should be better able to:

• identify and account for such data (i.e., PII inventory);
• analyze and address the privacy and security risks that may be associated with such data (i.e., PIA); and
• provide individuals with the knowledge, assurance, and trust that their data will be collected, maintained, used and shared in a manner consistent with their expectations (i.e., privacy notice).

Agencies should always address and resolve these issues early in the planning and design of their digital services and programs. This approach is more likely to achieve the strategy’s goal of a data- and customer-centric approach to digital data and content with greater speed, efficiency and effectiveness.

Fed petition for Christmas Eve off reaches milestone

With just a week to spare, a petition on “We the People” calling for federal employees to get Christmas Eve off has reached the White House’s threshold for getting an official response.

The petition passed 25,000 signatures on Monday, the amount needed for an answer from the White House. However, the White House has up to 30 days to respond to the petition once it hits the milestone, so there is no guarantee those wanting next Monday off will get an official answer in time.

As it stands now, Christmas Eve falls on a Monday and is not an official federal government holiday, so employees would either need to work or use a vacation day. The petition urges President Obama to issue an executive order.

“Federal employees have had a pay freeze for the past several years and the pay and benefits for the federal workforce have been under serious attack during the national elections held this year,” the petition states. “Giving federal employees an extra holiday on December 24th, 2012 would be a good gesture to improve morale of the federal workforce.”

FedMentor of the week: Neal Ziring

Neal Ziring, technical directorate, Information Assurance Directorate, National Security Agency, is our FedMentor of the week!

CIO Council releases digital privacy controls report

In the latest Digital Government Strategy milestone, the federal Chief Information Officers Council on Friday released new recommendations for how the government can standardize digital privacy controls.

The strategy, “Recommendations for Standardized Digital Privacy Controls,” recognizes that federal agencies must adopt strong privacy, confidentiality and security safeguards to prevent the improper collection, use, retention or disclosure of personally identifiable information when developing and delivering such digital services and programs, the council said.

The council said that services and programs that incorporate digital content, platforms, mobile applications, application programming interfaces and other new and emerging technologies must be designed to foster trust, accountability and transparency in how personal information is collected and distributed.

Full report

Recommendations for Standardized Implementation of Privacy Controls

FedScoop 50 Q&A: Hancher, Kostin, Perry

During the FedScoop 50 Awards reception, FedScoop passed out a fun questionnaire to award winners and nominees to get to know them better outside of the office. Below we’ve compiled some of their answers for your enjoyment.

Kim Hancher

Title: CIO

Agency: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

What’s on your playlist?

Jesse Cook, Donna Summer, Eric Clapton

What is your favorite weekend activity?

Playing tennis with my darling Dennis

What was the first concert you ever attended?

Doobie Bros in 1975 with DHS Tech Stat Manager Chris Emery.

What’s your favorite DC hangout?

FDR Memorial

What is your favorite piece of consumer technology?

Galaxy Tab

Matthew E. Perry

Title: CIO

Agency: Office of Personnel Management

What was the first award you ever won?

Cub Scout Pineword Derby

What is your favorite weekend activity?

Wine tasting

Are there any movies you’ve watched more than 5 times?

Rudy

What was the first concert you ever attended? Or the last?

Three Dog Nite, Elton John

What is you favorite show or event to watch?

NCIS

What’s your favorite DC hangout?

Union Station

What is your favorite piece of consumer technology?

iPhone

Gwynne Kostin

Title: Director, Digital Services Innovation Center

Agency: Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies, General Services Administration

What was the first award you ever won?

This one! Or the debate trophy in high school!

What’s on your playlist?

Taylor Swift – Trouble (It meets dustup!)

What is your favorite weekend activity?

Going to Union Market for oxstins

Are there any movies you’ve watched more than 5 times?

Yes! Princess Bride, Ghostbusters, Gladiator

What was the first concert you ever attended?

ELO

What is you favorite show or event to watch?

Rugby

What’s your favorite DC hangout?

The view here at the Hay Adams!

What is your favorite piece of consumer technology?

My kids Xbox, movies and games (I watch!)

State Department creates American culture video game

The State Department is launching a video game aimed at helping young people around the world get a better understanding of American language and culture.

The game, called “Trace Effects,” targeted at players between ages 12 to 16, follows a college-aged student named Trace from the year 2045, who has accidentally traveled back in time to the present. It explores “themes related to entrepreneurship, community activism, empowering women, science and innovation, environmental conservation, and conflict resolution,” the State Department said.

It takes players across the United States, visiting cultural locations like Washington, D.C., New York, San Francisco, New Orleans and the midwest.

“In order to get home, he must complete a challenging mission to change the future for the better by helping six different young people accomplish great things and have a positive impact on the future,” said the State Department. “This innovative language learning video game will complement students’ classroom English language instruction through interactive 3-D multimedia learning adventures.”