Defense Innovation Board Presents Ideas to DoD
The Defense Innovation Board has made its recommendations to Pentagon officials as to how the Department of Defense (DoD) could help foster innovation, both in its culture and through its processes. Among the recommendations, the board suggested DoD create a Chief Innovation Officer, and to establish “a career track for computer scientists that will provide incentives for service members to specialize in computer science and programming fields.” The board also recommended all systems built for DoD should have their source code made available to DoD and give the department the rights to the code. “This is not about having the government own code, but being able to access code and being able to build code allows the government to do rapid bug fixes when that is the most expedient way to solve a problem,” said Milo Medin, vice president of access services at Google Capital.
DoD Wins Court Battle Over Information Disclosure
The Department of Defense (DoD) won an appeals court decision last week, meaning Sikorsky Aviation Corp.—a manufacturer of helicopters for DoD—will not be required to disclose its subcontracting plan. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled against advocacy group the American Small Business League (ASBL), saying that forcing Sikorsky to disclose its subcontracting plan would put it at a competitive disadvantage. ASBL claimed not disclosing it meant the helicopter maker could circumvent subcontracting goals.
GSA Wants to Consolidate Its Phone Service to One Contract
The General Services Administration (GSA) has issued a request for information (RFI) to move its local phone service to its Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions telecommunications contract vehicle. GSA issued a final request for proposal for the $50 billion contract vehicle in October. “The future model will retain most aspects of the current offering under the regional local service contracts,” the RFI said. “GSA will conduct fair opportunities, award task orders and manage regional telecom services on behalf of customer agencies.”