Category Archives: Defense Department

Defense Department, Policy

I am not Paige Atkins

Despite the byline, the words in this story belong to Paige Atkins, director of the Defense Spectrum Organization. Despite several attempts to get someone to change the way the story looks online so that Paige’s words — which she spoke during an interview with me–are actually attributed to Paige, my byline is still on the story.

I got a chance after the interview to meet Ms. Atkins in person at the Software Radio Summit. She’s in the driver’s seat behind an ambitious vision for defense communications–dynamic spectrum management through the use of cognitive radio and other technologies to allow access to spectrum anywhere under any conditions. But I’ll let her tell you about it.

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Defense Department, People, Policy

On tap: Interviews with DISA's John Garing and Tony Montemarano

I’ll be meandering down to Arlington today to the Defense Information Systems Agency for an interview with DISA’s CIO, John Garing, and then will be speaking with DISA’s Component Acquisition Executive, Tony Montemarano. Topics on tap for Mr. Garing: cloud computing and DISA’s open-source initiative, Forge.mil. And I’ll be asking Mr. Montemarano about the focus of the new administration on “fixing” procurement, and how the innovations in acquisition programs started during Lt Gen Croom’s watch might be expanded or modified to meet the demands for better, faster, and cheaper acquisitions. I’m hoping to talk with him the “two-button” approach to Net-Centric Enterprise Services and the “third” button planned for the next iteration of the collaboration program; the “adopt” approach taken with NECC and DKO; and how those can be applied broadly to procurement at DISA.

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