Today the House of Representatives today voted in favor by 290-131, the approved H.R. 1722, the Telework Improvements Act. In summary the bill is:

To improve teleworking in executive agencies by developing a telework program
that allows employees to telework at least 20 percent of the hours
worked in every 2 administrative workweeks, and for other purposes.

Federal News Radio covered the news of the bill passing on the DorobekInsider earlier today.

Picture by Stubacca

At Navstar, we pride ourselves on being a Green IT services provider, including allowing our employees to telework when possible. With the advent of social media servicing Enterprise 2.0 solutions and methodology — work should be able to be done from any where at any time. And the House of Representatives appears to acknowledge this as a vital part of the advancement of our Federal Government employees being able to work from home if the supervisor approves.

Location being an independent factor now, this is where Navstar can come in and help Government agencies by training and establishing processes on how to work with the rest of your team or project. We offer services that help make telecommuting a real possibility with everything to virtual servers and software to VPN from a location outside of the office.

Telework solutions for your Agency falls under our Green IT and Enterprise 2.0 divisions. We are not just a (Washington DC) beltway bound company. Our solutions are independent of location and so are we. It doesn’t matter if you are in DC or LA, Reston or San Francisco, we can help. Give us a call today at 703-880-1500 or email us at info@navstar-inc.com to ask about our solutions to fit your agencies needs.

Once again Navstar makes the business magazine’s list. Navstar moves up to #18 on Washington Business Journal’s Small Technology Business List.  Last year we ranked #23.

(published in this week’s edition of the Washington Business Journal) WashBus_Small_Technology_Company_2010

Congratulations to everyone in the company in yet another successful year with many more to come.

If you feel like this position is for you, please respond ASAP. If you know anyone who might be interested, please forward.

Our customer is looking for a true Scrum Master. This is a full time consultant position with Navstar, Inc. You will fall under my division of Enterprise 2.0. If you would like to apply, please send your resume to abaker@navstar-inc.com.

Duties: Provides a total systems perspective including a technical understanding of relationships, dependencies and requirements of hardware and software components for a project. Must be knowledgeable in computer systems and gathering/identifying requirements. Must be knowledgeable in life-cycle support, including maintenance, administration, and management. Creates, drafts and/or reviews program documentation, generates formal review documentation, and participates in system and program reviews. Reviews program plans, identifies inconsistencies. Coordinates, supports and participates in program meetings and reviews.

Assists in the evaluation of software and associated documentation. Participates in formal and informal reviews to determine quality. Must be able to track project studies, plans, actions items, take minutes, etc. Provides frequent contact with customers, trace ability within program documents, and the overall computing environment and architecture. Manages/updates the master schedule. Ensures coordination and information flow occur between all programs and organizational managers.

Description of On-site duties: Passionate SI/Scrum Master/Development Manager needed to serve as Scrum Master to provide collaboration, facilitation, and leadership skills supporting the development of innovative software application. Individual will be responsible for enforcing the rules of Scrum, removing impediments from their team while promoting self-management and constantly improving standards of work. Must be “self-motivated” and capable of managing multiple priorities and tasks as delegated. Serve as liaison between technical and non-technical departments. Communicate with other management, developers, product managers and technical support specialists on product issues.

Must be a “team-player” with the ability to work within a collaborative environments. Support the product development process. Organize and facilitate project planning, daily stand-up meetings, reviews, retrospectives, sprint and release planning, demos and other Scrum-related meetings. Track and communicate team velocity and sprint/release progress. Maintain process documentation. Ensure the development teams are practicing the core agile principles of collaboration, prioritization, team accountability, and visibility. Support the Product Owner. Assist as needed with backlog maintenance. Assist with internal and external communication, improving transparency, and radiating information. Assist with prioritization and resolution of defects/bugs. Support the Product Team. Assist team with making appropriate commitments through story selection, task definition. Participate proactively in developing and maintaining team standards, tools, and best practices. Identify and remove impediments, prevents distractions. Facilitate discussion and conflict resolution. Empower the team to self-organize.

Pager Duty = NO!

Weekend or Shift work = Possible.

Strong project management background, interpersonal skills, communications skills, and experience with full system development life-cycle. Familiarity with Agile methodologies, particularly Scrum. Demonstrated ability to provide innovative ideas and solutions to project management and team building in order to get the job done. Must have a positive and proactive attitude with demonstrated initiative.

Location: Reston, VA with travel to Mclean, VA

Navstar is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, disability, age, military or veteran status, and other characteristics protected under federal, state and local law.

Our company has grown from a Staff Augmentation firm to the robust teams in Enterprise 2.0 and Enterprise Architecture leadership in Government. We have been active not only in the community when it comes to Social Media and Technology, but cognizant of our friends and families by supporting causes we care about and going green.

As we have come to this milestone (Monday 4/12 – was the official date of the Anniversary), we will be celebrating on this wonderful day and doing something a little Social Media related. We will be participating in Foursquare Day. Since 16 is 4 squared and we LOVE social media we figured why not make our party an official 4sq day event for our employees.

What is the hashtag?

• Please use #4sqday and #navstar as the hashtags if you come to visit and check in on Foursquare!

What is in it for me? Is there an official badge?

Fun.  Foursquare has not announced a badge for the day itself yet, but you can very likely get your swarm badge — we are hoping we will get one for our event.

Complexity leads to errors. The more complex a system is, the more likely it is to have errors. This is the root of the problem with computer security. The more functionality our systems have, the more difficult it is to defend them.

We now see the affects of complexity in systems with underlying (embedded) computers. An example of this is the Toyota Prius, which is having brake issues due to software related issues. A few years ago it would have been difficult to imagine a software issue affecting the brake system of a car. Now it is a reality, and the future is not looking much better. As more and more complexity is introduced into our devices, errors are more likely to occur.

Another example of this trend is found in our newest computing platform, the smart phone. As a new Droid user I am fascinated by the amount of functionality and computing power available from my phone. I downloaded several applications and started experimenting. After few days of this “download and play” activity, my phone started locking up. It was at that point that I realized that there was a significant amount of risk in what I was doing. Is security an issue on my phone? The short answer, of course it is! Both the iPhone and Android based phones have had security issues. Complexity is the nemesis of security.

Turning our attention to our IT Enterprises, the complexity is immediately apparent. The complexity of a smart phone is dwarfed by the complexity of our IT Enterprises; therefore, the likely hood of a security issue is much higher. In fact, I would go as far as to say that there is a security issue in your IT environment right now (mine too of course).

So what should we do? Panic, and then realize that there is no way to make it completely safe without removing the network cables (and WiFi, USB, CD-RW, floppy drives, etc.)! No, our world is not safe, and that is just the way it is. There is nothing you can do…

OK, we now see the reality of it, what do we do? In the early days of computer security there was the concept of the hard shell, soft center. Basically this concept was our firewalls form a shell around us, but inside things are not protected. Our connections to the “evil Internet” where all the hackers live are protected by firewalls. We also created DMZ’s (De-Militarized Zones) for our less trusted assets like web servers because these are the systems that the hackers are going to get. Security problem solved, right? Wrong.

The hard shell, gooey center concept failed long ago. The enemy is no longer at the gate, he is in the castle. Now we need to further divide our systems into zones, and levels, and enclaves. Done? Nope.

We must also limit access to the networks and services within our enterprise. The “ultimate” goal is to limit access to only what the user needs. Consider this, the Sasser worm, which exploited a vulnerability Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS) in Windows, rapidly speared though several enterprise environments. The interesting aspect of this worm, and others like it, is that it relied on the ability to communicate with other computers on the network. In large Windows workstation environments, the worm quickly spread from workstation to workstation. Usually our workstation environments are connected to a single network (or VLAN) without any limitations. But why would one workstation need to communicate to another workstations? The answer, to spread a virus. If we limited workstation communications with local firewalls or private VLAN, most worms would fail.

The solution is complex and difficult to manage. Security is required at every level; networks, servers, workstations, applications, and our Internet boarders. Perfect security is an unattainable goal. Instead, we must do what we can, within our constraints, to protect what is important. To maximize the return on these efforts, I suggest that we focus on the critical data sets and services, working from the assumption that the enemy is in the castle. Yes, maintain the moat and keep the gate closed, but we must also lock the doors to the treasury and put a couple of guards in the hallway.

Recently Navstar’s new digs in Reston and our CEO Joanna Alexis were featured in the most recent Bisnow Fed Tech Newsletter.

The feature includes:

What’s a great way for the government to save money? Not fixed price contracts, says NavStar CEO (and founder) Joanna Alexis. When we met in her Reston office, she offered tips to protect taxpayer wallets and help small business.

She says small businesses with cost effective solutions don’t have a chance to save the government money because procurement just takes too long. “Sadly, having a woman-owned designated business status doesn’t help win business. I’ve had to walk away from deals because of the lengthy procurement process. Adapting to a more commercial-like procurement would save time and money.”

Indre, Joanna, and Corinne of Navstar

Admit it—after seeing this, you want to go work for NavStar (which is looking to hire a director of ops). That’s Joanna with Indre Bauza and Corinne Combeau. The company started in 1999 as an IT staffing firm, but four years ago transitioned into an IT subcontractor and teaming partner to large government primes. One cool project: supporting Treasury on a program that monitors and reports on the bank transactions of known bad guys. Back home, Joanna just adopted her fourth dog, enjoys investing in real estate, and will skim the occasional celebrity magazine: “Hang in there, Sandra Bullock!”

Join Navstar and our employees in participating in Earth Hour on Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 8:30 p.m. local time,  where ever you are.  Navstar will have its doors closed during Earth Hour as it is outside our normal business hours, but our staff and employees believe in our mission of Green IT and a Greener Earth and Home.

From the My Earth Hour Website:

On Earth Hour hundreds of millions of people, organizations, corporations and governments around the world will come together to make a bold statement about their concern for climate change by doing something quite simple—turning off their lights for one hour. In the U.S. where we are already feeling the impacts of climate change, Earth Hour sends a clear message that Americans care about this issue and want to turn the lights out on dirty air, dangerous dependency on foreign oil and costly climate change impacts, and make the switch to cleaner air, a strong economic future and a more secure nation.

Participation is easy. By flipping off your lights on March 27th at 8:30 p.m. local time you will be making the switch to a cleaner, more secure nation and prosperous America.

Personally last year, my family observed in our homes by turning off the lights as dusk turned to night. Not only did we keep the lights off for an hour, but we decided to keep them off lighting some candles and chatting with one another around the flickering lights. It was a great way to reconnect with each other as humans on a non-tech level, face to face, with no or little carbon footprint.

Consider joining us tomorrow night and reconnect with your family, friends, or neighbors by flipping your switch. If you wish you participate, let us and the good people at Earth Hour know you will show you care about a green future for our planet by signing up at https://www.myearthhour.org/home?invite=MCGqPqVu34

Thank you

The Navstar Family

Zero Waste: the consumer who never throws anything away; the industry focus on diverting trash away from landfills to be reused as a consumer product; a complete life cycle for products.

This year Navstar is building its presence at SXSW 2010 with its Director for Green IT, Steven Mandzik, giving a talk on Zero Waste. It is considered an intimate “core conversation” and gives everyone a chance to talk and learn.

The discussion will be catered towards five areas of focus:

• Innovation
• Global Warming
• Green Technology
• Zero Waste
• Local Austin

Navstar is proud to support the Zero Waste effort and use the opportunity to bring its work on Green IT to all the SXSW attendees. Green IT is a total solutions product that offers IT departments a way to reduce energy costs, improve their environmental record, and in doing so improve the reliability and quality of their IT services.

Now, a little more on each focus area with link resources:

Innovation

• Wind – DOE of energy report on the goal of 20% wind power by 2030, includes a diagram showing the increasing size and capability of wind turbines. Summary of the year in Wind Power 2009.
• Solar – Third generation Solar focuses on low cost and high efficiency.
• Compost – there are automatic composters, indoor easy-to-use and cheap worm composters, and large bin outdoor compost bins that you can create or purchase.
• Sustainable Farming, Fair Trade, Life Cycle Manufacturing, Reduce/Reuse Markets like Buffalo Exchange

Global Warming

• Direct/Indirect Global Warming. Not many know this but some areas may not feel global warming at all. These are the drier and warmer places on the planet. I call this indirect global warming. While other places will feel direct global warming, although it may be global cooling as well. Just something to think about as we try to help everyone understand this concept. Not everyone will be experiencing the same weather changes, or none at all.
• COP15 was a big deal in 2009 because Obama was in office and that meant a new chess board for world leaders to play on. He announced early that he would be attending and stated his desire for a treaty. Still don’t overlook that the 15 in COP15 stands for the fifteenth meeting world leaders have had, with number 16 occurring this December in Mexico. Global Warming is a process and its going to take probably another 15 meetings before we all understand the issue and know what to do.
  • I was very upset when mass media failed to mention this and sold the event as a winner-take-all failure. When really a treaty was signed to save the world’s forests (no small thing) and several billion dollar investment funds were created (put capitalism to work on this).
• Climate Refugees (documentary film) is another term you’re going to hear a lot more of. Technically the Africans in Darfur are global refugees. Any region that fails to sustain its people because the weather has changed so drastically will soon be forced upon the world. There are several island nations that are only a foot above sea level which are already facing this trouble.
• Man-Made Debate is for all those skeptics out there. Really no one who has looked into this disputes that global warming is happening. They have stopped doing that. Now the major dispute is over whether it is man-made or “natural”.

Green Technology – (electric cars, million dollar MRFs, fuel cells)

So much to talk about here and a lot covered under innovation, so I will just touch on two of my favorite:

• MRFs, pronounced Merve’s by those in the biz, are Material Recovering Facilities. These uber recycling facilities exist in every city in America and are high tech, clean, and well run. They have these Rube Goldberg machines that cost millions of dollars and sort our trash into various types. Which are then bundled by more machines, loaded onto trucks, and sold on the open market. They have folks in space suits sorting the really complicated stuff. Trucks, bulldozers, separate facilities for the really toxic stuff. Absolutely fascinating to visit.
• Fuel Cells are not dead yet, just read this post on Bloom Servers to see why.

Zero Waste & Austin

I thought it fitting to end this post on Zero Waste by highlighting a city making it happen. Austin, TX, passed a zero waste ordinance in January 2009. I have to admit that I love presenting on Zero Waste in a city also trying to make it happen. Check out the city webpage on the program and contact us to learn more.

http://www.wordle.net/. Images of Wordles are licensed Creative Commons License.

]]> http://navstar-inc.com/picture-enterprise-2-0/feed/ 0 http://navstar-inc.com/the-metanet/ http://navstar-inc.com/the-metanet/#comments Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:50:48 +0000 Rachel Winchester http://navstar-inc.com/?p=907

Internet watchers, particularly business types involved in marketing, have been predicting that the Internet will become more tribal and it becomes more pervasive. The parallel might be the rise of Industrial Age cities: people left their local communities and moved to big anonymous cities, but then the cities got so big that people organically developed boroughs, gangs, neighborhoods, etc. The social internet of the old usenet days is the pre-city world; Facebook and Twitter represent the megalapolises. And now we the citizenry are self-organizing into tribes.

Tyler Newton thinks this will happen now, in 2010:

The tribal Internet–Social networking and Internet content will evolve into networks of sites and information streams focused around common interests. Whether it’s for work, hobbies or issue advocacy, interest groups will form virtual “tribes” online, sharing content, ideas, opinions, advice and information among themselves. Magazines, blogs, e-mail newsletters and video content are already interlinked and shared and promoted via RSS feeds and social networks like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Because these tribes are built around natural affinities, in many ways they will have a more powerful hold on us than our existing groups based on schools and location. Marketers will not be successful with old-fashioned advertising that interrupts this flow of content. Successful marketers will be those that are able to join and gain the trust of the tribes, where people WANT to receive the marketing message.

You know how billboards are different depending on what part of the city you’re in? You’ll see that with tribal-based marketing. But aside from marketing, what does the tribal internet mean?

Organic Organization. Information will organize itself around the tribal centers that produce and consume it. If you want to find out about Iranian politics, you’ll go to the Iranian dissident tribe. This has been the case for a while, but it will become more explicit and become the shared understanding of the internet denizens. This should make it easier to find information and sort the wheat from the chaff; something’s going to need to.

Working Topically. Wikipedia and the USG’s Intellipedia have long been proponents of this. Rather than organizing information by, oh, which academic institution did the study, which journal published it, or which author wrote it, the pedias organize information by its topic and let you see the sources of the data. Mainstream journalism has been opposed to this, since their bread-and-butter is getting people to go to them, the source, and take what info they provide. With the decline of that business model, a few traditional media outlets are partnering with Google on the Living Stories project, which provides the news topically, the way tribes want it.

Metanet. The population of the internet has hit the point where we can no longer lump everything and everyone together as “the Internet.” There’s the internet of things, as more and more devices come online of their own accord, and more and more sensors are added. There’s the cloud, where data is stored and processed, there’s the commerce internet, there are the walled gardens of intranets and private instances, and there’s social media, now the main way people interact with the internet. I’m starting to call these the metanet, the macronet, the micronet, and the me net. Just like you travel a city differently if you are considering its architecture and structure, if you are attending class or doing business, if you’re shopping, if you’re having a private club meeting, or if you are going out with friends, you’ll engage with the internet differently. Transitions from one net to another will usually be transparent, but just like going through an airport or into a government building, there will be areas where you will still have to show your creds and leave a lot of your gear behind.