|
|
 |
|
|
| |
|
January 28, 2010
|
|
| |
| |
 |
| |
|
STATE OF CONTRACTING
|
|
| |
| “We don’t think the sky is falling,” PSC CEO Stan Soloway told us this morning following President Obama’s call to freeze all non-national security federal discretionary spending for three years. |
| |
 |
|
Stan says the freeze was expected based on OMB’s last mid-session review, but the real impact will come Monday when Obama submits his FY11 budget—the key being the out-year spending. He says the freeze will have an impact, but it will be hard to tell how much. One indicator will be how the government goes about the freeze: “If they do it like a company, they’ll scrub away failing programs to free up money.” That would be in contradiction to the freeze in the Reagan years that was more of an “across the board salami slicing.”
|
|
|
|
| RECESSION SURVIVORS |
| |
 |
|
This morning, we were at Northrop’s McLean office for an NVTC event featuring five companies that grew significantly during the recession. Here’s DB Consulting Group CEO Gerald Boyd and INPUT CEO Tim Dowd. Gerald says his company was transitioning from an 8(a) to a small business, and he realized the biz dev team that helped him at 8(a) wasn’t the one to take him forward: “I needed individuals who understood that market.”
|
|
|
 |
|
DRS Technologies prez Mitch Rambler, Criterion Systems CEO Promod Sharma, and Intekras CEO Charles Williams, who says he got his company through the downturn by refocusing business away from the commercial sector anda toward cyber security: “We had to find our niche.
|
|
|
|
|
YESTERDAY'S DATA.GOV UPDATE
|
| |
 |
|
EPA Geospatial Information Officer Jerry Johnston spoke at IAC’s Membership Meeting yesterday at the Fairview Park Marriott. He says Data.gov, brainchild of Federal CIO Vivek Kundra, has gotten 25 million hits since it’s launch, 92% of which have been handled by the cloud. A fun part of Data.gov: Users can rate how good a data set is on a scale of one to five stars (kind of like Netflix, except the government doesn’t keep insisting we'd like Revolutionary Road).
|
|
|
|
| iPAD! |
| |
 |
|
Here’s Mobomo founder Barg Upender looking at an early prototype of the iPad (or maybe it's a cutting board). We’ll close with his thoughts on the new toy:
- The larger screen size presents many new opportunities to innovate on the user interface and experience. He expects to pursue and see some really creative uses of the larger screen from the development community.
- There can be significantly more work to maintain an optimal experience between iPhone and iPad apps, but the larger audience and exposure can be worth the effort.
- Apple is staying focused on the consumer market because it's their moneymaker. By keeping the iPad simple and married to the App Store, they can control the experience and mostly focus on entertainment (media and games).
- While there's more to the iPad than being an e-reader, it is taking more direct aim at Amazon's Kindle and Barnes and Noble's Nook than many initially suspected (including showing a Kindle as a comparison during the presentation).
- The wireless data plan initially appears to be a great buy. But with the iPad still being a “third device” it may be too much with the higher upfront costs and other similar wireless/data plan expenses.
|
|
| UPCOMING EVENTS |
| |
|
February 24 - 25 - Southeast Venture Conference - Showcasing the southeast region's most promising emerging tech firms and providing unmatched exposure to top venture capitalists and private equity investors. 60+ high growth companies and 100+ venture funds - Tysons Ritz - Info
|
| |
| Send story ideas to techstories@bisnow.com |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
This newsletter is a journalistic news source which accepts no payment for featured interviews. It is supported by conventional advertisers clearly identified in the right hand column. You have been selected to receive it either through prior contact or professional association. If you have received it in error, please accept our apologies and unsubscribe below. © 2009, Bisnow on Business, Inc., 1323 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036. All rights reserved.
|
|
|
