On July 16, 2013, during my confirmation hearing, I made a commitment to Chairman Tester, Ranking Member Portman, and members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs to work with my senior management team to create a plan for modernizing information technology (IT) at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) within 100 days of assuming office. I further c…
In this Recommendation, the expression "Administration" is used for conciseness to indicate both a telecommunication administration and a recognized operating agency. Compliance with this Recommendation is voluntary. However, the Recommendation may contain certain mandatory provisions (to ensure e.g. interoperability or applicability) and compliance with the Recommendation is achieved when …
The title, “Purposeful Engineering Economics,” was chosen to emphasize the importance of the intentions behind any economic action. To explain this idea adequately requires investigation well beyond engineering economics, per se. In fact, much of the narrative will range over a wide subject area to draw from works in sociology, philosophy, political economy, history, and even religion f…
There has been discussion of proposals to engage in the collection of traffic flow measurement information for monitoring and to support charging and accounting. Some suggest that network interconnection points, such as the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) connections between networks operated by administrations and operating agencies authorized by national governments, would be suitable points to…
A best practice is really any improvement over existing systems, though some consultants prefer to confine the definition to those few high-end and very advanced improvements that have been successfully installed by a few world- class companies. This book uses the broader definition of any improvement over existing systems, since the vast majority of companies are in no position, either in t…
What keeps corporate tax department executives up at night? How about the risk of signing off on an incorrect tax return? Or worse yet, what about a career-threatening, tax-related restatement? As corporate tax complexity increases, so does the risk of mistakes, penalties, and missed opportunities. For instance, 14 percent of U.S. firms reported material weakness or significant deficiency from …
The role of financing to support company strategies to introduce new products and processes in the economy has long been recognised as key. More than a hundred years ago, Joseph Schum peter pointed out the crucial function of banks in stimulating economic growth and innovation, as well as identifying and financing new investments in production. He also emphasised the differences between co…
The Hawaiian Islands are situated in the North Pacific Ocean and lie between longitudes 154° 40' and 160° 30' West, and latitudes 22° 16' and 18° 55' North. They are thus on the very edge of the tropics, but their position in mid-ocean and the prevalence of the northeast trade wind gives them a climate unequalled by any other portion of the globe—a perpetual summer without an enervating h…
Web Services made the web programmable. They enabled the developers to look at the Internet as a class library or an object model. Protocols like Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Representational State Transfer (REST), JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) and Plain Old XML (POX) fueled the growth of APIs on the web. Today every popular search engine, social networking site and syndi…
It is a matter of common observation that during the opening years of the twentieth century there has been, in many portions of the civilized world, a substantial quickening of interest in the principles and problems of human government. The United States is happily among those countries in which the phenomenon can be observed, and we have witnessed in recent times not only the organization of …
Traditionally, cost accounting is considered as the technique and process of ascertaining costs of a given thing. In sixties, the definition of cost accounting was modified as ‘the application of costing and cost accounting principles, methods and techniques to the science, art and practice of cost control and ascertainment of profitability of goods, or services’. It includes t…
AFTER an unequivocal experience of the inefficacy of the subsisting federal government, you are called upon to deliberate on a new Constitution for the United States of America. The subject speaks its own importance; comprehending in its consequences nothing less than the existence of the UNION, the safety and welfare of the parts of which it is composed, the fate of an empire in many respects …
The prolonged state of crisis in which the country has been kept by external war, while strengthening the ruling party by rallying even their enemies to their support, has had the other effects that a national crisis always has on the internal politics of a country. Methods of government which in normal times would no doubt be softened or disguised by ceremonial usage are used nakedly and justi…
The level of debate and confusion in many areas of our lives makes many things hard to see, yet also makes one thing perfectly clear. The intensity of debate and confusion are proof in them- selves that big changes are under way. We have arrived at what has been variously called a ‘‘tipping point’’ or an ‘‘inflection point’’ or a ‘‘perfect storm.’’ Tried-and-true formul…