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8/25/2009 - MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. (AFNS) -- The Air Force Information Technology Conference opened Aug. 24 in Montgomery, Ala., with keynote addresses from the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the Air Force chief of staff and the CEO of McAfee, Inc.

Collaboration emerged as a key theme in the opening day of the conference, which is now in its 26th year.

The modern warfighter has found "tremendous advantages in networking organizations," Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, told attendees, saying that the conference is a valuable tool in learning how to leverage information technology advantages, he said.

The event boasts more than 200 vendors, 120 seminars and 5,800 registered attendees.

"My hat is off to you in the information technology community," Gen. Norton Schwartz, Air Force chief of staff, said in his address. "You are key to how we concentrate our efforts and collaborate."

The IT backbone allows interconnectivity between advanced weapon and command and control systems, the general noted, maximizing effectiveness in air, space and cyberspace operations.

Professionals from across the government and private sectors will gather for the next three days to collaborate and share on the latest technology and its benefits for the Air Force and the Department of Defense as a whole.

"We're proud of the relationship we have with the Air Force," said Mr. David DeWalt, McAfee CEO and a keynote speaker. "We need to develop stronger threat intelligence. This relationship provides a great opportunity."

Collaboration was also on the mind of U.S. Representative Bobby Bright, the congressional representative from the 2nd District in Alabama, which includes the city of Montgomery.

"This is the ideal event to mesh small business and our military community together," said Mr. Bright, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee.

Mr. Bright welcomed the group to Alabama. The congressman, as well as Mr. John Caporal, deputy director of the Air Force's Small Business Programs, will speak to the small business forums taking place later in the week.

Conference forums and events support the conference theme, "The Warfighter's Edge in Battlespace," highlighting how information technology contributes to the joint fight.

The rapid evolution of the Air Force and the Department of Defense necessitates focus on three tenets, according to Richard Lombardi, the 554th Electronic Systems Wing director. These are rapid acquisition, operability at the core and the ability to fight through a cyber attack.

Winning, both on the battlefield and in cyberspace, requires the leveraging of a variety of cyber systems, General Cartwright said.

"In the art of war, where does (information technology) fit?" the nation's second highest ranking military officer asked.

And risk, though inevitable, cannot stop progress toward applying technology on the battlefield.

"Can we afford to step aside because there might be risk?" the general asked. "The answer is no."

The Department of Defense, in collaboration with private industry, must learn to find a balance between the vulnerabilities and advantages of technology, he said.

Conference attendees will have the opportunity to hear other keynote speakers on a variety of topics throughout the week, including Lt. Gen. William Lord, chief of warfighting integration and chief information officer for the Air Force, and Lt. Gen. Carroll Pollett, director of the Defense Information System Agency and commander, Joint Task Force-Global, Network Operations.

(Jessica Casserly contributed to this article)

Matt Chapman, Vice President & Information Technology Manager. (PRNewsFoto/Oxford Bank Corporation)

OXFORD, MI UNITED STATES




OXFORD, Mich., Aug. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Oxford Bank, a subsidiary of Oxford Bank Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: OXBC), announced today the appointment of Matt Chapman to vice president and information technology manager.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090825/DE65929 )

Mr. Chapman brings 12 years of experience in the technology field to his new position, including three years in senior-level management positions. Most recently, he served as the vice president of information systems for a community bank located in Fenton, Michigan. His new responsibilities will include the oversight of all IT operations; specifically the selection, design, implementation and support for all information and operating systems, computer hardware, data and voice communications, software applications and data processing.

A resident of Fenton, Michigan, Mr. Chapman holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer technology and information technology from Central Michigan University.

Oxford Bank Corporation is a registered holding company. Its subsidiary, Oxford Bank, is the oldest commercial bank in Oakland County, celebrating its 125th year in 2009. The Bank was recently voted the Best Bank in Oakland County by the readers of the Oakland Press and has earned the 1st Place Readers Choice for Best Bank by the readers of the Clarkston News (July, 2009), and Oxford Leader and the Lake Orion Review (December, 2008). It operates eight full-service offices in Clarkston, Davison, Dryden, Goodrich, Lake Orion, Oakland Township, Ortonville and Oxford, along with a consumer lending center in Oxford and a commercial banking office in Lake Orion. The Bank has operated continuously under local ownership and management since it first opened for business in 1884. For more information about Oxford Bank and its complete line of financial services, please visit www.oxfordbank.com.

The Healthcare Information Technology market in Southeast Asia, China, Japan and Australia (APAC) grew nearly 12 percent annually between 2005 and 2008, according to new data published by international research hub Frost & Sullivan.


Although the APAC HIT market represents currently only 2.1 percent of the total healthcare market worldwide, Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) estimates it grew to $5 billion in 2008. That’s a figure could double if not triple that in the next 10 years, the research firm contends.

And when that happens, these regions will see significant improvements in patient safety and efficiency – plus a reduction in adverse events caused by human error.

“The HIT is here to stay with even more ubiquitous presence in all aspects of healthcare delivery systems,” said Dr. Pawel Suwinski, a Frost & Sullivan senior consultant who covers the APAC market. “Moreover, it will be the main factor and driver in the transformation of healthcare industry towards translation care by providing common collaboration platform for information processing and exchange between related sciences and industries.”

In recent years, healthcare organizations have set aside substantially more money on computer technologies, Suwinski notes. In fact, the health-care industry is now one of the major consumers of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) products and services. As more APAC healthcare organizations upgrade their equipment and adopt new computer-based technologies, analysts say preventable human errors – those external and internal variables that can affect the quality of care – will drop off.

"Fifty percent of the medical practice activities can be controlled,” Suwinski says. “The remaining 50 percent depends solely on human judgment and cognitive functions that when unfavorable conditions are present could lead to substandard care.”

Frost & Sullivan noted that the implementation of HIT can improve the quality of care by providing up to 80 percent better control in the medical setting.

One caveat: While decreasing the legal risks of traditional medical practices, the use of HIT introduces legal implications. For example, a hospital might become the subject of corporate negligence action if they violate the standard of care (perhaps through inadequate oversight of staff physicians) by allowing an electronic health record or other technology to be used in such a way to cause harm to patients.

However, this kind of snafu can be avoided by taking proper preventative measures, Suwinski notes. These include as training staff to ensure efficient use of new systems, documenting all information thoroughly, and preventing alterations to records without proper documentation.

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There is a big scandal brewing at the Veterans Affairs Office. According to the VA's inspector general, $24 million in bonuses has been paid to thousands of technology office employees for the past two years. There are also allegations of nepotism in the technology office.

Bonuses to high-level VA employees for the past two years included sums of $73,000, $59,000 and $58,000. In all, 4,700 VA employees received a bonus in 2007. The average bonus was $2,500. A now-retired VA official, Jennifer S. Duncan, received $60,000 in bonuses herself and engaged in nepotism, claims the VA inspector general. Other VA employees, the report charges, paid college tuition for other employees.

Why are bonuses being handed out like candy at the VA? Bureaucrats playing around with taxpayers' money is, unfortunately, nothing new. However, what makes this particular corruption so outrageous is that while the VA has been tossing our tax dollars to each other, many veterans, including wounded ones seeking disability checks they earned on battlefields, have been left waiting for their checks.

The VA's technology office, where the alleged corruption has occurred, has been charged by President Barack Obama to improve its information technology so that a current backlog of disability checks can be eliminated. The administration wants checks to be issued seamlessly and without delay.

As we mentioned, so far that has not happened. Many disabled vets have been waiting months for their delayed checks. How disgusting that the VA office entrusted with helping our vets spent a considerable amount of energy handing money to each other.

This isn't the first time the VA has slapped obscenely large, unearned bonuses to employees. In 2006, VA employees received $3.8 million in bonus checks.

Apparently nothing was learned from that incident of greed. It is frustrating to witness so many cases of persons entrusted with our tax dollars spending recklessly or greedily filling their own coffers. Look at the health care debate, where Big Pharma fills pols' campaign coffers with hundreds of billions of dollars and wins such cost-busting concessions as long delays before super-expensive medications can go generic in the U.S.

Members of Congress have promised an investigation into the VA's latest financial shenanigans. We hope they do a thorough job and that it leads to the VA cleaning up its operations. A better emphasis on getting checks to vets and an end to bonuses would be a great start.

Aug 26, 2009 (M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) -- TC | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Las Vegas CRWENews.com reveals a stock highlight watch on NewMarket Technology, Inc. (Pinksheets:NWMT - News) and NewMarket Colombia, SAS, a wholly-owned foreign subsidiary headquartered in Bogota, Colombia, announced August 25, 2009 a three-year, $33 million outsourcing agreement with WBA (Wireless Broadband Access) Telecommunications, S.A. of Bogota, Colombia, under which WBA will outsource substantially all of its current operations to NewMarket Colombia. This is NewMarket's second major outsourcing agreement signed this year. NewMarket previously announced a similar agreement in Shanghai, China earlier this year. Approximately $25 million of NewMarket's $95 million in annual revenue reported in 2008 came from Latin America through the Company's operations in Brazil, Chile and Venezuela.
Thompson Creek Metals Company Inc. (TSX: TCM; NYSE: TC | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) (the "Company") announced August 25, 2009 that it has entered into an agreement with a syndicate of underwriters for a bought deal public offering of 15,500,000 common shares of the Company (the "Securities") at a price of C$14.00 per common share. The Company has also granted to the underwriters an over-allotment option, exercisable for a period of 30 days from the date of closing of the offering, to purchase up to an additional 2,325,000 Securities at the offering price.

SRA International, Inc. (NYSE: SRX), a leading provider of technology and strategic consulting services and solutions to government organizations and commercial clients, announced August 25, 2009 it has been awarded a task order by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Transportation Security Administration (TSA) under the EAGLE contract vehicle to monitor their information technology (IT) enterprise and assess IT security threats. The task order value is over $53 million, if all options are exercised, and will provide core primary and failover security operations center (SOC) services for up to five years.

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There is important news coming from NewMarket Technology, Inc. (PINKSHEETS: NWMT), as the company has just announced its second major outsourcing agreement signed this year. Yesterday after the markets closed, the company and NewMarket Colombia, SAS, a wholly-owned foreign subsidiary headquartered in Bogota, Colombia, announced a three-year, $33 million outsourcing agreement with WBA (Wireless Broadband Access) Telecommunications, S.A. of Bogota, Colombia, under which WBA will outsource substantially all of its current operations to NewMarket Colombia.

This is NewMarket's second major outsourcing agreement signed this year. NewMarket previously announced a similar agreement in Shanghai, China earlier this year. Approximately $25 million of NewMarket's $95 million in annual revenue reported in 2008 came from Latin America through the Company's operations in Brazil, Chile and Venezuela.

"We are excited to enter the Colombian market with WBA and expand our reach in Latin America," stated President of Managed Services, Bruce Noller. "We believe NewMarket's financial and operational resources combined with WBA's existing Information Technology and Telecommunications expertise can lead WBA to winning larger contracts with private and public clients."

Francisco Teran, President of WBA, stated, "We believe that because of NewMarket's track record of experience and presence in Latin America we will be able to offer an even greater array of services in Colombia and throughout the region."

The stock closed yesterday at Fifty Three cents a share.

For an in-depth profile of NewMarket Technology, visit http://www.wallstreetnewsalert.com/view-company-profiles.php?profile=NWMT_082409.
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Dell Inc (NASDAQ: DELL) down 1.4% on 26.1 million shares traded.

Dell Inc. listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services they trust and value.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) up 0.2% on 11.5 million shares traded.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications.

Market Commentary:

Oil News: U.S. crude oil dropped $2.32 to settle at $72.05 a barrel, down from a high of $75, in the biggest percentage loss since August 14. Brent crude dropped $2.44 to $71.82.

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MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The U.S. military must leverage information technology to deliver capabilities to the battlefield and needs to catch up with technology before the nation falls behind in cyberspace, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said here, Aug. 24.

Marine Corps Gen. James E. Cartwright shared his thoughts about cyberspace at the annual Air Force Information Technology Conference.

Most military capability has been built in reaction to known threats, the general said, but information technology can change that by providing processing power and storage that allow more comprehensive predictive analysis to the battlefield.

Cartwright compared manned fighter jets to unmanned systems, admittedly hitting close to home for the audience of airmen. "A fighter has -- among other things -- radar, and it carries bombs and missiles," he said. "The radar detects a target and feeds the information to the bomb or missile. It hits the target, and everything else that was detected or known by that platform is thrown away.

"If the enemy changes the target or affects the detection," he continued, "the platform is unusable, and we don't know what happened for several series of sorties, and events and days and weeks and months. Then, when it's time to change [the aircraft] because we've figured out what the adversary's doing, an upgrade can usually take years, because we want to make sure we're doing it perfectly the first time. Meanwhile, the enemy has moved on."

On the other hand, Cartwright noted, an unmanned aircraft system ""collects everything, records everything, and saves everything or [sends] it down to the ground."

Compared to a fighter, the unmanned aircraft system is more energy-efficient and can spend more time on station, and its information processing and storage capabilities can "fundamentally change what you don't know about the enemy," the general said.

The growth of information technology is so rapid that the military faces a huge challenge with procurement timelines that take two years to design a platform, three years to manufacture it and another year to field it, Cartwright said. This requires a change in the military's culture, he added.

"There are no laws against moving faster," he said. "There are policies against moving faster -- policies we wrote. Policies are things we can control, if we can move the culture with us."

Cartwright said that the shift in culture and policy requires leaders to be willing to accept some risk. He cited National Military Command Center in the Pentagon as an example. For decades, he said, the center relied solely on secure voice communications to reach key military and government decision makers during crises, because policy prevented the use of other communication methods. In July 2006, North Korea test-launched long- and short-range missiles, and thunderstorms in Washington caused the secure voice communications to fail.

"Decisions are made much quicker, and they are much better informed, when information can be exchanged visually and digitally," Cartwright said, "but we have policies against it because we don't want to risk that system being compromised. But our voice and circuit-based systems have vulnerabilities, too. Everything has vulnerabilities. The question is, how do you balance the risk and the advantage, and how do you keep moving in that environment, because it is never static?

"You have a thinking adversary who's going to try to outwit you; who's going to try to take away your leverage. "That's war. That's the business we're in," he continued. "So eliminating all possibility of failure is [impossible]. You get paid to work in those environments of ambiguity and diversity. You have to have fallback systems. But the resilience of networks far [outweighs] the resilience of circuit-based systems."

Cartwright challenged the audience to consider first how information technology can help to prevent and deter warfare, but also how it can ensure that no matter what happens in warfare, the United States will win.

"These are the things I expect from you, as officers, as [military] leaders and as industry leaders: that you lead through change and find the competitive advantage for this nation and for our military," he said. "It's absolutely essential."