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Government Procurement and International Standards: Past Successes and Uncertain Futures

Joanne Woytek, SEWP Program Manager, NASA

The Scientific and Engineering Workstation Procurement (SEWP) is the premier US Federal Government IT Procurement vehicle with annual purchases of over $600 million from all Government agencies. The first set of contracts were awarded over a decade ago. While much has changed in the IT industry, one of the main objectives of SEWP has remained the same: "to continue to minimize system incompatibilities across all computer classes and maximize portability and interoperability with both existing and future systems through established government and industry standards that form the basis of an "open systems" environment." An initial keystone to these standards was the OpenGroup's UNIX specification. With the increased use of Windows and the emergence of Linux along with other complex and varied "standards", this objective along with the role of standards groups has become less clearly defined in the Government Procurement arena. At the same time, there is an increased attempt to save money, fix security issues and provide for full interoperability by managements belief and hope that a standard IT system will solve all of our ills. From her perspective as the Technical Officer and Program Manager for the SEWP Program, Ms. Woytek will explore the past success of SEWP's use of IT standards, and the uncertainty of the direction and use of standards in future large procurements.

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