Information Systems

Information, Thomas L. Friedman informs us, is the new wealth. The old, traditional ways of acquiring wealth, such as land ownership and good old-fashioned hard work, are giving way to the economy of the modem -- and, more importantly, to the fastest modems, he says in his new book, "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, $26), a breathless run-through of globalization and its effects on us all. Get your information out there faster than anyone else, and you win.The game is open to just about anyone with a computer.

In Howard County this summer, rain isn't the only request on many people's wish list.For companies such as Magellan Behavioral Health, there is a shrinking pool of qualified high-technology professionals.Over the next six months, a Magellan official said, she expects about 80 of 400 information systems positions in its corporate headquarters in Columbia to be vacant."We're no different from any other employer," said Anita Gockel, Magellan's director of human resources for information systems technology and claims administration.

In Baltimore CityDisabled riders get poor service on MTA buses, protesters sayAbout 10 activists from the Maryland chapter of Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today demonstrated in front of Mass Transit Administration headquarters in Baltimore yesterday to express frustration with services for disabled riders.ADAPT's grievances include assertions that the fixed-route system is unreliable; that stops are not called out; and that buses are up to four hours late. The group says two-thirds of the buses are inaccessible to disabled riders.

Litton Industries Inc. expects to strengthen its manufacturing and engineering presence in Maryland as a result of yesterday's announced consolidation of divisions in College Park and San Jose, Calif., the company said.The designer of electronic, defense and information systems announced that it has merged its Amecom Division of College Park with the Applied Technology Division of San Jose to form Litton Advanced Systems.The new division, with about 800 workers, including 675 at three facilities in College Park, will be headquartered in College Park.

COMPUTERS have been a godsend, yet Anne Arundel County government, like many others in Maryland, is struggling to keep pace with the technology revolution.One county worker, whom I won't identify so she and her department won't be embarrassed, related a story to me two weeks ago.Earlier this month, she was asked if she would like a used IBM 486 -- the computer equivalent of a Model-T Ford -- to handle her paperwork and records.Jumping at a 486Even though most 486 machines have been consigned to the scrap heap, she jumped at the offer.

V-One Corp. has received federal approval to export much stronger computer-encryption systems than U.S. officials have allowed out of the country before.The small Rockville computer-security firm claims the approval is a watershed in the four-year battle over how much control the government should have to limit encryption in order to fight international crime and terrorism.V-One claims its system is the first one the government has approved for export that does not require system "keys" -- complicated algorithms that unravel the encryption codes -- to be placed on file with a third party, other than the computer's owner.

A unit of Lockheed Martin Corp. has formed an alliance with Information Resource Engineering Inc. of Baltimore to market Internet security systems, the companies said yesterday.Lockheed Martin's Information Systems & Technologies unit in King of Prussia, Pa., will offer IRE's SafeNet family of products in its electronic commerce systems.IS&T makes systems that allow online trade for telecommunications, finance, insurance, health care, banking and pharmaceutical businesses."Our marketing efforts have already identified significant customer opportunities for the combination of IRE's comprehensive SafeNet product family and IS&T's extensive systems integration capabilities,` said Raymond Delaney, vice president of Lockheed Martin IS&T.

UMBC lost a basketball player and honor student when Matt Skalsky died Monday. But Eric Hayes lost a lot more.Hayes lost a good friend.The UMBC junior guard, a team captain and Skalsky's roommate, was home in Tampa, Fla., when his father received a call from UMBC basketball coach Tom Sullivan."

THE BIG QUESTION for the new city-state education partnership is: Now what? If approved by the General Assembly, the city receives $50 million a year in additional state aid, and the state gets a major role in school policy-making.But that's the easy part. What's elusive, as other urban school systems undergoing radical restructuring have found out, are reform policies that improve the academic performance of low-achieving students.Here is a top-10 list of policies for the new board's consideration.

Claiming he was defamed by allegations that he accepted kickbacks, the former supervisor of the Baltimore public schools' computer department filed a $5 million lawsuit yesterday against the school system and the man who now has his job.Terry Laster, who was director of management information systems for the city schools until September, alleged in the suit filed in Baltimore City Circuit Court that Craig S. Richburg, who now supervises the school system's...

Mark Alan Kusiak, vice president of General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems in Herndon, Va., and an avid bicyclist, died of brain trauma Monday at George Washington University Hospital in Washington. The former Brooklyn resident was 45. "He was found injured on Sept. 13 on the grounds of the Washington Monument after a biking accident," said his father, Clement F. Kusiak of Linthicum. "The medical examiner ruled Mark's death an accident. Based on information from an observer, he said he fell from his bike after hitting a curb."

Lockheed Martin, one of Baltimore County's larger employers, officially opened its sixth facility Monday in Woodlawn and announced plans to add 160 information technology jobs to a work force that exceeds 1,500. The company's Information Systems & Global Services division has refurbished and rewired a nearly 42,000-square-foot brick building on Woodlawn Drive near the Social Security Administration complex. In the past year, the company has hired about 200 employees in its efforts to provide a wide variety of services to SSA, which is continuing modernization efforts.

Information systems security exam prep Harford Community College is taking registration for the Certified Information Systems Security Professional Certification. The test preparation class provides the information that information security professionals need to succeed on the certification exam. The course will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow through Friday at the Higher Education Center at HEAT. Information: www.harford.edu or 443-360-9108. A public reading at Cecil Students from Cecil College's Introduction to Creative Writing class will present a public reading of Original Words at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Technology Center Amphitheater on the North East campus at One Seahawk Drive.

Awards *The Modular Building Institute announced that Baltimore-based Williams Scotsman won two first-place awards and two honorable mentions for building projects during the past year. The awards were presented at the group's annual national convention. Contracts *Integral Systems Inc. of Lanham has contracted to provide a complete integrated ground control network for Bermuda-based ProtoStar-II Ltd. The system includes primary and backup satellite control network and payload operations.

Mark B. Hopkins, an information systems executive who had been a Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center vice president, died of cancer Tuesday at Sinai Hospital. The Mount Washington resident was 47. "He knew how a hospital worked. He was smart and had a lot of common sense," said Gregory Schaffer, president of Hopkins Bayview. "He was an asset to the hospital and was instrumental in building our clinical information system." Born in Baltimore and raised in Dallas, Texas, he returned to the Baltimore area and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in information systems management at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

HCC's trustees to meet Tuesday The board of trustees of Harford Community College will meet in open session at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Chesapeake Center boardroom. Anyone wishing to speak must complete a request form and return it to the marketing and public relations office before the meeting. Information: 410-836-4408. Information security topic of HCC class Harford Community College will offer Certified Information Systems Security Professional certification starting this week. This class prepares information security professionals for the CISSP certification exam.

Anne Arundel Community College will share in a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation to develop an East Coast regional center for cybersecurity studies. "This is one of the hottest technology areas in computing today," said Fred Klappenberger, department chairman of computer information systems at the college. "There's a real threat to networks, to the Internet and to computer systems, in business computers as well as personal computers." The grant will support CyberWATCH (Washington Area Technician and Consortium Headquarters)

The Orioles announced this week that executive vice president Jim Beattie has been relieved of his duties and Mike Flanagan will henceforth be the team's one-headed director of baseball operations, which answers one question - who's the man in the B&O warehouse? - and raises another: What exactly did Beattie do wrong that Flanagan didn't? It certainly has me scratching my head, but I'm hoping our photo staff doesn't get any ideas. The last time I scratched my head around here, I ended up with a column picture that looks like I'm about to review a movie with subtitles.

Through a partnership with the University of Baltimore, Carroll Community College will provide students in the computer information systems program an easier transition to finish a bachelor's degree, college officials said. The agreement creates a seamless transfer from one school to another, as it takes the guesswork out of planning schedules for students who intend to continue academic study, officials said last week. The agreement with the University of Baltimore is one of more than 10 established between Carroll and other four-year institutions that allow students in various programs to easily continue their education at other schools, said Kristine DeWitt, director of transfer and retention at Carroll.

New Positions Smoot, Wheeler take posts with Benelogic LLC Benelogic LLC has appointed Nicole Smoot as client service manager and Amy Wheeler as a system integration engineer. Smoot, formerly a senior benefit administrator with CBIZ Benicor, attends American College. Wheeler, a graduate of McDaniel College, was a manager with Aether Systems Inc. before joining the Timonium-based software application and services provider Health Care Allen is UM Medical Center VP for human resources University of Maryland Medical Center named R. Keith Allen to the post of senior vice president of human resources.