Debra D'Agostino

Hardly a day goes by without electronic voting making headlines. In mid-July, voter-rights group Voter GA filed a lawsuit against the Georgia State Election Board opposing the use of electronic systems, calling them too insecure. In Texas, a state district judge refused to block the use of e-voting machines in Travis County’s upcoming November elections. […]

Paul DeGregorio is chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, the agency responsible for enforcing the Help America Vote Act. For more than two decades, DeGregorio has lent his expertise on voting systems to states and nations around the globe, and in 2004 he received the Freedom Award from the National Association of Secretaries of […]

Soaring fuel prices have affected every airline, large and small, forcing them to turn to IT to make processes more efficient and trim costs wherever possible. But IT can be used to improve profits, too. At low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines, for example, technology is working around the clock to assist the carrier’s small team of […]

The U.S. airline industry has had its fair share of troubles over the past five years. Starting with the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, carriers have struggled to remain profitable despite debilitating circumstances such as SARS, the conflict in Iraq and, of course, the soaring price of fuel. As chief economist for the Air […]

You know there’s an energy crisis when even the energy companies are turning to alternative energy. Xcel Energy Inc., a Minneapolis-based energy firm, runs a healthy business, with more than 3.3 million electricity and 1.8 natural gas customers in 10 states, and revenues of $10 billion annually. But about a year ago, company executives found […]

When it comes to airline travel in a post-Sept. 11 world, you probably know what to expect: long lines to check luggage, pass through security and change seats; snarky airline employees who may or may not have just lost their pensions; a middle seat; and eight salty peanuts and a stale deli sandwich. And that’s […]

Bryson Monteleone is fed up with the poor customer service that has become the norm on U.S. airlines, not just on the ground, but in the air as well. “The service you get on any Asian carrier, in any class, is amazing,” says the managing director at Morten, Beyer & Agnew, a consulting company for […]

Creating a solid communications platform is hard enough when your employees are spread out over a handful of locations. But for Oakview Construction, a privately held, $80 million commercial construction and general contracting firm located in Red Oak, Iowa, a handful of locations was just a start. Oakview, which counts Wal-Mart as one of its […]

IT is more important than ever in creating competitive differentiation, according to a recent survey of business executives, sponsored by the Business Process Management (BPM) Forum and BPM vendor webMethods, titled: “Accelerate How You Differentiate: The Alert Enterprise Audit.” But IT still lags behind, they say, when it comes to keeping up with the demands […]

As one of the largest publicly traded energy companies in North America, Kinder Morgan Inc. knows a thing or two about regulatory compliance. For starters, the company operates roughly 40,000 miles of natural gas and petroleum transportation pipelines, and serves 1.1 million natural gas distribution customers. It employs roughly 9,000 people in the U.S. and […]

It’s a Tuesday afternoon, and a group of 14 students have gathered in the back room of a computer lab at Columbia University in New York City. It’s a sociology class, and the focus of today’s session is the science of learning. The atmosphere is casual and conversational, though slightly hesitant as class begins, so […]

For Barbara Koster, IT isn’t only about alignment and meeting business goals. The Global CIO of Prudential Financial, a $37 billion financial services firm, feels a palpable responsibility to help a new generation of IT professionals into the fray, particularly at a time when enrollment in technological fields of study are declining. As part of […]