GEONET-II contract in April 1993, the USGS can now acquire state-of-the-art high-speed switches and facilities to make. such sharing easier. Several bureaus-the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Minerals Management Service, the National Park. Service, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs-and the Washington and Denver Administrative Service Centers are interested in sharing facilities. This approach will provide more and better network integration, shared circuitry, and lower communications costs.

Elaine Stout has over 20 years of computer and communications experience and currently manages USGS telecommunications activities

GEONET-II-WHAT IS IT?

• GEONET-II is a high-speed network based on cell relay switches to support voice, video, and data (so-called multimedia services). The key to GEONET-II is the cell-relay-switching architecture, which allows for full use of the expensive telecommunications bandwidth and is a near-perfect solution for the bursty local-area and wide-area network traffic. (Bursty traffic is data streams that are high volume and sustained for brief periods of time and occur on a random basis throughout the work day.)

The GEONET-II contract, awarded in April 1993, is a $27.3 million contract with Sprint Communications Corporation that can be used by all Department bureaus and offices to facilitate the sharing of the extensive high-speed circuitry.

• GEONET-II will allow Department bureaus to perform file transfers, electronic mail, and interactive sessions between bureaus that heretofore could be done only within the same bureau.

science information, the Federal Government is promoting the establishment of the Government Information Locator Service (GILS). GILS establishes a standard approach for agency-based locators of data and information. A locator is a machine-readable data base that identifies different information resources-such as data bases, libraries, clearinghouses, guides, and lists of resources-and describes the information available in those resources. GILS will be a crucial component of the National Information Infrastructure, which is envisioned as providing public access to information and other communications media throughout the country.

GILS will use Internet as its primary electronic dissemination medium, but GILS contents will also be available via electronic mail, bulletin board systems, and information kiosks in public places

and in offline media such as floppy disks, CD-ROM (Compact Disc-Read Only Memory), and printed publications.

GILS pilot operations will likely begin in spring 1994, and most of the Government may be participating within a year or two. Because its promotion of the standards for information search and retrieval and its leadership role in interagency forums such as the Federal Geographic Data Committee and the Interagency Working Group on Data Management for Global Change, the USGS was invited to take a leadership role in establishing GILS under the auspices of the Office of Management and Budget and the Administration's Information Infrastructure Task Force.

For more information about telecommunications, please contact:

Telephone (703) 648-7006
Internet estout@usgs.gov

For more information about GILS, please contact:

Telephone (703) 648-7245
Internet echristi@usgs.gov

For more information about computer security, please contact:

Telephone (703) 648-7046
Internet dwatson@usgs.gov

other Department bureaus throughout the United States and its possessions. To augment the security of the Reston mainframe capability, the USGS awarded a contract to provide an alternate processing site in the event of such an emergency situation. All mainframe operations, including all necessary telecommunications links, can be switched quickly to another location, with minimal disruption of the user community.

The awarding of this contract was the culmination of an 18-month effort that included a functional impact analysis of all mission-critical applications that run on the mainframe computer, such as the Federal Financial System and the National Digital Cartographic Data Base, and visits to companies that provide disaster recovery services. These companies have large facilities that contain multiple computers running 24 hours a day for the express purpose of being immediately available if a client's computer operations are interrupted.

An integral part of the bureau's ongoing computer security program, this effort will help guarantee continued

operation of the mainframe computer in Reston, Va., and bring the USGS into compliance with Federal computer security regulations. With contractor assistance, the USGS will be able to recover full operational capability within 48 hours of a disaster with minimum impact on the user. To help ensure that these goals are met, several mock disaster recovery tests will be conducted each year. A typical test will involve going to

With contractor assistance, the USGS will be able to recover

full operational capability within 48 hours of a disaster. . .

the alternate processing site, loading the operating system and utilities from backup tapes that were stored at an offsite location, and conducting tests of the operating system software. If all systems check out, selected applications will be loaded and computer analysts from the offices responsible for the applications will conduct remote tests to determine if everything functions correctly. Other computer specialists will revise the current mainframe contingency plan to reflect the use of a contractor-supplied recovery site.

Don Watson

is the manager of the USGS computer security

program

requests for acquisition of information systems resources; provides first-level customer assistance for computer and communications technologies; provides computer-related training; and publishes an automated data processing (ADP) technical journal and a mainframe user's manual.

ADP service centers in Denver, Colo., Flagstaff, Ariz., and Menlo Park, Calif., provide a full range of comprehensive user and ADP services to all USGS employees in their service areas.

Scientific Visualization

S

cientific visualization is the visual or graphic representation of scientific data in a format that enables users to interact with, analyze, and study data and may lead to insights that are not possible through more traditional methods or techniques. Sharing information about. these visualization techniques and the corresponding findings or products allows scientists to learn more about the technologies and techniques available to foster scientific endeavors and also enables the USGS to more effectively display the results of its investigations to the public and to customers of USGS data and products.

A scientific visualization workshop held in Menlo Park, Calif., on September 15, 16, and 17, 1993, provided both an internal and a public forum to stimulate interest in exploring applications of this powerful technology. Scientists from the USGS and collaborating organizations such as NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, the Naval Postgraduate School, the University of California at Santa Cruz, and the Environmental Protection Agency participated. The workshop provided exposure to a vast array of computer technologies and specialpurpose tools used to study and show phenomena such as the hydrodynamic. properties of San Francisco Bay and Massachusetts Bay waters, the volcanic structure underlying the island of Hawaii, the evolution of landforms, the properties of rock in situ 1,000 feet under El Capitan in Yosemite Park, and the distribution of earthquakes worldwide in near-real time. The USGS will sponsor another scientific

visualization workshop in New Orleans, La., in April 1994.

Carol Lawson served as coordinator of the USGS-sponsored scientific visualization workshop held in Menlo Park, Calif., in 1993

Parallel Virtual Machine

arallel Virtual Machine (PVM) is a

Parallel

parallel processing application environment that allows scientists to take advantage of excess computer power in their computing environment. PVM runs on several UNIX platforms including the Sun Microsystem's Sun, IBM's RISC, Data General's AViiON, and Silicon Graphics' IRIS across both local-area and wide-area networks. The USGS has loaded PVM onto several machines and begun experimenting with its capabilities.

To determine PVM's relevance to the USGS's application programs, scientists throughout the bureau have begun a number of collaborative projects. Computer scientists are working with hydrologists to move existing water. resources applications such as Phreeqm, a FORTRAN IV computer program designed to model geochemical reactions, into the PVM environment. In a separate

For more information about scientific visualization, please contact:

Telephone (415) 329-4030
Internet clawson@usgs.gov

For more information about PVM, please contact:

Telephone (703) 648-7175
Internet Iburgess@usgs.gov

controls and implements accounting policy and procedures and administers the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) function. Fiscal services include accurate and timely processing of vouchers and claims, fulfilling financial reporting systems requirements, developing alternative methods for data entry and exchange, and providing other general support. FY 1993 accomplishments include:

• Implementing a quality improvement program to upgrade the overall level of support provided to the program divisions.

• Developing the first bureau CFO Financial Statement.

• Realigning traditional financial functions to a process-oriented structure. • Installing imaging technology to archive and retrieve fiscal documents.

support for the establishment of informal and formal mentoring programs. Specific interest has been expressed by women's groups within the USGS.

• Developing and issuing guidelines to employees in administrative and technical occupations. These guidelines provide a systematic approach to career planning and include job analysis information, a self-assessment exercise, a guide for setting performance goals, and tips on how to accomplish goals.

• Purchasing training materials for the three USGS Career and Management Resource Centers, including books, audio cassettes, and videotapes related to a variety of subjects, such as career development, self development, supervision, management, work force diversity, and Total Quality Management. Any USGS employee may borrow these training materials.

• Offering training in sexual harassment prevention. All employees were required to attend this onsite training, which included classes and commercial videotape programs. The USGS also developed a videotape on preventing sexual harassment for distribution and use throughout the bureau.

Personnel Management

The

he USGS Personnel Management program includes recruitment; employee and labor management relations; employee development; classification and position management; processing of personnel actions; and conduct of personnel management evaluations. FY 1993 accomplishments include:

• Developing a USGS Executive, Managerial, and Supervisory Development program to prepare a pool of qualified candidates for executive, managerial, and supervisory positions through rotational assignments, details, and formal developmental training opportunities. This intensive 1-year training program will qualify graduates for one noncompetitive promotion.

Offering mentoring seminars at key field centers to encourage interest in and

Procurement and Contracts Management

The

The Procurement and Contracts Management program coordinates, integrates, awards, and administers numerous procurement, grant, and cooperative agreement programs. In addition to operational procurement in support of USGS missions, principal functions include formulating and implementing policy procedures and technical guidance; sponsoring bureauwide procurement training; and determining procurement and contracts system requirements. FY 1993 accomplishments include:

• Awarding a contract to support the Department of the Interior Electronic Acquisition System (IDEAS) project, which will install a computerized acquisition system in each bureau of the Department to enhance the productivity of the acquisition workforce, substantially eliminate duplicate data entries and reduce paperwork, and interface with other administrative management systems.