Intelligence Community Jobs and the BRAC – Software Migration Jobs

The United States Military has proven itself as the best in the world and has clearly adapted to asymmetrical warfare. Opting for quality over quantity the Department of Defense has altered the basic make up and organization of the military.

A part of this effort is the Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC) that oversees existing military base closures, realignments and mergers. A number of BRAC efforts have been completed with the BRAC 2005 being the latest effort.

This is a multiyear, substantial effort and creates significant opportunities for software companies capable of database migration with cleared personnel. These jobs often require advanced degree and state of the art skilled individuals and often high level clearances.

In the Intelligence Community two locations are expected to grow substantially as commands from other locations are consolidated with existing Intelligence capabilities: Fort Meade, Maryland and Ft. Belvoir, Virginia.

Ft. Meade, Maryland

Ft. Meade is best known as the home of the National Security Agency but NSA is the largest tenant on what is a large army base. Because of the proximity to the NSA and for other reasons Ft. Meade was chosen to receive functions and employees from BRAC reductions.

The Defense Information Systems Agency accounts for the largest share of the BRAC jobs moved to Ft. Meade with more than 4,200 jobs now in Northern Virginia. Most of these jobs are information technology and communications specialists. Other commands will add to the increase.

Fort Belvoir, Virginia

Fort Belvoir is the home of Army Intelligence but supports a number of other tenant agencies. As a result of the BRAC, Fort Belvoir will add a net 12,000 employees and contractor FTE’s (full time equivalents) to its campus.

A major transition of an IC agency is the transition of a major portion of National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency from the Washington Navy Yard (WNY) to an entirely new facility. NGA is included in the 2005 BRAC and will be moving its Washington, D.C. based facilities to the Engineer Proving Ground of Ft. Belvoir in Northern Virginia. Under the BRAC law, the move must be completed by September 15, 2011.

As a result of the 2005 BRAC Fort Belvoir, already a major employer in the Washington, D.C. metro area is scheduled to expand significantly. The facility relies heavily on contractors.

The Information Technology directorate at Fort Belvoir is sophisticated and effective and manages a large information network. As the BRAC proceeds, a large number of high level Information Technology and Cyber Security jobs will be created.

Skills Required

Both the military and the Intelligence Community manage their business using high performance databases that are networked for maximum performance. The physical movement of these databases requires planning, execution and familiarity with hardware and required network interfaces.

Vendors with required clearances and experience in high performance database migration will add significant value to the process.

Each BRAC move and migration has unique requirements, software and hardware standards and network interfaces so a variety of diverse skills is required. In depth experience in the following areas adds value:

Software Development
Software Testing
Software Engineering
Integrated Hardware & Software Testing
Data Preparation
Engineering Services
Distributed Processing
Analytics/Information Retrieval
Natural Language Processing
Software Analysis
Visualization/Human-Computer Interface Design & Development
Database/Knowledge Base Research & Development
Quality Control Inspection
Documentation
Multimedia Processing
Geo Location
High Speed Access
Emerging Mobile Technologies
Equipment Procurement, Storage, & Field Deployment

The Value of High Level Clearances

Both Fort Meade and Fort Belvoir are heavily involved with the collection, analysis and distribution of intelligence. Because of this vendors with staff that have high level clearances (TS/SCI, SI/TK and full scope polygraph) along with state of the art technical skills should be in demand.

Defense contractors specializing in the Intelligence Community now offer high salaries and excellent benefits related to BRAC redeployment efforts.

Guest Blogging – Effective Planning Works For the Host Blog Writer and the Blog Poster

Guest blogging is a way to network, list building, branding and getting targeted traffic to your blog. You get to know other who blog and your name becomes familiar in blogging community.One of the two parties that is the guest and the host blogger, has to be looking for the other partner. It could be one post to a few posts as agreed upon by both the parties.Host blog writer looks for the guest poster when:1. Host does not have the time to continue writing the blog.2. If host blogger is going on vacation and does not want the readers to feel unattended, the need of a guest poster comes up.3. There could be several other changes that prevents the original owner not to continue adding new posts to the blog, a guest blogger can easily fill in the spot.Sometimes there are guest posters who are looking for a host blogger for reasons of their own. Some of the common reasons are as follows:a. To increase readership of the personal blog. Once you write on other peoples blog you will be known in the blogging community and by lots of blog readers.b. Guest poster links to the post that he writes and this provides high ranking blog traffic to the guests original blog and some of Google attention is directed to the post writers blog too.c. Guest poster is able to add a picture, email address and a by line about the author and that creates a larger readership and branding, which helps the guest to be known as a pro blogger.d. Answering to the comments of the guest post, the blog post writer is able to create better relationship with new readers, the readership can bring a tremendous increase by writing few blog posts in few other blogs.So, guest blogging is a technique that helps both guest and the host of the blog. But sometimes the agreement to guest posts does not work that well. This has been the common problem of this technique.But if host blog writer plans well and has a joint venture agreement to work on, this hurdle is easy to overcome. As guest poster is trying to be competitive and have a name in the top blogging community, get blog traffic, and have more readership. The guest blogger still gets everything but at the same time follows the rules of the host and as a result both the parties are satisfied. Some strategies of the effective plan are as follows:1. This plan has to be ready before looking for a partner to add guest post.
2. It should be written to save the interests for both the parties.
3. Guest poster must read the agreement and feel it saves his interests.
4. Host blog writer will have a worry free break and guest poster gets the best exposure.It will certainly be joint venture agreement with synergistic effects for both parties.

5 Blog Writing Mistakes That Will Ruin Your Rep

If you are a blogger and you want to do the best you can then this article will help you avoid five costly mistakes. No one is perfect but everyone should be able to cut down on the mistakes below. These are not accidents, they are willful transgressions that will hurt your bottom line. Clean up these five mistakes and you will already be far ahead of the pack.1. Not proof reading: A simple mistake but it can definitely make you look bad. Spell checking is great, but you can’t rely on just that. You have to read your blog post 2 or 3 times to make sure you catch all your grammar mistakes. It might not seem like a big deal but here is one example of a mistake I have made. I wanted to write “now four styles to choose from” and I wrote “no four styles to choose from.” Spell check didn’t catch anything, but that one sentence means a big difference to the reader. If you want to take it to the next level, get someone else to proof read your blog post. They will catch things you miss every time.2. Plagiarism: If you care about your personal brand and your blog, then at all costs avoid this type of content. Creating content can be a pain in the butt, but stealing someone else’s’ can hurt you dearly in the end. If you get caught (and you will) you lose all credibility instantly. It isn’t conducive to building your personal brand. Keep it off your personal blog. It just looks tacky and people will notice.3. Not being consistent: This might be the biggest mistake. If you are committing to running a blog then it is a commitment. Treat it as such. Don’t fire out 5 articles your first week then sit back and relax. You have to constantly create content in order to engage your visitors. Fresh content is also good in the eyes of Google. We don’t want to make the Google Gods angry do we?4. Not marketing: I was guilty of this mistake. When I first started blogging I hid it from people! What the heck is the point of that? I posted away and hoped people came, but never worked at marketing it. I didn’t start to see success until I sent it out to my Facebook and Twitter lists. I began using Digg and StumbleUpon. I talked about it at social gatherings. I even got some business cards made up that had nothing but the URL of my blog. It began to work and I finally got to see some significant traffic. You can post all you want, but what use is it if no one sees it?5. Not responding to comments: If you are lucky enough to get comments on your blog posts, then you should reply. For one it is the polite thing to do. Secondly it will engage web visitors and make them more likely to come back. Also people who haven’t commented will be more likely to comment if they see people getting responses. A blog full of active commenters is the start of a potential money making machine!Cut out these five mistakes and you will definitely notice a traffic increase to your blog. You will also notice you have more interaction with your visitors and in the long run it will offer you more chances to monetize your site. If you have to only choose a couple from the list above, please post consistently and market yourself. Curing these two mistakes alone, will mean great things for your site.

NHS Direct to Close – Bad News for Dental Health Care?

We all know that good dental health is hugely important, but many people put-off visiting their dentists. This can often lead to minor tooth and gum problems getting significantly worse and more difficult (and expensive!) to treat. Unfortunately, the imminent closure of medical advice helpline provided by NHS Direct is likely to affect dental health most of all, according to a leading expert.NHS Direct is an advice and information service provided by the NHS for residents and visitors of the UK. It is staffed by nurses and trained health advisors at 33 sites around the country, and takes around five million calls per year. However, due to high running costs the government has announced plans to phase out the service in favour of the new non-emergency NHS 111 number, which will employ fewer qualified nurses and will instead turn to non-specialist “call advisors” who have completed a 60-hour training programme.The service regularly took more calls related to dentistry than any other area. Dr Nigel Carter, Chief Executive of the British Dental Health Association, has raised concerns about the standards of advice the new NHS 111 number will be able to offer, particularly regarding dental healthcare.”NHS Direct was a quality service and an essential source of information for the public. Sadly, they have replaced it with a facility which will simply struggle to offer the same standard of assistance. Regrettably, it will be dental health that will suffer the most.”If you have concerns about your dental health, you can still call the National Dental Helpline (0845 063 1188), which is staffed by fully-qualified dental nurses, who offer free advice at a local-rate number. It has dealt with more than 250,000 calls since its formation and offers advice on a full range of dental issues, from difficulties in trying to find a local NHS dentist, to solutions to combat dental pain and phobias.Of course, the best way to ensure good dental health is to regularly visit your dentist. If you have a health care cash plan from Sovereign Health Care, you can claim cash back towards dental health care treatment including fillings check-ups and hygienist fees, x-rays and dentures, so there’s no need to put your teeth at risk by delaying making an appointment!