No Smart Phone for You! Not Yet Anyway.

It’s probably safe to say there has never been a new technology that has fired up government workers quite like tablet PCs and smart phones have — or one that has put agency IT departments so squarely behind the curve compared to those eager end users.

Technology officials at the Veterans Affairs Department are engaged in a bit of crowd control as they try to temper employee enthusiasm about using the popular consumer-oriented devices at work. Meanwhile, a team at the National Security Agency is trying to figure out how it can build its own super-secure smart phone so that the agency's super-secretive employees can enjoy some mobile freedom, too.

VA’s much publicized Oct. 1 target date to allow Apple iPad tablets on its networks created some big expectations among the department’s employees, reports Alice Lipowicz on FCW.com. VA CIO Roger Baker said that by talking about the plan, he might have inadvertently caused tens of thousands of employees to believe they would have instant access to VA networks on Oct. 1.