Lockheed Martin Named for National Archives Project

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Lockheed Martin has won a $308 million, six-year contract to build the Electronic Records Archives (ERA) system for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The ERA system will capture and preserve the federal government' electronic records, regardless of format, ensure hardware and software independence, and provide public and governmental access. NARA said Lockheed Martin was chosen "based on the technical merit of the solution it proposed, the excellence of their system and software engineering methodology, and the quality of their project management." Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein said, "I am indebted to those who acted decades and centuries ago to ensure that the records of our past were preserved for use today… T...

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6255911.html

[punpirate]

1. All I've got to say is...

... :wtf:

The Library of Congress has been working on a decades-long project of making archived materials available electronically, and now the NARA is going to hand Lockheed Martin $300 million to not only create a system, but "provide... access?"

There's something very, very fishy about this.

[1932]

2. I think it's a conflict of interest to give a company which depends

on government generosity for its huge profit margins cointrol over our national memory.