Former director of Washington's Department of Information Services, Steve Kolodney, who left his post at the end of June, just couldn't stay away. Kolodney will return to his former position Oct. 4, after a short lived stint in the private sector. Gov. Gary Locke's, D, office had initiated an unsuccessful nationwide search, which ended when Kolodney came back to reclaim his position, which was being held by Deputy Acting Director Clare Donahue.

     General Motors Chief Information Officer Ralph Szygenda drove home the point that e-commerce is an integral part of the information age and those not ready to acknowledge its importance will be left behind. American University honored Szygenda with the 1999 Kogod School of Business Leadership Award for Outstanding Achievement in IT Business Education — the first of its kind. But rather than fill time with a rundown of his resume, which includes holding the position of CIO at Texas Instruments and Bell Atlantic, much of Szygenda's acceptance speech revolved around the importance of e-commerce. Urging educators, students and those in the business sector "to practice what we preach," Szygenda stressed how essential it is to create strong information technology systems designed to promote e-commerce. As chair for Kogod's Management of Global Information Technology Executive Working Group, which includes representatives from IBM, Oracle, and Intel Satellite System, Szygenda has helped students get a solid handle on "e-business." Citing The New York Times article that documented the first Internet purchase — a CD from an online mall — Szygenda said that online shopping began "shaking the retail world to its timbers."

     David Goodfriend has been such doing a good job as FCC Commissioner Susan Ness's adviser on mass media and cable issues since his appointment on August 23, that Ness took a moment at the end of last week's open meeting to introduce him to all present. Goodfriend was formerly the deputy to the staff secretary of the White House after he spent several years practicing communications law. There were nothing but compliments flowing from Ness as she bid farewell to Dan Connors, who after agreeing to a "temporary" three month assignment at her office as interim senior adviser on wireless and international issues will end his year-long stint.

Joking that Ness's witty comments on the comings and goings at her camp were a tough act to follow, FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth also announced staff changes. He has appointed Rebecca Banan to handle common carrier issues and Brian Tremont will take on wireless and international matters. FCC Chairman William Kennard took a moment to thank all those who left private practice to join the FCC.

     When the members of the Common Carrier Bureau prepared to present their revisions of rules on the unbundling of network elements to the Telecommunications Act of 1996 before the Federal Communications Commission, they brought along some extra back up — a few of the ubiquitous Energizer bunnies. As the panelists sat straight faced, the Commissioners joked that the bunnies were perhaps emblematic of the hard work the bureau did to accomplish the difficult task of amending the rules, enabling them to keep going, and going, and going...

Erratum
     In last week's People column, W. Douglas Campbell was listed as an in-house lobbyist for America Online, however Campbell is an outside consultant for the company.

    Send comments and contributions to Jessica Smith.