These Aren't the PRISMs You're Looking For

I’m a little obsessed with the story that broke yesterday about PRISM, the NSA/FBI project to gather information from popular Internet services, including Facebook, Google, and Apple.

So, naturally, I’ve been doing a lot of digging about the story on *.gov websites. In the process, I realized that the U.S. government loves the “PRISM” acronym. There are literally dozens of projects and applications named PRISM at the state and federal level, many with delightfully goofy logos. Here are some of my favorites.

Panelist and Reviewer Information System

Database of prospective reviewers for The National Endowment for the Humanities

Parallel Research on Invariant Subspace Methods

Argonne National Laboratory project to develop infrastructure and algorithms for the parallel solution of eigenvalue problems

Pliocene Research, Interpretation and Synoptic Mapping

USGS project to understand global climate change

PRoject Information SysteM

Apply for grants from the Washington State’s Recreation and Conservation Office

Parameter-elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model

Climate analysis tool from the National Water and Climate Center

Pesticide Registration Information SysteM

The Environmental Protection Agency’s database on all registered pesticide products.

Portable Remote Imaging Spectrometer

NASA JPL’s airborne instrument for monitoring the ocean from UAVs

Performance and Registration Information Systems Management

U.S. Dept. of Transportation program to register commercial vehicles

Performance Reporting Information System

The State of Oregon’s workforce reporting system

Partnerships for Regional Invasive Species Management

The State of New York’s environmental effort to manage invasive species

Patient Reporting Investigation Surveillance Manager

Communicable disease data system for the State of Wyoming’s STD program

Performance Related Information for Staff and Managers

Dept. of Mental Health’s reports on hospital trends

Proactive Recruitment in Introductory Science and Mathematics

National Science Foundation’s effort to fund STEM programs for undergrad students

Proteomics Research Information System and Management

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s system for managing large-scale protein data

Procurement Information System for Management

Procurement software used across the federal government