Corey McCarren's Blog Posts Tagged 'tech' (85)

Social media has become a major influencer in the way candidates campaign. Newark's Cory Booker has over one million followers, and is one of the best examples of a politician successfully utilizing social media. On New Years Eve in 2010, Mayor Booker even responded to a grandson tweeting about his grandfather who needed his driveway shoveled. Booker tweeted "I will…

Cybersecurity is a big deal, especially after the revelations of the role of the United States behind Stuxnet and the Flame virus. We've learned that cyber-infrastructure isn't particularly well protected, and the Security Innovation Network (SINET) is looking to change that through collaboration. Robert Rodriguez of…

Flavor Flav once said “don’t believe the hype,” but should we when it comes to cloud computing? In administrative circles it seems to be the talk of the town, and certainly has benefits, though it’s still developing as a way to store data. Christopher Dorobek of the DorobekINSIDER recently sat down with Jim Sweeney,…

Checking into locations can be entertaining; trust me, I'm the trainspotter champion on Foursquare. But it can also be dangerous, as children have access to geolocation apps which can attract predators and adults aren't always much wiser when checking in.…

Physics, according to Jacob Taylor, is studying how nature works at a fundamental level, and using that knowledge to apply it in different ways. Jacob has been working hard at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, thinking through new technologies as a…

At the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) annual meeting in Orlando, Fla. last week, the organization backed an action plan to promote technology, entrepreneurship, open government, and innovation. The Technology and Innovation Task Force, which was created in the beginning of this year, passed a resolution which aims to promote open data at all levels of government;…

With the release of the White House’s Digital Government Strategy, agencies are being asked to take certain steps towards growing digital government in the United States. Already, Jay Huie, who consults as a senior information engineer and an information architect, has built a website to…

App contests are a great way to get useful programs for your agency, but there's something more important which can result from a well-run app competition. Christopher Dorobek of the DorobekINSIDER spoke with Clay Johnson, author of…

As I've come to realize, government and industry play an important role in supporting each other. There are many emerging technologies -- see graphene -- which without government investment in commercializing the technology, may never make it out of the research labs. Government Chief Information, Innovation, and Technology Officers have come to realize this, as reported by…

Pinterest, with tremendous growth as of late, has made a splash in the world of social media. The photo-sharing website was the fastest website ever to break through 10 million unique visitors, and 40-60 percent of registrants regularly use the service after they've created accounts.…

As part of the White House’s recently released digital government strategy, a new Presidential Innovation Fellows  program has been created. The program brings in 15 innovators from outside government who provide expertise on projects, particularly those that are technology related. Tom Fox, vice president for…

As of late, we've all heard of the threat of new, advanced, nation-state sponsored viruses like Stuxnet and Flame. But it's important not to forget the risk posed by run-of-the-mill malware to our machines and personal information. McAfee's latest threat report suggest that this year is shaping up to be one of increased risk online, with PC and smartphone threats reaching a 4-year high.…

In post 9/11 world, securing nuclear materials and safeguarding them from non-governmental actors is as important as ever. In 2010, President Obama hosted 50 world leaders in Washington, DC at the Nuclear Security Summit.

The gathering was the largest of world leaders…

Technology can help agencies make great strides increasing productivity and in cutting costs – but it can also be very expensive. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is quickly discovering how to leverage new policies amid budget cuts. This past year, the IT budget for the EEOC was reduced about 15%. The Commission had to look at cost-cutting measures without weakening their services, and decided…

The city of Stockton, California is in dire fiscal straits, as recently evidenced by Wells Fargo's impending repossession of a property purchased by the city in 2007. The property is partly housed by Stockton's IT department. A San Joaquin County Superior Court judge ruled that Wells Fargo can move forward with repossession the…

Open data is probably more interesting to GovLoopers than the average citizen. That's understandable; most data-sets  aren't helpful to everybody. For instance, checking out Data.gov, I see raw data-sets concerning the marital status of active-duty forces, the location and characteristics of the worlds copper smelters, and data…

Improving citizen interaction with government is a key goal of the White House’s Digital Management Strategy. The approach is to use modern, open source approaches to handling data and content.

Chris Dorobek of the…

About a year ago, Joplin, Missouri was tragically hit by the worst tornado in decades. Now, after its visit by President Obama for the Joplin High School commencement, it has launched a new website. The website is the result of a hackathon which was judged in part by GovLoop founder and CEO Steve Ressler.

Joplin,…

Doing more with less. I'll bet that's a phrase you've heard before, and have probably become skeptical of. As a matter of fact, in response to a recent GovLoop survey, most of you responded that being asked to do more with less is your biggest challenge. On Government Technology, GovLoop president Steve Ressler gave a few ideas on how to cope with fewer resources.…

Crime on the Internet is trending up, which is no surprise with the explosive growth of the Internet. Cyber-crime complaints were up 3.4 percent in 2011 from 2010 according to the latest latest Report on Internet Crime by the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). The IC3 is a partnership between the FBI, White Collar Crime Center, and Bureau of Justice, which…