Monthly Archives: March 2010

How-To: Communicate via Social Media with Minimal Budget & Reduced Staff

Citiies on social media with over 500+ -fans on facebook – 16% -followers on twitter – 9% Local gov is often late to game City of Reno-Around the Arch blog -Wordpress blog – one click install-iframe site in their blog -28,000 views on YouTube channels Get a government YouTube channel – [email protected] -get additional branding-canRead… Read more »

Health Care 2010

I know our Country is divided over the new Health Care Bill. In short, the new Health Care Bill will insure coverage for every U.S. Citizen and will cost almost 1 trillion. However, I personally like what it will do in the short term and in the long term. The denial of coverage for preRead… Read more »

PC Refresh Cycle ready to touch down in government?

Earlier this month, NextGov’s Bob Brewin wrote about the Department of Veterans Affairs’ plans for an extensive PC refresh cycle that translates to millions in spending to improve the agency’s technological infrastructure. In Brewin’s article, he notes that “the department owns about 240,000 PCs. The new contract will provide an additional 360,000 computers to supplyRead… Read more »

On My Transformation from Social Worker to Public Servant

I read somewhere that the (median) average age of entry into the Canadian federal public service is 34 years old. That fits me reasonably well; this is my second career. For my first 10 years of “professional” employment I was a social worker, and my speciality was child and adolescent mental health. It was theRead… Read more »

Bill Bratton, America’s “Top Cop,” talks community policing and security in emerging nations at GovSec

I was in the front row yesterday morning as Bill Bratton — forty year veteran and former Police Chief in Boston, New York City, and Los Angeles — spoke at the Government Security (GovSec) Conference and Expo in Washington, DC. Chief Bratton spent some time afterwards with the folks fromUSIS as he signed books andRead… Read more »

My Mother Always Told Me to Be Well Rounded: Do Employers Think the Same?

Growing up my mother made sure that I was exposed to culture, art, music, and science. I was almost as diversified as you could possibly get for being a “small-town” kid. When the time came for me to head off to college and pick a major, I followed these same adolescent teachings. Not wanting toRead… Read more »

TJX Breach Hacker Faces 17- 25-Years; He Was a Secret Service Informant??

The mastermind behind some of the most notorious data breaches in history (Heartland Payment Systems, TJX and others) faces sentencing this week. The word is that prosecutors are aiming to give Albert Gonzalez the maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. We imagine justice will be rightly served. In a bizarre twist, Gonzales was purportedlyRead… Read more »