Spent a portion of yesterday going through my project archive (two four drawer lateral file cabinets). Mostly to clear out duplicated or outdated materials, but some was information mining for the book. Typically on engagements I spend a fair amount of time to understand clients mental models, language and corporate culture with the objective toRead… Read more »
In a a recent blog post I shared some tips to get your employees thinking creatively. One of these tips was to encourage working in groups, sharing ideas (even the “bad” ones) and basically creating a culture of collaboration. Like encouraging creative thinking, promoting collaboration is often a lot easier said than done. With budgetRead… Read more »
One of the success stories in Chicago’s civic innovation community is the rapid spread of health related apps that have come out of both the volunteer civic technology community and paid development efforts. This started last year with Tom Kompare’s Chicago flu shot app that helped Chicago residents find free flu shots near them. (LaterRead… Read more »
Last weekend, I was thinking about my undergraduate days when I took a lot of philosophy courses at a small Catholic liberal arts college. I remember the classical Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle approaching reality from two different yet complementary angles. At the risk of overgeneralizing, Plato believed that reality existed in ideas from whichRead… Read more »
According to a study conducted by the Society of New Communications Research, “59 percent of respondents say they regularly use social media to “vent” about their own customer care frustrations.” Social media has changed the way organizations (public and private) interact with citizens. Organizations can have people fill out surveys in under a minute, shareRead… Read more »
Disease outbreaks can cripple communities and economies alike. Back in September 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began receiving reports from health officials in Tennessee about patients diagnosed with a rare form of meningitis. This worrisome information set off alarm bells at the CDC, which quickly launched an emergency response team led byRead… Read more »
Originally published on cpsrenewal.ca Or at least we will be, eventually. That’s the argument Kent made on Wednesday in What We Lost in the Fire, We Gain in the Flood, and it’s the argument I want to build on today. But first a quick recap of Kent’s line of reasoning. Street-level bureaucrats have traditionally beenRead… Read more »
by Steve Charles, Co-founder and Executive Vice President Your customers need your help. Not just your products and the requirements those will fulfill, but your personal help to get fully justified purchase requests to contracting shops who can issue the order before the end of the fiscal year. I spoke on a panel discussion lastRead… Read more »
Capitol Hill is becoming even more magical next week as the Harry Potter comedy group “The Potted Potters” performs at The Shakespeare Theatre Company. Want to make your agency more magical? Here are some lessons from J.K. Rowling’s characters: Make magic with limited resources “It our choices that show what we truly are, far moreRead… Read more »
Gadi Ben-Yehuda This week: Pushing boundaries Better living through hacks. The LA Times has a profile of Code for America (CFA). Says reporter Evan Halper, “The nonprofit Code for America, whose tech wizards call themselves the Peace Corps for Geeks, uses technology to make government work better. Related: This CFA app lets citizens “hack theRead… Read more »