Many Americans are not aware that the standard railroad gauge in the U.S. (the distance between the two metal rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. Why the heck did our government leaders ever establish such an odd size for spacing the tracks when building our nation’s first rail lines? Well, that is because, when ourRead… Read more »
Last week, I was able to attend the 2013 Personal Democracy Forum in New York City. This conference and community is about the present and future impact of digital technologies on our democracy. While listening to many of the thought-provoking and passionate presentations, there were a few different ideas that really spoke to me. HereRead… Read more »
I certainly don’t claim to be a scientist or somebody who has an incredibly nuanced opinion of nature vs. nurture but there are certainly a lot of folks on the market right now that talk about what motivates people. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us is a great example, by Daniel Pink. There’sRead… Read more »
The Big Bang Theory is the most popular comedy on television. More than 20 million people each week sit down to watch Sheldon Cooper and his group of brainiacs search for answers to life’s most challenging puzzles. Those big brains are just what the government needs to stay on the front lines of research andRead… Read more »
In our recent guide entitled, “Innovating at the Point of Citizen Engagement: Making Every Moment Count,” I highlighted the activities of Raleigh, North Carolina, and their citizen-led, government-approved movement around innovation and open data. It’s an exceptional model of government-citizen partnership, and one that I’m trying to replicate and expand just a few miles awayRead… Read more »
Is equal pay or gender-based wage bias a problem in your workplace? In case you missed it, June 10 marked the half-century anniversary of the Equal Pay Act, which prohibits gender-based wage discrimination in employment. One might think that pay equity for women would have been reached after 50 years. Alas, this goal remains fleeting.Read… Read more »
National Australia Bank (nab.com.au) Banks do it, utilities do it, even media does it, is it time for government to also do it – drop the ‘www’ from web site promotions in advertising and links? This came to my attention while playing with the Australian Department of Health and Ageing’s new my child’s eHealth recordRead… Read more »
Let’s look at two situations: A presenter, when asked if said she would make the program slides available to the meeting attendees said no offering this reason – this is my professional work and I will not give away my thoughts and insight. Eric Raymond, wrote about the open source software model (he was instrumentalRead… Read more »
Engaged citizens want clear, credible information from the government about how it’s carrying on its business. They don’t want to thumb through thousands of files or wait month after month or go through the rigors of filing claims through FOIA (Freedom of Information Act). They want government information, services, and communication to be forthcoming andRead… Read more »
I think one of the things that I’ve really noticed over the years is that no matter what you’re trying to accomplish, communication is key. I think a lot of times when you get into a large public sector project or an internally facing private sector project, people forget that you still have to sellRead… Read more »