Digital Government

Meet the gov guru who reinvented websites #engagement – Plus your weekend reads

Martha Dorris has been a driving force behind the use of technology to help citizens more easily and quickly obtain government services and information, whether the contact comes through a website, email, telephone call or social media. At GSA, she created the agency’s two federal Web platforms — USA.gov and its Spanish-language counterpart, GobiernoUSA.gov. InRead… Read more »

Status check – Is the fed gov actually teleworking?

The number of people teleworking in the federal government is a bit murky. The reason for the unclear percentage is that agencies are struggling to report actual numbers to the Office of Personnel Management. Those were the findings of a Government Accountability report. Yvonne Jones is the Director of Strategic Issues at the GAO. SheRead… Read more »

Government – The Ultimate Experiment in Open Source?

GitHub is the world’s largest social coding service. “Think of GitHub as Facebok but instead of sharing pictures of your kids or what you had for lunch, you share software code,” said Ben Balter. Balter is the Government Evangelist for GitHub. He told Chris Dorobek on the DorobekINSIDER program that GitHub at its most basicRead… Read more »

Get out the bugle horn! – Learn how to get your message out

Having the perfect message is only half the equation for good communication strategy. The other part is making sure your message gets to the right people. The impact of your communications depends on how many people you’re reaching. It would be like creating the perfect wedding invitation and sending it to the wrong people. LogicallyRead… Read more »

Hacking towards a solution – 7 elements of a successful gov hackathon

The Digital Government Strategy, the Open Data Directive, the Open Data policy and the Open Data Partnership agreement are all pushing agencies to find new ways to jumpstart innovation. Hackathons are the easiest and cheapest way to do that. The idea is simple, get a bunch of smart and talented programmers together, provide them withRead… Read more »

What Civic Innovation Looks Like Today and Tomorrow

Philadelphia has hired its first ever Director of Civic Technology. San Francisco, Boston and New York already have them. But what exactly do they do? And what about cities that can’t afford to have their own Civic Innovation Officers or Innovation hubs? Alissa Black is the Director of the California Innovation Project at the NewRead… Read more »

Preventing Crime with Email? Yup, it works!

Move aside CSI, there is a new law enforcement tool that is revolutionizing the way public safety organizations solve and prevent crimes: email. Email is the 21st century answer to tip lines, but it’s even better because it creates a two-way dialogue between the citizen and the police force. Email is able to leverage theRead… Read more »

Social Media in States – Status Report

Social media has revolutionized government’s interactions with its citizens. A new survey by NASCIO found 100% of state chief information officers said social media is apart of their business operations. 83% said they use Facebook. 81% use Twitter. 83% use Youtube. 80% of CIOs say social media is either essential or a high priority atRead… Read more »

Why Metrics Matter

The Administration is pushing for more performance metrics. They launched Performance.gov in June 2011. So how is it going? And why should these metrics matter? Dennis D. McDonald is an independent consultant. He has written a white paper on web-based performance metrics, “Developing Digital Strategies for Web-based Public Access.” He told Chris Dorobek on theRead… Read more »