States and localities were the front line for implementation of more than $275 billion in spending via more than 65 programs. They also faced pressures to spend, spend quickly, spend wisely – and report what they did in almost real-time. A new IBM Center report examines what happened in several cities in Virginia. In 2009,Read… Read more »
A Board Member of the Greater Metro-DC Region of Federally Employed Women (FEW; an educational-legal-support association for government employees) recently wrote, “Are you planning to write something for the 9/11 anniversary coming up. I bet a lot of people would like to hear you on this stress related topic. It’s going to be a veryRead… Read more »
My dishwasher has a bit of whatever the white goods equivalent is of bling. It has a display panel on the front conveying mostly irrelevant information fairly inefficiently. I assume it is intended to communicate whizzy modernity; it certainly doesn’t communicate much useful information. It cycles through three screens in, only one of which tellsRead… Read more »
Philip Ewing reports on a nightmare scenario for the Department of Defense. Suppose a worker’s Android phone is infected with malware, and she innocently plugs it into her work computer to charge and sync contacts. You can imagine the government IT workers turning green at the thought of thousands of unknown phones running unknown softwareRead… Read more »
I met a “professional mentor” last week. He is going to help some deserving senior managers. Not surprisingly, no one is buying. I’ve been treated to some astonishing mentors. In every case they were working full time on their own needs, and I became a lot sharper helping out. I remember when I came homeRead… Read more »
The Digital Transportation Exchange (DTE) is an online platform which seeks and supports innovation in global transportation initiatives. The US Department of Transportation (DOT) is championing this construct. Here is more info from their site at http://www.dot.gov/open/dte: The Digital Transportation Exchange (DTE) would connect citizens, businesses, state and local governments, industry, entrepreneurs, researchers, and investorsRead… Read more »
My thanks to Joel Sarfati, Director of 40 Plus of Greater Washington D.C. and Professor Ray Kimball of Montgomery College’s TechLeap Program for inviting me to give presentations on “How to Manage Social Media for Busy Professionals” last week. Both events had great audiences, and I appreciated the vigorous question-and-answer sessions. Two slide decks shareRead… Read more »
Legislative XML for the Semantic Web: Principles, Models, Standards for Document Management (Springer 2011), a collection of scholarly articles on the use of XML and Semantic Web technologies in connection with legislative information systems, has been published. The volume is edited by Professor Dr. Giovanni Sartor of Università di Bologna CIRSFID; Professor Dr. Monica PalmiraniRead… Read more »
Gadi Ben-Yehuda Mobile, Apps, and Embedable Maps Bryan Yurcan reports that financial institutions are turning to social media to communicate with their customers during disasters, while Neal Ungerleider reports that the Navy is turning more and more to Google+ for its communications needs. FEMA, meanwhile, has released an app for use in preparation for andRead… Read more »
If there were a key for ideas…maybe we would listen better. “We talk about innovation constantly, but step outside the chain of command and you get your hand slapped with the reminder that ‘You can’t understand the politics involved.’ The key to innovation is really believing that everyone has a worthwhile perspective — not sayingRead… Read more »