In just a few weeks, our inaugural class of fellows will be coming together in San Francisco for the first time. These are folks from all kinds of different backgrounds and strengths, who will be spending a year putting their heads together to find creative solutions to civic problems. This is an exciting but challengingRead… Read more »
I’m a little bit obsessed with action. The who, what, where and when of how things start, and how the just starting and doing differs from the timely thinking and planning. When looking for examples of people who have the just do it mindset, one of my favorite examples is the community Threadless. If youRead… Read more »
Last Friday it was class time. At least symbolically. At the George Washington University the “Gov 2.0 Startup Lab” event was scheduled. Besides the mix of Social Media presenters, innovative Change Makers and Techies, it was time to infect the government with some great entrepreneurial spirit. After a couple of individual presentations the first panelRead… Read more »
For people who are on the cutting edge of the Gov 2.0 movement, we often forget that a majority of government employees are still not enthusiastic about the potential of the new social networking technologies in their workplace. Now many of these folks are using Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc. to keep up with their familyRead… Read more »
I know that we are all inundated with news events that have placed so much stress on us! Our questionable economy, foreclosures, rising health care cost, military family away from home, and continued job loss has overwhelmed many. You may have read a similar article I wrote last year regarding showing gratitude but I thinkRead… Read more »
Mom always said, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all” She didn’t mean that we couldn’t disagree, discipline or even tell the truth – but there is a way to communicate that isn’t derogatory, hurtful or intentionally inflammatory. The sarcasm or brutal honesty characterized by The Simpsons or American Idol, isRead… Read more »
When Significant Capital Needs Precede Customer Payments on Government Contracts -by Richard Lewis, Financial Engineering Counselors, Ltd. The Good News: Your Company has landed a new Government contract, one that will result in a significant increase in revenues. The Challenge: In order to fulfill this contract, you must commit to additional people (payroll), training, materials,Read… Read more »
This post began as “Is Everyone a Leader?.” I quickly realized that this is truly determined though the crashing together of needed skills, desire or duty, the situation, and timing. John Wayne typically played characters that are leaders – people follow him over the hill or turn to him for “The Plan.” To the contrary,Read… Read more »
Last week the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) held their second Cloud Computing Forum and Workshop. Skillfully shepherded by Ms. Dawn Leaf, the agency’s senior executive of cloud computing, the event reinforced the US Federeal government’s move towards the cloud. Of particular note to me was the cloud computing simulation model project, knownRead… Read more »
[Crossposted to PMF Info blog here] The list of 2011 PMF nominations came out a couple of days ago. I’ve been too busy to do more than glance over the list, but figured I would point out the stats from the top. Of the over 9100 applicants, 7482 were nominated by their schools. Next week,Read… Read more »