Miscellaneous

Should Government Reorganize Itself? (Part IV)

Would “virtual agencies” be an effective alternative to traditional structural reorganization initiatives? If so, what needs done to make them happen? When Vice President Gore’s reinventing government team was being formed in the early 1990s, he encouraged it to not focus on reorganizing agencies and programs, but rather to fix what’s inside the agencies. HeRead… Read more »

What is the STOCK Act? Why are SESers up in arms?

We are hearing a LOT of concern out there about the STOCK Act— the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act. This is the bill –– now law — designed to deal with lawmakers using an insider scoop from making money off of that information. Essentially, it makes insider trading by lawmakers illegal, which is aRead… Read more »

Budget cuts and myriad services: The changing role of libraries

Library use is blooming in the US – but not necessarily because of books. As a tough economy makes jobs scarce and amenities like Internet too pricey for some, the resources libraries offer becomes a blessing. DorobekINSIDER’s Chris Dorobek spoke with Larry Eichel, Project Director of the Philadelphia Research Initiative at The Pew Charitable TrustsRead… Read more »

STOCK Act ruffles the SES, The Secret Sauce to Presidential Leadership and the Plight of Public Libraries

STOCK Act ruffles the SES, The Secret Sauce to Presidential Leadership, the Public Libraries Plight by GovLoop Insights We have a good program for you today Tuesday April 10, 2012. The STOCK Act…this is the law signed by President Obama last week. Did you know it has some real implications for federal senior executives? We’llRead… Read more »

Give Me 5: Women Owned Small Business Opportunity Forum Recap

Last Monday, I headed over to the State Department building to check out an event co-sponsored by Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) and American Express OPEN, the Give Me 5 Women Owned Small Business Opportunity Forum. The forum focused on helping women owned small businesses (WOSB) achieve 5% of government contracts, and had a plethoraRead… Read more »

What You Need To Know About TEDMED 2012

Chris Seper (Cleveland, OH) — What is TEDMED? That’s an odd question, if you’re coming from the perspective the event has been around for years. But this is not last year’s TEDMED (it’s not as heavily associated with the thought-leadership series TED as you may think). Last year, Priceline.com founder Jay Walker bought TEDMED forRead… Read more »

Democratizing Deliberation: pre-order this must-have book today

I’m really excited about a book that’s about to be published by the Kettering Foundation, called Democratizing Deliberation. We’re going to be working with Kettering to engage NCDDers around the book’s content, because we feel the book covers topics of great import to our field. It’s always challenging for practitioners to find the time toRead… Read more »

Update Your Business Case: Include the Hidden Costs of Cloud Computing

UNDER-ESTIMATED COSTS = UNDER-ESTIMATED RISK This was originally published on the Tri Tuns blog. It’s fairly well-known that we weigh many different factors when making a buying decision – some logical, some emotional. When purchasing cloud computing, it is easy to fixate on the most obvious factor – the monthly fee – while developing aRead… Read more »

Choke That Temptation

I was presiding over a science fair last week, when suddenly, a new class came in and no judges were noticing! I hurried to notify the judges, but was stopped by the press of happy students, happy judges, real learning just busting out all over. Then I thought to myself, these judges are Ph. Ds,Read… Read more »

It’s Getting Complicated – The MAS Program’s “Simplified” Acquisition Process

Guest Blogger: Phil Seckman, Partner, McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP A March 2, 2012, final rule requiring competition for certain orders placed under Federal Supply Schedule (“FSS”) contracts increases the burdens on agencies before schedule orders can be placed. The trend toward increased complexity is eroding GSA’s ability to legitimately tout the MAS program asRead… Read more »