Why you should care about near field communications
The new partnership between NJ TRANSIT and Google Wallet has the potential to change the way people travel and shop, according to a post in Tnooz. Original post
Project Management
Finding Innovation
Last week I tried to connect the idea of disruptive innovation to Lewis Hyde’s anthropological analysis of the mythological trickster. The comparison hinged on a couple ideas, namely that both are focused on the breaking of traditional trade-offs, and that breaking those trade-offs results in a re-ordering of the status quo, a re-ordering that revealsRead… Read more »
A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 61
Day 61 Balancing Budget Line Items I finally completed the analysis of my budget and identified two line items that needed to have funds amended to agree with the actual expenditures. Fortunately there were amounts in related funds that I could amend to a lower amount so the overall change to my division’s budget isRead… Read more »
Feds revoke $80m grant from Louisiana for mismanagement
Louisiana has lost an $80 million rural broadband grant for failing to keep their broadband expansion project on track. The Commerce Department rescinded the grant stating that the project administrators were repeatedly unresponsive to requests for information and updates on where the project stood. Senator Mary Landrieu has said that her state missed an opportunity,Read… Read more »
Hybrid or “Blended” Education – After Week One
“Why is that, do you think,” I ask my students, “we say blended instead of hybrid here? Usually the first thing a teacher, an instructor, a professor or a trainer does is write the class a welcome letter. I have just had my second class with two classes in different locations. One class is urbanRead… Read more »
PMP Exam Tip: Interpersonal Skills a PMP Needs: 8. Negotiation
In Appendix G, the PMBOK Guide discusses Interpersonal Skills for the project manager. We are currently reviewing these one by one in our weekly PMP exam tip and we have reached the last one in the series: Negotiation. The nature of the role of a project manager makes it essential for them to have goodRead… Read more »
A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 60
Day 60 Culvert Lining Project Today was the day the liner was delivered for our culvert lining project. The placement of it seemed to go well. The contractor will finish grouting the annular space tomorrow. A resident did stop by to tell us we didn’t know what we were doing, and it would never work,Read… Read more »
Zombie Graphic Novel on Emergency Prep Created by Former Contractors and CDC Career Feds
Originally published by Anthony Critelli on GovWin Following the success of the Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse blog in May, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR) recently created the Preparedness 101: Zombie Pandemic [PDF] graphic novel to teach the importance of emergency preparedness. We caught up withRead… Read more »
Changing government culture the open source way
Can an entrenched bureaucracy, encumbered by a rigid culture and public records compliance adapt open source ways to collaborate more effectively? Is it like pulling teeth just to get people to share ideas? Is that devil’s advocate bringing your team down? If you want results, try something different. Use open communications and transparency with yourRead… Read more »
Updates on Dronegate
Since I wrote my fist post on the virus affecting the drone fleet at Creech Air Force base, information has begun to trickle in and some interesting commentary has emerged. The Air Force has followed their official press release stating that the virus, which they say was a credential stealer, was merely a nuisance withRead… Read more »