Ever heard of the International Day For Biological Diversity (IDB)? The United Nations declared May 22nd the official date this year, and Invasive Alien Species is the theme. Invasive Aliens Species are widely recognized as a major component of human-induced global environmental change. Globalization allows that the transportation of animals, plants and microorganism to provideRead… Read more »
The Congress is gearing up to make major changes to the health care system in the US. Join us this Wednesday for a demonstration of an online tool developed by RAND for evaluating competing proposals. May Monthly Program: Exploring Options for Health Reform Wednesday, May 20, from 12 noon to 1pm Elizabeth McGlynn, Ph.D., andRead… Read more »
Good morning. It’s your weekly dose of TSP Talk. Stocks struggled on Friday as the Dow lost 63-points, and the C and S funds dropped about 1% each. At this point, a pullback is healthy, but will people be overly complacent and blindsided by something more severe? Let’s look for clues. The S&P 500 didRead… Read more »
There is a system on the Web that works as a kind of Wiki, for content in open vocabulary, executable English. English text (like this sentence) is normally something for a person to read, but it cannot be used as a program that you can run on a computer. On the other hand, executable EnglishRead… Read more »
I’ve recently been evaluating social networking software for a non-profit agency and I saw a type of collaborative ability I hadn’t seen before. A couple of the higher-end products claimed the whiteboarding and project collaboration group areas could actually be pushed outside corporate firewalls to allow collaboration with outsiders. This seems intriguing given the newRead… Read more »
Paul Posner, Director of the Public Administration Program at George Mason Univ and President of the American Society of Public Administration discussed the management challenges of sending money (the stimulus funds) through the Federal to State and Local government grantinging channels. Lots of built in accountability problems requiring trust in the state or county stakeholders.Read… Read more »
One of the interesting rubber hits the road things about social software is that it is all about the user. How do you engage them? make them productive? and leverage them? Below is some interesting insight about how in fact, with this focus on the user, that small changes can make a real difference. ThereRead… Read more »
You know the saying that if you want to get ahead in your job it’s wise to dress like the boss? Federal employees may also want to start exercising like him. As President Obama continues his health care reform efforts today, he’s asked aides to identify the best private-sector employee wellness and prevention practices andRead… Read more »
Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) has lifted his hold on the nomination of Craig Fugate to serve as the next FEMA director, ending a holdup criticized by the White House, Senate Democrats and some of Vitter’s Republican colleagues as an unnecessary delay fueled by campaign politics. Vitter held up a full Senate vote on Fugate amidRead… Read more »
In the past few weeks, the General Services Administration (GSA) has signed Terms of Service (TOS) agreements with a number of new media providers. The agreements signed by GSA were negotiated with the assistance of a number of federal agencies. The goal was to arrive at a TOS federal agencies would be comfortable enough withRead… Read more »