A few weeks ago I finished “What Technology Wants” by Kevin Kelly. For those unfamiliar with Kelly (as I was) he was one of the co-founders of Wired magazine and sits on the board of the Long Now Foundation. What Technology Wants is a fascinating read – both attracting and repulsing me on several occasions.Read… Read more »
Following the inaugural IRC chat earlier this month, we’ll be meeting again this coming Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 2pm Pacific (9pm Berlin): irc.freenode.net #edem The idea is to establish this as an additional standing backchannel to be used especially during conferences and events related to e-participation and e-democracy. In the meantime, we’ll do monthlyRead… Read more »
A key challenge in IT is dealing with all the different ‘camps’ of different makes and types of technologies. In Government this is particularly challenging right now, because simultaneously Government agencies are meant to embrace, adopt and master a variety of new technologies, including Web 2.0 social media, Cloud Computing, Open standards, Open software andRead… Read more »
I’ve been thinking about public sector innovation and how many times we re-invent the wheel and spend the same dollar over and over again. The following metaphor comes to mind: Imagine a big puffy down pillow. You push your fist into the pillow. As long as you keep your fist in place, the new shapeRead… Read more »
I enjoyed Steve Radick’s blog post on Govloop about implementing the Plain Writing Act. Steve speculates that it will take years (actually, he says “decades) to implement the Act. He gives several reasons, and they’re all good. I’ve read a number of opinion pieces about the new CustomerService Executive Order, saying, “Yeah, yeah, yeah –Read… Read more »
I had this post half written when I went away last weekend for my daughter’s college graduation. When I returned, I read these comments made by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at the e-G8, bemoaning the fact that people are still concerned about privacy on Facebook despite all its benefits for social change worldwide: We seeRead… Read more »
One of the headline sections of our Open Government Canada webinar will be the CMS Showcase. These will introduce the core building block of an Open Gov program, the Web CMS (Content Management System). For example Drupal, Joomla, Plone, RedDot, and many others. We’ll be covering these apps, their cool features and what’s the relevanceRead… Read more »
Timothy B. Lee of the Princeton University Department of Computer Science and Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP) has posted Studying the Frequency of Redaction Failures in PACER, on the CITP’s blog, Freedom to Tinker. In this post, Mr. Lee reports on research respecting documents from the U.S. federal courts’ PACER database. Using customized software,Read… Read more »
You can also read this post and watch the clip on BeltWiki Blog from WhoRunsGov.com. Originally posted there on May 25. This morning’s episode of Morning Joe was devoted to co-host Mika Brezinski’s book, Knowing Your Value: Women, Money and Getting What You’re Worth. Guests included Newsweek editor Tina Brown, Carole King, Norah O’Donnell andRead… Read more »
In todays Guardian Online, in the Comment is Free section, is either a) a scathing disparagement of Northern towns beginning with B, or b) someone’s attempt at humour gone utterly wrong. I work in Blackburn and live in Accrington, both towns located in an area of Northern England generally referred to as East Lancashire. BothRead… Read more »