Tech

USDA Communications Moves To The Cloud

Today, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a massive move of its 120,000 employees to communications technology hosted in “the cloud,” the common term for Web-based services like email, instant messaging, and content management. This new initiative is part of a major consolidation of over 20 different email systems currently in use, andRead… Read more »

CB2: Simplicity for City Council

About 3 times per month my City Council in St. Petersburg meets to discuss and vote on local issues. Aside from knowing the name of my district representative, I generally have no idea what he’s voting on or if I should re-elect him. That’s a shame because (forgive the web-speak) he’s dealing with hyper-local issues:Read… Read more »

What Australian government data would you like to see online under an open reuse license?

The NSW government has introduced a new service where people can provide suggestions on what government information they would like to access via a web or mobile front-end. Thus far the eight suggestions focus heavily on public transport information – knowing when and where buses, trains and ferries may be found. You can add yourRead… Read more »

Guest Post | Social Media & First Responder Mental Health – Your Chance to Participate

Guest blogger: Tommy Hipper is currently pursuing his Masters degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and his proposed thesis is: How social media can be utilized to improve first responder mental health. The past few years have clearly demonstrated the power and value of social media in crisis situations. The examplesRead… Read more »

FIPS 140-2, Level 1 Secure Virtual Meetings Are Here!

Security is Among The Top Priorities to Consider When Evaluating Video Conferencing Tools – FIPS 140-2, Level 1 Security Is Here! Making a decision on which Video Conferencing tool provides the best solution for your needs has become increasingly more difficult, because there are so many vendors in this space, and new vendors are enteringRead… Read more »

Tools for Transparency: GovSM

This is a cross post from my original guest blog post at the Sunlight Foundation. By now, we’ve all heard about the social media wave and most of us have heard about Gov2.0 and governmental use (or their feeble attempts to use) social media. Though there have been many discussions amongst “good gov” people aboutRead… Read more »

White House hosts webchat on eve of open government directive anniversary

Tomorrow, December 8, is the one year anniversary of the White House Open Government Directive, which which required federal agencies to take steps to achieve key milestones in transparency, participation, and collaboration. Today at 2:20 PM EST, the first United States chief technology officer, Aneesh Chopra, will join OMB chief information officer Vivek Kundra andRead… Read more »