Social media have been changing the way companies and government agencies operate since the middle of last decade–upending long-held ways of doing business and reshaping the relationship between government and citizens. Though more than 100 million Americans are members of a social media site like Facebook or Twitter, few government agencies have explicit policies forRead… Read more »
Why is it so hard for government to look for resources that already exist? As someone who’s managed social media accounts for the government I understand the challenge. The inclination is still for the need to “own” and “create” rather than collaborate. Even when it comes to training videos or conference entertainment, there is noRead… Read more »
“Every new movement needs heroes.” Tim O’Reilly said this in the recruitment video we made when we were just starting Code for America over two years ago. We were so grateful when the tech and design community answered our call, and we were grateful again when hundreds more applied for the second year. But nowRead… Read more »
This post is the conclusion to my write-up on the American Security Project‘s U.S. Drones Policy: Strategic Frameworks and Measuring Effects, which I introduced and delved into yesterday. The event was moderated by Joshua Foust, Fellow for Asymmetric Operations at ASP and columnist for PBS and The Atlantic Monthly. The panel of speakers consisted ofRead… Read more »
We’re in public service and that means getting the word out about the goings-on in government to the broadest reach possible. A few years ago we were webmasters. Today, we’re webmasters, digital media providers, social media managers, content managers, information architects, editors, and more. Today, we have to put information everywhere: on the web andRead… Read more »
Michele Flournoy, former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, had an interesting opinion piece in the Washington Post on Reforming an Outmoded Government. Federal agencies typically lack the expertise and experience to transform themselves into more effective and affordable enterprises With rising budgets (like the past decade), the focus tends to be on growth, notRead… Read more »
Here is today’s federal cybersecurity and information technology news: As part of Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel’s digital strategy to make application programming interfaces “the new default in government,” U.S. foreign assistance payments, nuclear reactors’ daily event reports and a national sex offender registry will soon be released with API’s to allow automatically updated streamingRead… Read more »
Out & Equal is hosting a one-day Federal Leadership Seminar on Monday, October 29, at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland. The goals of the seminar are to: bring together agencies to share best practices; provide training on how to implement best practices; create an opportunity to learn from government contractors; and incorporate globalRead… Read more »
I gave a brief talk recently on how to effectively build teams. These are the main lessons I shared: 1. Build trust. No one will follow someone they don’t trust. I cited Steven M.R. Covey’s The Speed of Trust as my guidebook for doing so. Covey cites 13 principles for earning and keeping trust. IRead… Read more »
The term “no comment” is conventionally viewed among government communicators and media relations professionals as leaving a negative perception with the interviewer and the audience. This is because “no comment” often implies there’s something sinister going on – whether that’s true or not. Why “No Comment”? “It seems obvious after the fact, but ‘no comment’Read… Read more »