Back to basics: Understand the full cycle of business development to get more contracts

My 7-year-old daughter, when working on a puzzle, knows to glance at the whole picture first, before starting to assemble the pieces. So, her process is to study the picture, and then find a corner piece to which she then starts adding pieces. We, as adults, sometimes forget to take a step back and lookRead… Read more »

Reusable Civic Technology: Urban Legend or Urban Reality?

This year’s fellows have been hard at work building apps for their cities for almost six months now, and we’re starting to see the fruits of their efforts. Fellowship cities across the country — and the Code for America office — have been abuzz about product launches like Textizen in Philadelphia, Honolulu Answers in Honolulu,Read… Read more »

Feds Implement New Online Debarment Checking System

At the end of July, the website for checking whether a business is debarred or suspended from doing business with the federal government, the Excluded Parties List System (EPLS), was officially replaced by a new System for Award Management (SAM), and the transition has not been without its rough patches. Go to my blog forRead… Read more »

“Shaping Our Future” Launch on Sept. 4 in Washington DC

Our friend Harry Boyte, National Coordinator of the American Commonwealth Partnership, wanted NCDDers to be aware of the Shaping Our Future launch event taking place on September 4th in DC. Below is the media advisory that went out this week on the event, which launches a yearlong, nationwide series of citizen dialogues on how higherRead… Read more »

Thank you to this week’s Scholarship Fund donors!

Here we are at the end of the second week of our scholarship fund drive for the 2012 NCDD conference and we want to thank this week’s contributers for your generosity! Our goal is to raise $15,000 from our community to help people from diverse backgrounds make it to NCDD Seattle who may not otherwiseRead… Read more »

An Experiment in Crowd Funding, Community, and Official Languages

While it’s been years since I wrote Scheming Virtuously: A Handbook for Public Servants, interest in the document seems constant. Over the years I’ve invited people to contribute directly to the document on GCPEDIA, I’ve released an updated version myself, and even worked with my good friends at Govloop to spice it up visually. TheRead… Read more »

Adapting to being adaptable

We’re starting to see government agencies come to terms with modern digital technologies, with more and more people in agency seeking to use them in their activities. Agencies are beginning to operationalise social media and, while still working through the process, open licenses and data as well. Some in digital related-roles in government are startingRead… Read more »

Android Encryption Crackable, New MPEG Standard and more

This little Android won’t be so happy if you steal his data Researchers Show How to Crack Android Encryption – Thomas Cannon and Seyton Bradford have successfully shown brute force attacks against Android encryption at DEFCON. Because Android encryption is based on the Linux dm-crypt, it is easily broken on either Android 3.x or 4.xRead… Read more »

Mars Curiosity – Over Budget, Big Success?

This crops up all the time. What’s the definition of a ‘failed project’? Look at Mars Curiosity. The program was initially budgeted at around $1.5B and came in at $2.5B for development and launch. Sure, some people question that expense, but for the most part I think they just don’t ‘get it’ on the importanceRead… Read more »