Code for America fellows work on a wide variety of projects with their city partners, other organizations, community members, and interested civic hackers. The applications that fellows create range from whimsical to serious, and from simply making a point to potentially making a profit. However, in the nascent arena that combines open and transparent data,Read… Read more »
In the wake Septempber 11th, letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to offices across Washington, including several Senate offices, killing five people, sickening others, and creating an atmosphere of fear and unease across the country every time someone opened a letter. Arthur Friedlander, now Senior scientist at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of InfectiousRead… Read more »
Wondering how Penn State is dealing with the hurt, anger, and conflicting emotions and opinions brought on by the Sandusky trial? Penn State’s Center for Democratic Deliberation, an NCDD organizational member directed by Dr. J. Michael Hogan, has been encouraging deliberation about the crisis on campus. Here’s a long excerpt from a thoughtful and resource-richRead… Read more »
I am so tired about hearing all the benefits of telework. I came from an Agency that had some of the first telework programs in government way back in the early 1980s. If you needed someone back then, you called and called and hoped you reached them. When the Agency determined it wasn’t working theyRead… Read more »
Continued from last time… In my previous post, I explained that I’m trying to gather data on the number of social media users within a geographic area. I’m basically attempting to answer the question: “what is the actual take-up of social media in Hampshire?” (which is where I live and work). All change The OfcomRead… Read more »
Last week, Ryan provided a great summary of Terracotta’s capabilities. Terracotta’s solutions help your applications scale to a growing user base and handle Big Data without massive costs or diminishing performance. The video above provides a brief introduction that makes it easy to understand how they accomplish this. Terracotta also produced a video on whatRead… Read more »
For the month of July, Eric Erickson will be taking over this blog from Julie. Eric is Julie’s ‘work husband’ from the IRS Recruitment office. My 92-year old grandfather passed away a couple weeks ago. Along with my younger cousin, I was asked to give a eulogy, and was – naturally – more than happyRead… Read more »
This morning I presented at the Reading Room Digital Conversations forum to a group of Singaporean government officials on the topic of Transforming public engagement through social media. I talked through how connected Australia had become, and pointed out that the goals of public engagement have not really changed (using the IAP2 model to illustrate),Read… Read more »
Peter Levine is in the middle of co-teaching his Summer Institute of Civic Studies and using his blog to share his notes for roughly half of the 18 topics they cover in their extraordinary class. Yesterday morning’s discussion focused on Jürgen Habermas — a communication theorist referenced often by scholars in our field. Here’s justRead… Read more »
The mixed messages commenting on the state of the economy are confusing at best, and offer little of use for planning and forecasting in the business or government sectors. Conflicting variables affecting budget, scope, and demand add to the complexity. The uncertainty and inertia leads to delays in new initiatives by the decision-makers in organizations.Read… Read more »