Faster Security Clearances, Counterfeit Microchips, and More

Here is today’s federal cybersecurity and information technology news: The Office of Personnel Management has decreased the average length of a federal background investigation from 145 to 36 days with electronic forms and increased automation. More here. Rep. Mike McCaul proposes reversing a 2008 Department of Homeland Security policy that stopped providing organizations with informationRead… Read more »

Cloud Storage: Are you a believer?

Flavor Flav once said “don’t believe the hype,” but should we when it comes to cloud computing? In administrative circles it seems to be the talk of the town, and certainly has benefits, though it’s still developing as a way to store data. Christopher Dorobek of the DorobekINSIDER recently sat down with Jim Sweeney, ChiefRead… Read more »

CFPB Design + Technology Fellows: Changing the way the Government does Tech

The mission of the CFPB is to make markets for consumer financial products and services work for Americans. Technology and innovation are essential to our ability to achieve our consumer protection mission. That’s why we’re launching a first of its kind technology hiring initiative – the Design+Technology Fellows program. The CFPB Design+Technology Fellowship is aRead… Read more »

Enhancing GSA, Supplier Relationships

Guest Blogger: Carolyn Alston, Executive Vice President and General Counsel I read with interest Steve Kempf’s, testimony before the Small Business Subcommittee on Contracting and Workforce. Kempf, who is GSA’s Commissioner for the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) acknowledged that GSA needs greater agility, federal agencies need faster access to emerging solutions, and GSA needs toRead… Read more »

GovBytes: Facebook releases location check-in infographic

Checking into locations can be entertaining; trust me, I’m the trainspotter champion on Foursquare. But it can also be dangerous, as children have access to geolocation apps which can attract predators and adults aren’t always much wiser when checking in. However, it can be difficult to not check in to landmark locations such as TimesRead… Read more »

How an “Open Project” Approach Can Change the World

How do you tackle a large-scale, complex challenge that evolves over time, involves thousands of stakeholders, and where there is no clear solution? For example, is there a road map for how the Internet evolved? Could we do it again? IBM Center author David Witzel examines the evolution of the Internet over the past fourRead… Read more »

Book Club Week 3: An Aristotelian Understanding of Political Deliberation

This post is part of NCDD Book Club series on Democratizing Deliberation published by the Kettering Foundation last month. In this post, we discuss Bernard Yack’s chapter about Aristotle’s understanding of political deliberation and how it compares to the views of today’s deliberative democracy advocates. The authors of this blog post are Sarah Read ofRead… Read more »

Absenteeism in the Public Sector – Is cutting jobs really the solution?

A recent report by the CBC has pegged the cost of federal public service absenteeism at $1B per year. According to the CBC story, the average public servant is taking 18 days a year in sick leave, double what their private sector counterpart does in that same year. While the story does discuss fairly obviousRead… Read more »