June 7: Effectively Applying Mobile Technologies to the World Bank’s Development Planning

Via the MobileActive listserve: “Join Us!Effectively Applying Mobile Technologies to the World Bank’s Development Planning Thursday, June 7, 201211:30 am – 12:30pm ESTOnline Webinar Using mobile technologies to achieve development goals (M4D) could present a tremendous opportunity to rapidly meet development objectives, including promoting transparency, supporting skill development, increasing access to health care and education,Read… Read more »

123,000 Federal Social Security Numbers Stolen, $755 for Homeland Security Cyber, and More

Here is today’s federal cybersecurity and information technology news: The State Department purchased anti-Al Qaeda ads on affiliate websites to counter their message and did not, as initial reports claim, hack the Al Qaeda sites. More here. The WikiBoat, a new hacking group, launched its operation #OpNewSon which aims to breach and take down theRead… Read more »

That Other Memorial Day

Memorial Day is for remembering our family and loved ones. Memorial Day is also remembering and venerating George Orwell’s Rough Men. Perhaps there is a third memorial, for a time gone by, for our changing way of life. I may be too close to see the whole, I get occasional glimpses. Technology opens a steadyRead… Read more »

The Future is NAO

NAO: A humanoid programmable robot with a mind of its own. This little robot (57 cm) may have big plans to walk into the life of every human being. Created by Aldebaran Robotics with the launch of Project NAO in 2004, this robot has slowly been gaining popularity in the technological world. Academic systems haveRead… Read more »

The superstructure cannot determine the base

An integrated organisation can deliver an integrated service. But an integrated service is unlikely to be able to deliver an integrated organisation. That though is a distinction which is easily missed, not least in thinking about joining up government services, where the hoped for magic of an integrated web platform leading to seamless information andRead… Read more »

Bendable; posable; flexible

How many times do you see ‘flexible working’ in a job description and wonder what it actually means? As a term it could cover a multitude without clarification – does it mean flexi-time, or only if you’ve got children to pick up from school? Does it mean you can occasionally work from home, or againRead… Read more »

Workshop on Rescuing Failed Projects

Sometimes it’s difficult to navigate through a project that has gone down the wrong path. Thought some of you might be interested in this workshop offered by the American Strategic Management Institute: Rescuing and Recovering Failing Projects What you will learn: ANTICIPATE Potential Problems and Weaknesses in Your Project Plans Conduct root cause analysis (RCA)Read… Read more »

Social Networks: An Alt-Org Chart

Dan Chenok recently emailed me and John Bordeaux a New York Times story and asked us for our opinions. The articles was “From a Facebook Founder Comes a Way to Streamline Work Flow,” and the quote that moved Dan to ask for our input was this: Dustin Moskovitz [a Facebook Co-Founder] thinks this is aRead… Read more »

The I Lost My Wallet – Doing Government Service Delivery Right

A couple of years ago I was in Portugal to give a talk on Gov 2.0 at a conference the government was organizing. After the talk I went for dinner with the country’s CIO and remember hearing about a fantastic program they were running that – for me – epitomized the notion of a citizenRead… Read more »

Weekly Round-up – May 25, 2011

Gadi Ben-Yehuda Where we’re going and how we’ll get there. Two big events this week dominated my twitter feed and imagination: the release of the administration’s memorandum “Digital Government: Building a 21st Century Platform to Better Ser ve The American People” and the announcement by Todd Park and Steven VanRoekel of a new “Presidential InnovationRead… Read more »