Sunlight Foundation: Sunlight Weekly Roundup: “Initiatives for 'open government' either improve access or hinder it."

While summarizing the changes Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst hopes to implement with the Senate Select Committee on Open Government, Curt Olsen reminds, “Initiatives for ‘open government’ either improve access or hinder it.” Olsen maintains that each change should be watched carefully, as, “ State lawmakers can pass laws that enhance openness and transparency orRead… Read more »

Contract Duplication Challenges Continue

Contract Duplication remains a challenge for government and industry and is an issue that the Coalition will continue to highlight in the interest of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the procurement system. Duplicative contracts for the same or similar commercial products and services increase government and contractor administrative, bid and proposal and other overheadRead… Read more »

Georgia considers bill to curb municipal broadband

Some Georgia lawmakers are taking a page from North Carolina’s playbook in order to limit municipal broadband projects in the state. Georgia Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers is sponsoring a bill that he says is designed to keep government from unfairly competing against incumbent broadband providers. The bill makes the same kinds of arguments includedRead… Read more »

1967 called. They want their Performance Management System back.

GEAR. The Performance Management Pilot you’ve never heard of. In November 2011, the Employee Performance Management Workgroup put forth a set of recommendations to help catapult our federal government into the arena of 21st century performance strategy. The five key goals they’d like agencies to address are as follows: Articulate a High-Performance Culture Align EmployeeRead… Read more »

Hadoop Quickstart: Use Whirr to automate standup of your distributed cluster on Rackspace

We have previously provided a Quickstart guide to standing up Rackspace cloud servers (and have one for Amazon servers as well). These are very low cost ways of building reliable, production ready capabilities for enterprise use (commercial and government). And Bryan Halfpap has provided a Quickstart guide which shows you how to build a HadoopRead… Read more »

Strategic & Tactical Advantages of Custom Web-Based Training

If you’re interested in developing custom web-based training courses for your employees, but you’re having trouble getting upper management to buy-in, we can help. Knowing the strategic and tactical advantages of web-based training can help you convince decision makers that web-based training is appropriate for your team. It’s hard to list out all of theRead… Read more »

Who’s the boss?

Every good, successful team is lead by an effective leader. Part of your organization’s media plan must focus on your team’s structure, even if there are just two members. A social media team is only as knowledgeable and functional as its players…with a leader who delegates responsibility and provides guidance towards achieving objectives and establishingRead… Read more »

Exploring the evolution of insurance exchanges: The final installment

Deltek Analyst Amanda White reports. Today marks the final day of Deltek’s health care and social services team’s blog series centered on the recently-released report, “Evolving Health Insurance Exchanges.” The report takes a nationwide dive into implementation processes and state statuses in instituting these novel systems. It also provides high-level advice for government contractors forRead… Read more »

Call for Papers on “Reducing Urban Poverty”

From the University Partnerships Clearinghouse: “To encourage a new generation of urban policymakers and to promote early career research, USAID’s Urban Programs Team, International Housing Coalition (IHC), World Bank, Woodrow Wilson Center’s Comparative Urban Studies Project (CUSP), and Cities Alliance are co-sponsoring a third annual paper competition. The competition seeks paper submissions for an upcomingRead… Read more »

Call for Papers on “Reducing Urban Poverty”

From the University Partnerships Clearinghouse: “To encourage a new generation of urban policymakers and to promote early career research, USAID’s Urban Programs Team, International Housing Coalition (IHC), World Bank, Woodrow Wilson Center’s Comparative Urban Studies Project (CUSP), and Cities Alliance are co-sponsoring a third annual paper competition. The competition seeks paper submissions for an upcomingRead… Read more »