What sets Chattanooga, Tenn. apart from the rest of the nation? One gigabit-per-second. With the fastest Internet speeds available, our city has now launched a no-nonsense “geek hunt.” We’re offering up to $300,000 in cash and seed capital to students and entrepreneurs who are willing to participate in the Gig Tank. The Gig Tank isRead… Read more »
Search the Weekly Spark Browse Issue By Date The Weekly Spark often includes information that may interest military members and members of and their families. This newsletter occasionally also suggests passing a copy along to a friend. Accordingly, I try to comply. Please consider doing the same. (mike moldeven, private citizen) ~~~~~~~~ The Weekly SparkRead… Read more »
Joel Reyes (Charlotte, NC) — As I do every month, I present five of my favorite apps. This month, I’ve curated apps which are meant for your average consumer or citizen, but better connect them to information of a public / civic sector nature. We start with information about the entire world, and end withRead… Read more »
Kim Nelson (Chevy Chase, MD) — It’s the holiday season, and as usual there is a media frenzy over consumers, what they are buying, and more importantly, what it may or may not mean. In the issue of Time that I received on Cyber Monday an article by Stephen Gandel titled “The Shopping Bag Indicator”Read… Read more »
How many times have you clicked a box to add your name to one of those “Make the world a better place. Sign our petition now” email links? Congratulations. You are a lobbyist. Have you ever accepted one whose purpose was to eliminate lobbyists? Congratulations. You are confused. It’s become fashionable to gripe about lobbyingRead… Read more »
Tim Clark, Government Executive, Charlie Allen, INSA, John Fitzpatrick, National Archives On the whole we’ve slain the dragon of taking months, if not years, to process clearances on the front end. Anecdotally there are still horror stories, but there’s no denying great strides have been made. From an average of 446 days to process initialRead… Read more »
As a father of three children, including my three-month old son Charlie, I’m a big fan of the new NBC show Up All Night that deals with working parents struggling to balance family and careers. Focused on the holidays, the most recent episode played off the stress of the season to great comedic effect. AmidRead… Read more »
While my younger and immensely more social media savvy colleague beseeches me to weigh in on trending topics and news stories as soon as possible, I sometimes like to wait a day or two, not only to ruminate on the points made, but also to see how others respond to the information. Not surprisingly, IRead… Read more »
Originally posted at opensource.com. The theme that emerged from the first CityCamp Honolulu, held on December 3 (the 17th CityCamp held worldwide), was restoring citizen confidence in their government. In a very collaborative and participatory atmosphere, organizers looked to citizens to generate ideas for the City of Honolulu’s upcoming Code for America project and toRead… Read more »
Mousetrap, 1870, John O. Kopas (Inventor), George W. Bauer (Inventor), mixed media, 10 x 8 1/2 x 9 in. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Alan and Ann Rothschild, 2011.37.15 The American Art Museum is no stranger to invention. The building that houses the museum was formerly the United States Patent Office (President Andrew JacksonRead… Read more »