Part-time workers closing the gap for state government

According to census data, cash strapped state governments are firing public employees and replacing them with part-timers at an increased rate. Census numbers show that nationwide, state governments have lost over 200,000 public employees leaving much of the work to be done by part time employees. Many states are grappling with the cost of pensionsRead… Read more »

The City Bus System, Redesigned

Ten Years After Redefining BRT, What’s Next for TransMilenio? from Streetfilms on Vimeo. We’re always on the lookout for new, innovative urban transit systems. TransMilenio, captured by Streetfilms, more than fits the bill. Original post

States, Localities Inspire Federal Data-Driven Management

The New York City Police Department launched it vaunted CompSTAT more than a decade ago. This data-driven management approach inspired dozens of other cities and several states to adopt it to run their operations as well. Now it is being pioneered in federal agencies and will likely spread quickly with the encouragement of Congress andRead… Read more »

Daily Dose: Pentagon Accepts Alternative Energy Options

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus has announced that the Navy and Marine Corps will be shifting towards alternative energy to “make us better war fighters.” As the nation’s single biggest energy consumer, the Pentagon has many reasons to want to diversify its fuel sources. Mabus and others say the move toward alternative energy is about nationalRead… Read more »

GovBytes: The highs and lows of young feds

Over at GovExec, an article posits that although younger feds start off their government careers with overall satisfaction, their contentment is on a steady decline after a period of three years. The nonprofit Partnership for Public Service this month released a study showing that 75.3 percent of new government workers under the age of 30Read… Read more »

A Chronicle of Enterprise Software History

Editor’s note: This post by Derek Singleton of Software Advice reviews more extensive work at: Origins of Modern Computing. At Software Advice we recently undertook an ambitious project. After spending countless hours analyzing modern enterprise resource planning (ERP) software developments, we decided to look into the past to understand how we got to where weRead… Read more »

Something’s fishy with farecards

With last week’s launch of the Merseytravel (UK) Walrus card, both Creative Review and The Guardian got to wondering: What is the “watery trail” that seems to link so many smart cards? Hong Kong has the Octopus, London has the Oyster, Seattle has ORCA, Wellington has Snapper, and San Francisco has the Clipper card. TheRead… Read more »

FCC seeks comment on NG911

Deltek Analyst Kristin Howe reports. Last Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission adopted and released a notice of proposed rulemaking for the deployment of text-to-911, next generation 911 (NG911) applications, and an NG911 framework. The goal of this notice is to “accelerate the development and deployment of next generation 911 technology that will enable the publicRead… Read more »