John Boehner’s Tech Innovation Wave Into The Speaker’s Chair

Stan Freck (Park City, UT) – The pace of technological change and adoption is increasing rapidly, and even relatively traditional fields like politics and government are not immune from such evolution. Here, I briefly review how the Internet has impacted modern high-profile political campaigns, and take a special look at how in 2010 Rep. JohnRead… Read more »

New Calif. policy puts department heads on hook for IT purchases

The state of California is trying to build more accountability into their information technology purchases. In a policy letter, circulated by the newly renamed California Technology Agency, department-level directors will have to personally certify IT products and services previously approved at lower levels. According to IT Policy Letter (ITPL) 11-01, Department Directors will have toRead… Read more »

Thought for the day

When did a multi-million pound operation like a Council become reduced to ‘an organisation which provides libraries’? Some damn expensive libraries. And some abandoned other issues. Telling issues. Like youth centres. Like SureStart. Like all the voluntary sector funding gone. Like rural bus routes disappearing. I’m guessing some complaints might start appearing when the ‘10,000Read… Read more »

Paper returns to the National Library Reading Room

Greetings from the Main Reading Room of the National Library of Australia. Building work for the new “Treasures Gallery” and “Temporary Exhibition Gallery” had meant that new serials had been removed from the Main Reading Room to the Newspapers and Microforms Reading Room downstairs. This left the main reading rooms with a few token shelvesRead… Read more »

Digital Democracy Down-under

Chris Quigley, co-founder of Delib UK discussed Gov 2.0 over lunch today at Old Parliament house in Canberra. He outlined campaigns run for the former and current UK governments. One interesting point was that contrary to conventional wisdom, there was less legal liability where the public’s posting to a forum were not moderated before beingRead… Read more »

Observations from ASTD #TK11: Learning in 2015

by Damon Regan (ADL). Damon Regan is an Associate with Booz Allen Hamilton supporting the ADL Initiative. He is currently focused on registry and repository technology for managing learning content. Damon is a Ph.D. Candidate in Instructional Technology at the University of Central Florida. He has an MBA from Rollins College and a B.S. inRead… Read more »

Small Business Teaming Pilot Program

Congress’ Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 includes an array of provisions aimed at helping small businesses gain access to capital, compete for government contracting opportunities, expand exporting opportunities and obtain other assistance to help them grow and create jobs. One of those provisions is The Small Business Teaming Pilot Program which provides grants toRead… Read more »

Why does the public service have such a massive aversion to measurement?

Web Analytics Rock Star Avinash Kaushik answers this question: There is no tradition of accountability in almost every country when it comes to public service (there are some exceptions like Singapore). No accountability = very little desire to measure. There has to be fundamental massive change to a bureaucratic, siloed, politicized institution populated by non-relevantRead… Read more »