Check out my article, Lessons from The West Wing, in the Austin-based literary journal, Black Heart Magazine. It’s about a trip I took to the set of The West Wing during its final season of filming. I got to go for winning the Film DC Screenwriting Competition for my feature-length script, Mount Pleasant. While behindRead… Read more »
Optimism is rising among small business owners, but, according to a recent Citibank survey, the rosier outlook may not lead to more hiring, Dow Jones Newswire reports today. While more than 80% of small company CEOs think that 2011 will be better than 2010, only 14% say they will hire additional employees. Unfortunately, this isRead… Read more »
Increasingly governments are looking for new and more impactful ways to communicate with citizens. There is a slow but growing awareness that traditional sources of outreach, such as TV stories and newspaper advertisements are either not reaching a significant portion of the population and/or have little impact on raising awareness of a given issue. TheRead… Read more »
Gadi Ben-Yehuda New for Govvies (especially Muni-Govvies): Krisy Fifelsky, the Web Services Manager for the City of Reno, Nevada, has overhauled her blog and added a video feature. GovGirl.com. Check it out! NASA and State Department in the Social Media Spotlight. Articles on Ragan and HuffPo hlighlight the work of these two federal agencies inRead… Read more »
The web is integral to my work. Here’s a mockup of my workstation on a typical workday (Note that dual monitors are integral to this set up)(click to enlarge): Tweetdeck (for Twitter) Tweetdeck is open almost all day, and I am constantly paying partial attention to it. I have a it broken down into multipleRead… Read more »
Today Salt Lake Valley Health Department and the Utah Public Health Association spent the day “On The Hill”, speaking to Utah House Representatives about public health bills in the 2011 General Session. With my microphone in hand, I was lucky enough to speak to both supporters and sceptics of bills such as HB 102 ElectronicRead… Read more »
I just read an article that featured memory competitions. For example, at the USA Memory Championship, participants compete in 10 events. One event involves memorizing random digits in a short time and repeating as many as possible. Another is memorizing the order of a card deck and repeating it as fast as possible. I thinkRead… Read more »
With support from the White House, the US Department of Education has launched an impressive effort to engage young people in policymaking. First, they announced a National Youth Summit to galvanize youth to shape strategies to provide pathways for all youth – those who are in middle and high school as well as those whoRead… Read more »
Yesterday the Government Accounting Office (GAO) announced that the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Personnel Security Clearance Program has been removed from the GAO’s list of programs facing significant management challenges. DOD processes the majority of all government-wide security clearances. Clearance processing timelines improved with 90% of initial clearances complete within 49 days, against a targetRead… Read more »
This week I came to the realization that the majority of people have a totally wrong view of what it’s like to work for government. I guess having worked in government for so long now, I take for granted all the rules, regulations, oversight, and general culture in the workplace. And I assumed with allRead… Read more »