Should we retire old public servants? A view from Australia

Hi Folks – Nothing like a wintery day in Canberra to get the brain ticking over. Does your jurisdiction or department look like this? OK. Now that I’ve set myself up for being somewhat discriminatory consider this. The age profile of the APS is predominantly middle aged and upward. 45 to 55 + account forRead… Read more »

Happy 235th Birthday to the U.S. Army

What a great trivia question that bars across the country should be using at their trivia nights. Did you do the math and realize the U.S. Army was founded before the country was founded? On June 14, 1775 the Continental Congress approved the creation of the Continental Army. Check out the full story here: http://www.army.mil/-news/2010/06/09/40562-continental-congress-authorizes-army/index.html.Read… Read more »

PeDALS (Persistent Digital Archives and Library System) and Government Information

The Persistent Digital Archives and Library System (PeDALS) Project is a major U.S.-based digital preservation project, that is of interest to the government information community. A primary objective of the PeDALS Project is to develop a system for preserving digital records of state and local government agencies, including legal records. The partners in the PeDALSRead… Read more »

DC Week Kick Off Party

Last night was the DC Week Kickoff Party, hosted by Palantir and held at Long View Gallery. It was a big event with close to 1000 people in attendance. A friend best described the event to me as a “kids birthday party but for adults”. There were various stations of art, photography, dancing, music andRead… Read more »

US Patent & Trademark Data Available Free in Bulk XML / TIFF from Google

Full text XML, TIFF images, and bibliographic data for U.S. patents and trademarks are now available for bulk download free of charge from Google, according to a June 2, 2010 press release from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The trademark information includes data from 1870 to present, and the patent information includes dataRead… Read more »

Greenberg on Preserving Legislative Digital Records

Pam Greenberg of the National Conference of State Legislatures has published Preserving Legislative Digital Records (2010). Here is the abstract: In the last decade, technology and the Internet have opened access to the legislative process and created new ways for citizens to interact with their elected representatives. Legislative documents are created, tracked and transmitted electronically,Read… Read more »

NCAA Division 1 College Football – Conference Realignment – from the Hokie Guru, Govloop’s Bureaucrat on Sports

What a week for college football!! According to Mark Schlabach, here’s what’s at stake in the high stakes of college football realignment. Let the Hokie Guru remind you… the only think that matters in college athletics is the money… we all would like to think that the student athlete matters in major college athletics… andRead… Read more »

Your Government Hero Day

Luke Fretwell, the person behind the GovFresh web site, is talking about Government 2.0 Hero Day for next Tuesday, June 15th. This day focuses on spreading the love, the appreciation, for a job well done to those people who work in your local government, your federal agencies, and any place else that public employees hangRead… Read more »