Clearing My Throat, ahem, I Meant My Keyboard…

Long before the Internet social networking was a diplomatic tool. The words “diplomatic” and “reception” go naturally together. So naturally that diplomats are negatively stereotyped as “cookie pushers” (i.e. spending all their time at receptions serving appetizers). But, no doubt about it, a core element of diplomacy is networking socially and professionally … and communicating.Read… Read more »

Loss vs Defeat

Although I rarely listen to the news these days, (Too much drama for me to digest in one sitting sometimes), I was compelled to listen to a story about a high school basketball team, whose story is a microcosm of life almost anywhere, almost anytown… You may have heard the story… I can truthfully say,Read… Read more »

Why I Tweet

I find Twitter to be an incredibly useful tool for me in my job. I have conversations with people who don’t get it, and I find myself making the same claims over and over again. I had an email exchange on the subject today, and once again I wrote it all out, so I thoughtRead… Read more »

Booz Allen Hamilton – Virtual Career Fair

Virtual Career Fair Registration Page – Get the word out! Booz Allen Hamilton – Information Technology Career Fair Above is the link to register for the Booz Allen IT Virtual Career Fair being held on March 18 from 10:00am – 4:00pm. Let’s start to get the word out – feel free to forward to candidates,Read… Read more »

The Cost of Transparency

Last week I wrote the following post on the Association of Government Accountants (AGA) website and thought it would be of interest to you. Accountability and transparency are two concepts on everyone’s minds (and blogs) these days, thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act). Accountability has been around for a while; itRead… Read more »

Federal Eye: Food (Safety) Fight

Lawmakers have proposed several competing measures in recent weeks to reform the nation’s food safety efforts and pump more money into the Food and Drug Administration, the nation’s primary food safety inspection agency. While the ideas have sparked a government-wide “food fight” over turf, ideology and funding, they come as the recent salmonella outbreak involvingRead… Read more »

The Crewe Astronomy Club

Virginia State Parks offer many wonderful events and programs all throughout the year. Many of these programs are free or very moderately priced which helps in today’s economy. I was lucky enough to attend one of these events at Pocahontas State Park this weekend when the Crewe Astronomy Club came to hold an educational programRead… Read more »

The Kansas Secretary of Transportation is bloggin’!

Kansas Transportation Secretary Deb Miller used her first blog post on K-TOC to explain her no-earmarks policy. I’m not competent to assess how innovative this is; maybe these days there are all sorts of state cabinet officials out there blogging the whys and wherefores of their policy thinking. But I’m thinking probably not. There’s beenRead… Read more »

“Ask Your Government”: Web 2.0 facilitates dialog between Citizens and Federal agencies

Check out the new blog by Ed O’Keefe (washingtonpost.com) “Ask Your Government,” where U.S. citizens ask questions and Federal agencies have the opportunity to provide answers using video clips that are imbedded within the blog. The NIST Weights and Measures Division and Metric Program were just featured http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2009/03/ask_your_government_when_will.html Excerpt: The latest answer comes in responseRead… Read more »

Let them write columns

Yesterday’s UK policy paper Working Together – Public Services on Your Side includes some encouraging noises about greater interaction with the public online and greater access to information – what some people call Government 2.0: “Renewed and reformed public services are the key to strong communities and a more socially mobile society. We will putRead… Read more »