KDOT jumps into social media

The Kansas Transportation Online Community launched January 14, 2009. K-TOC is a project of the Kansas Department of Transportation, and is a major element in the Department’s exploration of social media and new technology as instruments of public outreach. By the standards of conventional government, KDOT is an early-adopter agency; in addition to K-TOC, theRead… Read more »

What Does ‘Transparency’ Really Mean?

At CGI Federal, where I now work as a “thought leadership” editor, we’ve been mulling the meaning of transparency lately. Current parlance seems to have it meaning things like posting legislation and regulations for comment, posting videos of speeches and directions via YouTube or other such services, agencies getting on Twitter. All sorts of public-facingRead… Read more »

Lessons from Diplopedia: As tweeted at the Social Media for Government Conference in Ottawa today

This is another easy blog entry. I’ve just scanned through the Twitter stream emerging from a conference session, removing duplication, so that we sitting at our desks can reap the highlights of what was said. Let me know what you think of the concept and the format. In this session, Bruce Burton presented on Diplopedia,Read… Read more »

The Art of Data Modeling – what a IT manager, Project Manager and CIO should know…

Ok, this may appear to be some geek blog about the architecture of relational databases. Or you may pass up this blog for fear of not understanding the terminology geeks tend to push in their blogs. But the term data modeling is something any IT manager/CIO should seriously add to their vocabulary. Especially if youRead… Read more »

Scaling the Walls of Wikipedia

Adding entries in Wikipedia that describe your agency or services is a grand idea. Foolish me. I thought Wikipedia was a free-for-all, wild-wild-west, kinda web site. Got something to post? No problem, this ain’t your momma’s Brittanica, just throw it on up there. Last week, the creator of the Animal Science Image Gallery asked meRead… Read more »

Reflections On The Role of a Federal Chief Technology Officer

Had interview today with Federal News Radio on the role of the Chief Technology Officer. Here are some key points: 1. The CTO is a subject matter expert on technology modernization, transformation and deployment of new technology in the agency. 2. The CTO is responsible to work with the lines of business and IT toRead… Read more »

Government, Twitter, and the News

Last Wednesday, a tweet was sent from @rdsahl: Gov Patrick: WashPost blog floats your name for HHS. Are you in the mix? Would you take if offered. Thanks. Fortunately, staff in the Governor’s Office was watching Twitter. They not only look for tweet “replies” directly to @MassGovernor, but also use Twitter Search‘s RSS feature andRead… Read more »

EPA’s Approach to Social Media and Accessibility

A few weeks ago, there was a vibrant discussion on the Gov’t Web Mgrs Forum (open only to gov’t employees) about how to both ensure accessibility and use social media sites like YouTube. There are as many interpretations of what’s required and what’s best practice as there are people discussing these issues. So I tookRead… Read more »