I had a really great conversation with one of my coworkers the other day about the concept of “plain language” which really got me thinking about writing across all parts of government–local, state, federal… Here in the federal government, we talk about plain language–which is the idea that language should be easy to understand forRead… Read more »
On Monday, June 8, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a final memorandum mandating that all Federal websites implement HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure). By December of 2016, all Federal websites will need to implement HTTPS for all communications. Why the Mandate? Privacy, web communications, and encryption are certainly in theRead… Read more »
Keeping people’s attention is important for government communicators. When we tell a story, people need to remember more than one weird trick.
People move around a lot in the field of city and county management; I have an Outlook database that can prove it. And when the city manager or another leader leaves, it’s tempting for a government to try to have other staffers cover that work until someone new is hired. I think it’s almost alwaysRead… Read more »
It’s been a rough nine months for federal cybersecurity. The huge Office of Personnel Management (OPM) hack is just the latest in a series of incidents that make people skeptical of Washington’s ability to protect their personal information. Since last fall, we’ve witnessed hacks of the: OPM. Last week’s cybersecurity failure at OPM wasn’t its firstRead… Read more »
Rapport makes small talk HUGE! Taking the time and getting to know people speeds learning names and fosters active engagement, increasing productivity. Rapport is the glue that binds personal and professional relationships. It reinforces the concept that people prefer to do business with those they consider friends. Successful networking can be accomplished simply by exercising… Read more »
One of the many challenges involved in architecting “Big Data” solutions is in just moving the stuff around. Sometimes it makes sense to move the work to the Data (instead of the other way around). This assumes that your Data is already in a form that is amenable to heavy-duty analytics. More typically, you’re lookingRead… Read more »
“Winter is Coming” is a key theme of the popular HBO series Game of Thrones. With its warning of constant vigilance, the meaning is clear – no matter how good or calm things seem now, the good times and serenity won’t last forever…and you need to prepare and be proactive to ensure you’re ready for… Read more »
Originally posted on the GovDelivery blog. We recently published a thought leadership piece on how digital marketing leads to better public engagement. Over the course of the next few weeks, we will break down each step to put the plan to work. The following post explores “Step 5” of the series, the art of increasing channelsRead… Read more »
Data visualization software can help data analysts more efficiently distill and communicate pertinent information to their customers. Likewise, the customization available in many data visualization packages enables consumers of data to more easily obtain and sort through the information they need. In a previous blog post, I explored how the U.S. General Services Administration isRead… Read more »