Can we shift the conversation in Washington from “waste, fraud, and abuse” to “what works and let’s fund it, instead?” Recently, I attended a Senate hearing on wasteful spending in the federal government. Some of the witnesses pointed to examples such as the legislative requirement that the Defense Department ship coal to Germany to heatRead… Read more »
Achieving your full potential is about being the best person you can be. Mevlana Jelaluddin Rum stated “You are not meant for crawling, so don’t. You have wings, learn to use them.” Are you crawling or flying? Jon Acuff, author of PUNCH FEAR IN THE FACE, ESCAPE AVERAGE AND DO WORK THAT MATTERS states in hisRead… Read more »
Greece bailout talks catalyzed stocks to have a strong open on Monday, however there was an early peak and stocks closed off the highs. Tuesday opened high as well but faded into negative territory by mid-day where buyers stepped back in to reach some modest gains by the close. Wednesday opened lower and stocks continuedRead… Read more »
A national conversation is continuing to brew over whether Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) skills should be emphasized in schools and universities over humanities and liberal arts education. Several recent studies have found that the perceived higher marketplace value of STEM skills has led to a drop in the percentage of students pursuing humanitiesRead… Read more »
Federal government agencies largely order their telecommunications through GSA’s Networx telecommunications program or through our Regional Local Service Agreements (LSAs) for local telecommunications. As announced in March, we are extending the period of performance for the Network Universal and Enterprise contracts from 2017 to 2020. We are currently working with our industry suppliers to extend theRead… Read more »
People are busy and our most important task is to tell a story in a way that people remember. A few, easy numbers make that task a lot easier. … In days of old, we used to have to rely on reporters to find those people, although it’s certainly within our power to help them…. Read more »
It’s a seemingly innocuous question: “So, what do you do?” It’s generally meant well, and asked by people who are genuinely interested in learning more about you – but if you’re unemployed this can be the question you dread most in casual conversation. As a culture, we put a lot of emphasis on what peopleRead… Read more »
There’s been a lot of attention paid lately to the 13 percent statistic: the portion of chief administrative officers in local governments that are women stands at 13 percent, roughly the same figure it was in the 1980s. It’s an important issue, and a complicated one, and I asked my colleague Jan Perkins for someRead… Read more »
The Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program had a problem: it was paying out way too much in unearned benefits to program participants. This was happening because participants weren’t reporting their income often enough. As participants’ incomes went up, their SSI eligibility went down – but they continued receiving SSI benefits basedRead… Read more »
Database guru and 2014 Turing Award winner Dr. Michael Stonebraker is not a big fan of MapReduce. Or so we can readily surmise, based on some of the comments he made (together with co-author David DeWitt, another highly acclaimed database researcher) in a blog post in early 2008. He and DeWitt called Mapreduce a “giantRead… Read more »