Government stakeholders and citizens see different priorities for open data release

Socrata has released an interesting benchmark study on open government data, which looks at the state of open data from the perspectives of citizens, developers and government. It is interesting to compare which data government stakeholders consider important to publish, compared to what citizens feel is important. Looking at Very Important from the tables (below)Read… Read more »

Sharing Makes Everything Better: Everyone Benefits When Small Data Goes Big

For decades, urbanites have been tuning in to local radio stations before their morning commute to hear the traffic report. Based on static cameras at strategic locations, as well as helicopters and tips from motorists or passengers, traffic reports are perfect examples of data that give rise to decisions. Holland Tunnel is blocked? Route aroundRead… Read more »

Break Your PMP® Studies Into Small Pieces

Taking the PMP® Exam is one of the biggest steps you’ll take in your career as a Project Manager — and one of the most daunting. There seems to be an endless parade of information to cram into your brain but don’t let that discourage you! With careful planning and structure you can pass theRead… Read more »

New Pew Study Maps Twitter Conversations

We saw an intriguing article last month over at the PewResearch Internet Project that we thought might interest some of our social media- and tech-oriented members. Pew has compiled some very impressive amounts of data on the patterns that we can find in political conversation on Twitter that may hold insights for us as practitioners.Read… Read more »

Good Communication between Operations and IT is Vital to Growth

There are reasons that the co-operation between your Operations function and your IT function are difficult. The conflicting agendas and miss-matched expectations that these two areas naturally have can be difficult to overcome. However, like many relationships, solving the communications breakdown and developing a good two-way dialog between them is a key to your organization’sRead… Read more »

Want A Result, Offered A Process

I try to deal in real, tactical issues. Strategy becomes an explanation of what happened the last time. However, I have been working with a client who made a make or buy decision to purchase some business services. Maybe we were asking the wrong people, but what came back were all these offers to runRead… Read more »

Can Reverse Auctions Move Your Contracting Process Forward?

By Anna Hartley, Senior Acquisition Specialist Reverse auctions, a relatively new contracting method used by the government to procure a variety of good and services where the price is the main factor, has caused much debate and provoked heavy criticism among contracting professionals in the last few years. Some believe that reverse auctions are anRead… Read more »

6 Reasons Why You May Have Failed The PMP Exam 3 Times

While I hope it doesn’t happen to you, some people fail the PMP exam 3 times. If you do find yourself in that situation, you will have to wait a year from the date of your last exam before you will be able to apply for your PMP certification again. Over the years, I haveRead… Read more »

Announcing beta.usgs.gov

Announcing beta.usgs.gov In 1994 when the USGS launched it’s first website, the web was a very different place. Many websites that were launched had little consideration given to, or even had an understanding of, things such user experience, content strategies, or design. Over the next 20 years our USGS web presence has grown immensely asRead… Read more »