Code for America has lots of projects. These projects are written in different languages, hosted in different places, and have different levels of complexity. When I joined CfA in October, a few of these apps used New Relic and a couple were monitored via Pingdom. It important for us to have a basic view ofRead… Read more »
We are storytelling animals. It’s what differentiates us from our primate cousins. We are literally Homo narrativus. We use stories to assign meaning to our lives, transmit vital information and communicate with future generations. Without our storytelling ability, we would never have evolved out of the jungles of Africa. Human history begins with stories, likeRead… Read more »
We recently saw a post on LinkedIn from the good people at the Open Space Institute about a great opportunity that we wanted to share. They are giving away copies of The Practice of Peace by Harrison Owen, one of the creators of Open Space Technology! But this offer will only last until December 31st,Read… Read more »
NASA and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space have opened the International Space Station to stem cell research in a move aimed at addressing medical conditions both in space and on Earth. Scientists can study non-embryonic stem cell properties using the ISS U.S. National Laboratory’s microgravity environment, NASA said Friday. NASA intendsRead… Read more »
Someone asked for comment, I offered it. The background: A gentleman who makes a living “reducing complexity” for IT systems keeps running into some of us on Twitter who study complexity. You can imagine the entertaining exchanges, which led to his posting these observations on his LinkedIn group. The ask: There is a group ofRead… Read more »
Government agencies regularly report “incident” data, such as the number of burglaries, house fires, cases of food poisoning, bankruptcies, workplace injuries, and more. While these data can be used externally for accountability, they can also be used internally to predict and prevent these kinds of incidents. These days, more detailed, near real-time data can beRead… Read more »
Social doesn’t want to talk to your minions People always talk about how “it’s a small world” and to a large degree it is…and getting smaller as advancing technology, social media and other forces help us connect with others and stay connected. Many organizations are racing to implement technologies and processes to meet this challenge.Read… Read more »
Despite a huge day after the jobs report announcement on Friday, the stock funds ended the week flat to lower. Except for Thanksgiving week, there has been a trending pattern of weakness toward the beginning of the week, a bottom near Wednesday, then an attempt to recapture the gains going into the end of theRead… Read more »
The winds were strong across the Atlantic this morning. The plane I was due to meet at Heathrow was due at 7.50 but expected about 40 minutes sooner. So an earlier start than planned got me to Terminal 5 at 7.45, which with a bit of luck would be about right to meet somebody workingRead… Read more »
Our interest was piqued recently by a report released by the Knight Foundation presenting the first mapping of “civic tech” businesses and investments here in the United States. We know that many NCDD members work in or are interested in the high-tech end of public engagement, so we wanted to share some snippets from aRead… Read more »