This Year Kind of Sucked: Take Some Time to Take Stock

This has been a rough year for the Federal Government: sequestration, shutdown, almost shutdowns, questions about government IT and effectiveness, and another potential shutdown coming in January. I’ve been thinking about the need to take some stock in this small breathing space we have between the pressures of recovering from the shutdown, the time ofRead… Read more »

Have no fear, Open Source is here!

We’re pleased to see GovLoop’s great report on open source solutions and agencies of the future released this month. OmniStudio, jumped on the open source bandwagon back in 2006, and we’ve long been making the argument that open source websites (especially those built in WordPress and Drupal) can help to lower tech costs, improve functionalityRead… Read more »

Put the Give in Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is almost here–a day which for many of us means a carousel of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and pie. Before you sit down to dinner this year, here are five ways you can help others access food and services. 1) Spread the word about SnapFresh SnapFresh is a text-message and mobile web app thatRead… Read more »

Army Research Lab Designs NASA Image Recovery Tech

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory has built a device that aims to help NASA locate recording platforms meant to capture spacecraft decelerators’ image data, DoD Live reported Thursday. ARL’s Flight Imagery Recorder Locator contains a satellite communications moden, GPS receiver, dual-band antenna and batteries, according to the article. Rex Hall, an ARL project lead engineer,Read… Read more »

Have Your Cake and Eat It, Too: Oracle Takes Steps Toward Making BYOD Programs Widespread

The push for Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programs in government has been strong. In the 2012 Digital Government Strategy released by the White House, the strategy encouraged the adoption of BYOD initiatives. The report additionally provided guidance for agencies interested in making the transition away from government-issued devices. Certain agencies, such as the U.S.Read… Read more »

Twitter Hashtags: 7 Tips and a Decision-Making Flowchart

Summary: Though Twitter hashtags have been around almost as long as Twitter itself, many people still do not understand what they are – or more importantly, how to use them appropriately. This post offers seven tips – plus a decision-making flowchart – to enable Tweeters to not only avoid looking like a Twitter rube, butRead… Read more »

5 Things Federal Employees Cannot Change

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” – Robert Frost Why is it that despite our best efforts, many of us are still unhappy and unfulfilled in our lives/careers? Author David Richo says the key to happiness is to accept difficult realities, drop our resistance to them,Read… Read more »

The End of the 2013 Fellowship

Today we wrap up the 2013 Fellowship year at Code for America. Over the past two weeks, we have transitioned apps, transitioned partner relationships, and celebrated accomplishments. We have reflected on the year, on the program and on the lasting impacts that the Fellows have had on local government. Now it is time to sayRead… Read more »

Making Strategic Decisions

Research on decision-making has made advances in recent years, but the research has not been applied to the actual practice of decision-making, observes Swiss professor Phil Rosenzweig in a recent article in the November issue of Harvard Business Review. Dr. Rosenzweig says in his article this is not because executives don’t want to make goodRead… Read more »