Open Data and Flamingos at the Accela User Conference

A year ago, when I first met Maury Blackman, CEO of Accela, and Kris Trujillo, then senior software architect (since promoted to Director of Software Development), we spoke about support for the 2013 Oakland Fellowship project. Little did I know that Accela would become a generous corporate sponsor of our 2013 programs and a partnerRead… Read more »

Military Orders Process vs. Project Management Methodology

I thought I’d share our blog by Dan Stober on “Military Orders Process vs. Project Management Methodology”. As a project manager, Dan served as a military officer and he identifies the parallels between the military decision-making process (MDMP), the orders production process, and project management doctrine prescribed by the Project Management Institute (PMI). Link toRead… Read more »

Seven Habits of Highly Secure People

Earlier this year I attended a workshop at AFCEA’s West13 conference lead by Jeff Moulton, principal research associate at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. He shared his “Seven Habits of Highly Secure People.” Moulton pointed out that as humans, we all function in different ways with different habits. “Everyone in this audience goes about theirRead… Read more »

What Did You Say to Me? | Increasing Workplace Communication

Workplace communication isn’t easy. Communication. Everything, from personal to business relationships hinges on it. Communicate too little, too much, or incorrectly and everything you’ve worked for can fall apart. When people communicate properly, in a way that makes all parties feel heard, even conflict and criticism can be constructive and lead to positive results. HumansRead… Read more »

Recap: Why Emergency Communication Matters

Communications are never more important than when a crisis hits. Superstorm Sandy, the tornadoes in Moore, Oklahoma , the Boston Marathon bombings, and others have shown us how essential it is for our government and community leaders to quickly communicate with the public during an emergency. At the same time, communication channels have changed. TechnologiesRead… Read more »

NASA Plans Up to $100M in Mars 2020 Program Grants

NASA has announced that it will release a list of grant opportunities worth up to $100 million for work supporting its spaceflight mission to Mars, scheduled to kickoff in 2020. The agency wants to identify robotic and human exploration technologies such as unmanned vehicles and payloads for the Mars 2020 program, NASA said in aRead… Read more »

Detroit Water and Sewerage Department Improves Service to Taxpayers While Reducing Costs

HP recently released a new case study outlining how they utilized enterprise architecture to improve Detroit’s Water and Sewage Department’s (DWSD) service to taxpayers while reducing costs. DWSD is the third-largest water and sewer utility in the United States, pumping 595 million gallons of clean drinking water each day to Michigan residents and providing wastewaterRead… Read more »

SmartProcure: Why I Code for America

This post is part of a series to celebrate the Code for America Accelerator companies. Why are we Coding for America? I believe SmartProcure is in a unique position to do two great things at once—save the government millions of dollars and help government contractors become more profitable. That’s a tangible, measurable boost to theRead… Read more »

Venerable

We were musing about groups that venerate experience and the those that don’t. That moved into wondering why we don’t see more venerated old-timers. There is a ratio of value between teacher and student, which changes as they mature. Many of us know a grandmother, who can teach us about the world. That goes onRead… Read more »