The topics of open government and transparency have dominated conversation at recent city and county meetings. Like most buzzwords, elected officials and policy thinkers talk about it, but county and city staffs have to figure out how to do it – all while performing the usual tasks of everyday government. One lucky break for theseRead… Read more »
The Urban Systems & Services Parallel Session was moderated by Barbara Hale, the Assistant General Manager of SFPUC. She focused the session on how cities are becoming massive interconnected systems and how to use technology as a tool to improve the quality of life of citizens. Speaker 1: Modupe Ajibola, CEO, OTG Playa First upRead… Read more »
Return and Restore: Veterans Work to Restore Salmon Habitat is a new video that tells the story of Nate and Carolyn, two of the veterans that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has trained to monitor and restore habitat crucial for rebuilding threatened fish populations in Northern California. Many returning veterans have had a hardRead… Read more »
Benjamin Franklin famously said that “time is money.” But does government know how to implement this maxim seriously? Now there is a new study that shows how they can do it! Last week, President Obama signed a memo directing agencies to modernize their construction permitting and review processes in order to: “advance the goal ofRead… Read more »
Recent conversation. “Well, what do you give to your prospects? You know they’re not going to buy here. They need to walk out of the room and consider.” “My business card?” How does that work?” “It doesn’t, but better than my brochure. Nobody wants my brochure.” The question is what do you offer that allowsRead… Read more »
One of the keys to a successful open data portal is to make it useful for the end user. Citizens and developers should be able to understand data sets without needing a PhD. I’ve been following the progress of Raleigh, North Carolina’s open data initiative, which launched a beta of their data.raleighnc.gov portal in MarchRead… Read more »
Apparently, not everyone has a smartphone! News to me. Anyway, the Dumb Store is potentially very exciting, I think. Apps for ‘dumb’ phones – ie those that have limited ability to access the internet and the web. They can be interacted with by sending SMS messages or making voice calls. The SMS option is mostRead… Read more »
Codebunk looks like a neat in the browser editor for writing and testing code. Particularly useful, I think, for those learning to program. Here’s a video that demonstrates how it works. Original post
It’s not unusual for agencies to spend millions of dollars on a new program supporting some group in society and hundreds of thousands of dollars on consultants and research to ensure that the new program is designed to be successful, to track its progress and audit it over time. It’s not unusual for agencies toRead… Read more »
All politicians talks about their support for and the importance of small businesses. Every campaign season I hear new candidates and incumbents talk about lowering taxes and creating a one stop center to make life better for small businesses. Very few government officials go beyond this lip service and take a serious look at addressingRead… Read more »