App-lifying USGS Earth Science Data

The USGS has a wealth of data and we’ve recently launched our first-ever challenge through Challenge.gov. While this is the first challenge, it’s doubtful to be the last. If you know anyone who loves getting their fingers into 0s and 1s, then please share this with them. Here’s a little bit about the challenge: App-lifyingRead… Read more »

If This Then That. When Google isn’t enough…

We all know “googling” things in 2013 is ubiquitous. Once you throw in Bing, Yahoo, and the multitude of niche search engines you get roughly 92% of the world’s on-line population of 2.3 billion people searching for things daily. That being said, search still requires you to input a decently thought out query and fine-tuneRead… Read more »

Design integrity

Designing complex systems is complicated. Sometimes there are interactions between the pieces which don’t quite join up, customer journeys which turn out to have structural obstacles. Some of that can be obscured or avoided through good interface design, but sometimes the underlying ugliness just pokes through. This screen marks the successful end of a transaction.Read… Read more »

Teaching Leadership

Some individuals are thought to be ‘natural’ leaders – they seemingly step into the role fully functional – such as George Washington. Some individuals develop as leaders once in the role – Steve Jobs, for example. Some individuals learn leadership by opening their mind and soaking up the rich material provided by other leaders, coaches,Read… Read more »

Infographics: How does Australia compare on government open data released?

I’ve developed several infographics (below) comparing the open data performance of nations, looking at which have national open data sites, how many sites they have across different government levels and how many datasets have been released through their national sites. It’s not a way to judge ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ – or even to compare theRead… Read more »

How to Make Your Organization Have a Winning Season in 2013 – And Make The Playoffs Year After Year!

With my favorite NFL team out of the playoffs this year – I’ve had plenty of time to contemplate what makes a winning team – and it’s not all about the coach (or firing the coach, like my team did this year.) When it comes down to it, making an organization and a football teamRead… Read more »

Is Your Business a “Benghazi”?

So by now most of you are aware of the incident that occurred at the US Embassy in Benghazi on September 11th 2012. An independent panel was established by the U.S. Government to further investigate how the attack occurred, how it was handled, and what can be done to prevent such future issues from takingRead… Read more »