Believe that communities can take better advantage of key data in their decision-making? On April 3rd, the first-ever Civic Data Challenge launched at the Data 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. It’s a project of NCoC (the National Conference on Citizenship) that will bring new eyes, new minds, new findings, and new skill sets to theRead… Read more »
In thinking about the Next Generation Schedules initiative, I am reminded of Redskins Coach George Allen’s famous quote “The future is now.” The time for the Next Generation Schedules is NOW. In responding to the budgetary challenges facing GSA’s customer agencies, the federal government will increasingly look to shared services models to leverage resources andRead… Read more »
Those of us that are sexually active and somewhat responsible have all shared a common experience – the sterile clinic waiting room sprinkled with fading posters full of prevention messages and health tips. There’s usually a TV displaying a movie or daytime talk shows to drown out the collective nervous energy of the patrons waitingRead… Read more »
Shrinking budgets especially in the IT world are putting pressure on public organizations to do the same work (if not more work) on aging technology and infrastructure. The government is not the standard setter when it comes to advancing to the latest and greatest technology. The perfect example: I’m using a Pentium 4 single processorRead… Read more »
I am thrilled to be involved with an exciting new project called Citizinvestor (currently a candidate for Code for America’s Accelerator) and I couldn’t think of a better place to gain valuable feedback on the soon-to-launch product than right here at GovLoop. As you well know, there are countless local government projects that are notRead… Read more »
I decided I was going to read a book a week for a year, here’s a quick review of this week’s book. You can see the ongoing list here. Basic Info The Captive Public: How Mass Opinion Promotes State Power by Benjamin Ginsberg Why I read it Sitting on my shelf unread; I acquired theRead… Read more »
Things which caught my eye elsewhere on the web Sorry, Young Man, You’re Not the Most Important Demographic in Tech – The Atlantic So it turns out if you want to find out what the future looks like, you should be asking women. And just before you think that means you should be asking 18-year-oldRead… Read more »
Does the Federal Government need to rebrand itself, as some have recently suggested, due to low public approval, politically-charged rhetoric, and negative stereotypes of Federal employees? I think not. Rather, I stipulate that: 1) Rebranding Feds is unnecessary and inadvisable at this time, and 2) There is no real “crisis” for Feds that warrants aRead… Read more »
This month, the community in Second Life celebrates its 9th birthday, otherwise known as SL9B. This seems to be the first year that the celebration is not sponsored or hosted by Linden Lab, the creators of Second Life. Instead, this year, Linden Lab announced the theme of the birthday would be community and that theRead… Read more »
“I don’t know how much more emphasized step 1 of refactoring could be: don’t touch anything that doesn’t have coverage. Otherwise, you’re not refactoring; you’re just changing shit.” – Hamlet D’Arcy It’s no secret that Agile and Lean methodologies have a lot in common. At Code for America we try to apply them both: inRead… Read more »