New Crowdfunded Project in Eugene — Let’s Talk: Our New Economy

In Eugene, Oregon, the Co-Intelligence Institute is engineering a community-focused process to increase local capacity for healthy, creative group dialogue. By combining trainings and workshops with a series of dialogues around a substantive issue — in this case, the economy — we plan to demonstrate the generative power of group process even as we stimulateRead… Read more »

Kindle Singles – Why Not Gov Singles?

E-books are changing the nature of books. Printing on paper is expensive while pixels are cheap. This means more books for more readers at a lower cost. An example of the change in books is Kindle Singles. These are short books or long-form journalism, depending on your perspective. Ranging in length from 5,000 – 30,000Read… Read more »

Another Telework Driver: Freezing the Federal Footprint

In line with its mission to ensure the careful use of Federal funds, OMB issued guidance on 5/11/12 to Federal agencies that requires them to make more efficient use of existing government real estate — in effect, “freezing the Federal footprint.” In a roundabout way, this is good news for Telework fans. By requiring agenciesRead… Read more »

Public Records Perils – Transparency Lets You See the Solution

One positive effect of transparency in the public sector is that it gives city and county government an opportunity to assess current practices and make needed changes. Given the increase in public records requests and the scrutiny from the White House on down to the local level, there is no doubt constituents want more accessRead… Read more »

Homefront Heroes Takes Compelling Wounded Warrior Stories To The GI Film Festival

Mark Drapeau (Washington, DC) — For those not directly connected with an active-duty military person or a veteran, you often only hear their stories vaguely, or in passing. Now, two very different people have created Homefront Heroes to deliver veterans’ stories to you in a very compelling, human way. Mike Allen, a Microsoft executive inRead… Read more »

How A City of 65,000 Gets By With Only 9 Employees

Weston Florida is an affluent suburb 25 miles northwest of Miami. When Weston was incorporated in 1996, its residents approved a charter that states the city must use contractors as opposed to city employees to perform traditional government services, unless four out of five councilmembers vote to make an exception. As a Governing article reportsRead… Read more »

Protecting Your Online Privacy is Easy – Here’s How

In the May 7th, 2012 post, I talked about policies you can implement to protect your online privacy. That post reinforced how important it is to use common sense when online. The biggest take-away from that article was not to use free services for editing, storing, or communicating personal information. However, it’s not always possibleRead… Read more »

Final chance to participate in the Online Community / Social Media Management survey for Australia and New Zealand

This is the final week to participate in the Online Community / Social Media Management survey for Australia and New Zealand, which closes on 19 May. If you’re an online community or social media manager or advisor, please complete the survey using the button at right. To provide some quick background… The survey aims toRead… Read more »