Use the FAR to stop Iran from getting the bomb

Slogging my way through the DAU online COR training has generated a question. If we translated all Federal Acquisition Regulations into Farzi and secretly insinuated them into Iranian government policy, wouldn’t that completely halt their ability to procure anything, let alone a nuke, in under 50 years?

Putting “Commercial” Back in Commercial Item Contracting

As GSA works to establish the “Next Generation” of the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) program, it is a wonderful opportunity to reinvigorate commercial best practices in the federal market place. As its best, the MAS program provides access to millions of commercial services and products to customer agencies. It is the largest, most successful commercialRead… Read more »

Q and Art: Folk Art

This post is part of an ongoing series on Eye Level: “Q and Art” and is the successor to our series “The Best of Ask Joan of Art.” Begun in 1993, Ask Joan of Art was the longest-running arts-based electronic reference service in the country. We retired the service late last year but want toRead… Read more »

Daily Dose: Small donors make up the base of Santorum, Paul, Gingrich fundraising efforts

Are you excited about the candidacy of Rick Santorum? Ron Paul? Newt Gingrich? Looking at the percentage of small donors who have contributed to their campaigns, many voters are. What about Mitt Romney? According to fundraising numbers, not likely. Though Romney has by far the most funds raised at $63.2 million, he has the smallestRead… Read more »

Wikis: Better Internal Communication During Crisis

You’ve worked all day. At 6 p.m., a crisis within your agency or city now demands your all-night attention. For communication professionals handling media requests, the difficulty of maintaining message continuity is a common dilemma. When a colleague finally rescues you after an all-nighter, you then face the task of communicating about communication. What mediaRead… Read more »

8 Things Government Employees Need Most

Jeff Haden has written a great post titled 8 Things Your Employees Need Most. While pay raises are nice, many studies have shown that higher pay alone does not result in a greater commitment or performance by employees. Sadly, from my 17 years of experience in government, most government employment does not provide employees withRead… Read more »

Will Machines Always Make Life Easier?

There was a time when we stopped looking at machines as making our lives’ easier and started looking at the jobs they were replacing–and, indeed, they began replacing jobs. Some people were much in hate with machines then–except the owners and inventors. My apologies to those of you who develop training apps and sell theRead… Read more »