open311 Use Cases

Exciting new advancements are taking place in the world of open311, which is a data standard that various applications can be built on. A number of open311-compliant open source and commercial applications allow data to be easily shared and used by each other, such as CRMs, mobile reporting apps, and other web interfaces displaying reportRead… Read more »

Protecting Public Health with Smart Data

From clean water supplies to the polio vaccine, the most effective public health interventions are typically preventive interventions and policies that help stop a crisis before it starts. However, predicting the next public health crisis has historically been a challenge. Thanks to new technologies, we innovate age-old public health workflows and methods of analysis. WeRead… Read more »

Can You Retrofit Your Colleagues for Digital?

It is a fairly standard challenge to be asked to make an organisation ‘go digital’. Or more specifically make the people working there use digital tools and engagement techniques. At an interview one of the most common question is ‘can you give an example of how you got the press office/senior management/policy officials to goRead… Read more »

The latest video communicating social media policy to public servants – Social Media Man

The Queensland Government recently introduced a new approach to communicate departmental social media policy to staff, a light and humorous video featuring ‘Social Media Man’. It’s the latest in a line of video-based tools used to communicate social media policy to public servants in Australia, following some great work from Victoria. The first, in MarchRead… Read more »

Are Private Contractors the New Federal Workforce?

Last Sunday was graduation day at Duke. In our Master of Public Policy program, over half of the graduating students are employed, and over half of those employed are going to work for government consulting firms. Their salaries are about 20% higher than those who are working in government jobs, and they have been impressedRead… Read more »

The Challenges of Current State Transparency Models

“A good set of financials tells the story of your enterprise. Transparency should do the same.” Our citizens (all of us) work hard to generate tax dollars to support government programs to improve the quality of life. If you are like me, you believe Americans have the right know where and how their tax dollarsRead… Read more »

Can We Achieve Integrated Talent Management Within the Federal Government?

Can we achieve Integrated Talent Management (ITM) within the Federal government? My answer is “Yes, we can.” In order for Federal agencies to achieve ITM, they have to do business differently than they have done in the past. One example that comes to mind is the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA has achieved ITMRead… Read more »

PROTEST PR: How Comms Should Answer Cuts Questions

You’re a public sector PR person and you’ve got to answer a question from the media about cuts, what do you do? Forecasts say there will be 40 per cent job losses in some areas of the public sector with £3.3 billion being taken from the voluntary sector over a five year period and £20Read… Read more »

Giving the community an opportunity to understand and reshape the Australian Government budget for 2014-15

While common practice in many countries overseas, there’s still limited authentic consultation on government budgets undertaken in Australia – and I think we’re poorer for it. Involving the community in setting budget priorities and educating them on how a budget is developed goes a long way towards building understanding and (very importantly) trust in publicRead… Read more »

Talking Procurement at #SCS414

I recently had the pleasure of joining CfA’s Startups team, Lane Becker and Dharmishta Rood, at the first annual Smart City Startups (#SCS414) conference in Miami, Fla. Hosted by Urban.Us, the conference convened a hundred entrepreneurs, investors, and urban innovators from around the globe in the Wynwood Arts District of Miami for two action-packed daysRead… Read more »