It appears that the news media is partially to blame for the continuing decline of the U.S. Postal Service. The bad news about its future came yesterday during a Senate subcommittee hearing on the financial future of the Postal Service. There’s an interesting nugget in the prepared testimony of Phillip Herr, the Government Accountability Office’sRead… Read more »
This post is based on a paper of mine published by the Electronic Democracy Centre (Zurich University) about the experience of the e-Participatory Budgeting of the city of Belo Horizonte. In part 1 of this post I use extracts from a short article by Dan Jellinek (Headstar) and myself that aimed to present a summaryRead… Read more »
The search for a head of the Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) appears to have come down on two veterans of the food safety community: Caroline Smith–Dewall, food safety director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest and former FSIS administrator Barbara J. Masters, who is currently senior policy adviserRead… Read more »
I’ve got a long post on the meaning of Obama’s acting appointments at management agencies up at FedBlog today. Here’s the first half: Why the Acting Appointments Matter By Alyssa Rosenberg | Monday, January 26, 2009 | 12:19 PM I’ve had a number of people ask why we’ve been so focused on President Obama’s decisionRead… Read more »
(note: originally posted at theConnectedRepublic.org) Participatory Budgeting (PB) can be broadly defined as the participation of citizens in the decision-making process of budget allocation and monitoring public spending. Participation may take various forms, from effective decision-making power in the allocation of resources to more modest initiatives that confer voice during the development of the budget.Read… Read more »
Several cabinet secretaries started their new jobs today on the first full day of the Obama administration. So far only Interior Sec. Ken Salazar has been greeted by a formal welcoming ceremony at his new place of employment. Over at Veterans Affairs, there will be no formal welcome for Sec. Eric Shinseki — at leastRead… Read more »
Have you implemented green policies regarding office work (i.e. printing, paper usage, electricity usage, etc.) in your agency? What did you do? How did you accomplish it? How did it work? Are there any “lessons learned” that you can share? Did you “go small” and now wish that it was bigger or visa versa? HowRead… Read more »
I’ve been noticing the great conversations people are having here about how to use IT in their agencies, and I added some thoughts of my own here, at FedBlog. An excerpt appears below, and I’m only sorry I wrote it before Marcus Peacock wrote his great posts on blogging as a place to solicit commentsRead… Read more »
Social networks have gained wide acceptance and praise for their use in political campaigns. It’s their use in actual government administration and public policy making environments where their absence is fueling new debate. As a solution for government-citizen communication, they can be a powerful forum for collaboration. Still, social networks remain a rarity, if atRead… Read more »
John Berry, the current director of the National Zoo, has accepted an offer to serve as director of the Office of Personnel Management, The Post’s Al Kamen scoops today. There has been no official announcement and the news was denied by a National Zoo official earlier today. While he’s directed 240 employees and more thanRead… Read more »