Last month, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) announced a “Commerce Business Apps Challenge” to developers to look for innovative ways to utilize the Department’s and other publicly available data to help businesses identify opportunities, grow, enhance productivity and create jobs. With the submission deadline of April 30 fast approaching, I interviewed the Department’s MikeRead… Read more »
What have government agencies done to innovate procurement systems? What creative measures have been taken for successful procurement reforms? If you have a great story to answer these questions, bring it to the Procurement Innovation Challenge. The Challenge has just launched and invites members of the GovLoop community to share experiences in innovative approaches, processes,Read… Read more »
You could win a free usability test through GSA’s First Fridays Product Testing Program.“Win a Free Website Usability Test” Video Contest Details at go.usa.gov/n3e – Enter now till February 29Submit a video (two minutes or less) addressing why your governmentwebsite or web application is a good candidate for a free usability test. We want toRead… Read more »
This afternoon I attended the Apps for the Environment Forum, hosted by the EPA in Rosslyn. The forum honored the winners of the recent Apps for the Environment Challenge, hosted a variety of speakers from the EPA and executive office, and offered breakout sessions on how to use the Internet and open data space betterRead… Read more »
It’s going to be a challenging year for the Defense Information Systems Agency. When DISA Chief Information Officer Henry Sienkiewicz was asked to name the biggest challenge his agency would face in 2011, he spoke for nearly 12 minutes, and listed four. “BRAC [the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission’s plan to move many DODRead… Read more »
Inducement prizes – as opposed to “recognition” prizes such as the Nobel or Pulitzer prizes – are a growing element of how government is trying to spur innovation in solving tough problems both inside and outside the government, notes Annie Lowrey in a recent Washington Post article. Why? Because prizes are effective. Under the rightRead… Read more »
Alice Lipowicz of Federal Computer Week wrote an interesting article about different government contests going on – some very successful, some not so much: http://fcw.com/articles/2010/10/04/low-participation-ssa-contest-remedies.aspx?sc_lang=en I expect we’ll be seeing more of this trend, so if you’re planning to try this approach, I’d like to offer some advice on how to ensure your organization’s contestsRead… Read more »
Until last year, I thought SXSW was all about the music and films. Not to mention some pretty rockin’ parties, as friends raved. As it happens, it’s also a forum for sharing some killer interactive projects, case studies, ideas. Even for government. Following SXSW 2010 tweets & blogs and hearing from gov2.0 people I admire,Read… Read more »
A big THANK YOU to the awesome GovLoop guys for highlighting our Apps for Healthy Kids competition as the project of the week. It was a great effort to create the competition with the First Lady’s Let’s Move! team, OSTP and our nutrition experts at USDA’s Center for Nutrition and Policy Promotion. The competition isRead… Read more »
The State Department visualizes data, the FBI has an app for that, the First Lady offers prizes to get kids moving, and the Department of Homeland Security sniffs out a unique mobile application, all in this week’s version of the Rock Creek Roundup. –Earlier this week, the State Department, in conjunction with the University ofRead… Read more »