There are a multitude of first things that need to be done when you take over in an organization as the new person – especially if you are at the top of the org chart. When I was elected president of the board of a country club, I immediately talked with the key staff andRead… Read more »
The new, device flexible, user-centric nyc.gov. Image courtesy of Huge. Our governments – local, state and federal – are very good at doing a lot of things. National defense. Waste and sewage. Collecting taxes. So why can’t they consistently create decent websites? Today, websites and mobile applications are often the first and only direct linkRead… Read more »
The Paint Branch High School is special. Years ago they decided that their annual science fair shouldn’t just be a checkoff on a list and started redesigning their event. They looked at why no one came and decided to move it from the middle of the day to the evening to make it easier forRead… Read more »
Released by the IBM Center for the Business of Government, “The Persistence of Innovation in Government: A Guide for Innovative Public Servants,” mines data from the 28-year history of the Harvard University’s Kennedy School’s Innovations in American Government Awards (HKS Awards). The report author, University of Toronto Professor Dr. Sandy Borins, seeks to discern howRead… Read more »
When the term ‘predictive policing’ comes up, what movie immediately comes to mind? If you said The Minority Report you aren’t alone. According to Santa Cruz Deputy Chief of Policy Steve Clark, that’s a common reaction. In reality, the technology currently being tested by law enforcement today is just as fascinating as science fiction –Read… Read more »
OK, it is clear to me now – the internet is not a passing novelty, it is a creation tool of considerable versatility and depth, and fosters creativity at every turn. IaaT – the Internet as a Tool is here to stay. Back in the ‘90s, my organization went through an image update – aRead… Read more »
Last night as I was listening to Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, I thought of the quote, “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” I could tweak Albert Einstein’s quote to make it relevant to my situation, “Insanity: listening to a Bob Dylan album over and over andRead… Read more »
Presidential Innovation Fellows with IFE CEO Kathleen Kemper (center) and John Paul Farmer (far right). Photo credit: Kevin Allen The term ‘government innovation’ can seem like an oxymoron. But for a small band of disrupters working at the highest levels of government, innovation is actually the prevailing rule of the day. On Thursday, March 13th,Read… Read more »
For this week’s comment I wanted to share with you my inaugural blog post that was first published on the Federal Times’ Acquisition Blog (www.federaltimes.com). The post highlights Thought #2 “GSA’s Strategic Plan: Plan versus implementation,” one of the issues contained in my “Food for Thought in 2014”: GSA’s Draft Strategic Plan for FY 2014Read… Read more »
When innovating in government, the technology’s the easy part. Innovative efforts often do one of two things: They take long-established technology from the private sector and inject it into an agency, or They reimagine long-assumed processes from the citizen’s perspective. The ultimate meta yak shave If you want to innovate government, 90-day, 120-day, or six-monthRead… Read more »