There is a new chief in town and things are going to change. Well, we better hope so or the person is not doing a good job. The chief I am referring to is the Chief Innovation Officer. The term has been thrown around loosely, but who is this mysterious person? In this three partRead… Read more »
This post is part of an ongoing series about civic startups. What’s a civic startup? Find out. Code for America recently launched a civic startup accelerator to help promote and “turbo charge” civic startups. We’re accepting applications for the accelerator now through June 1, 2012. Apply: codeforamerica.org/accelerator Charles “Chic” Naumer is the Principal and Co-founderRead… Read more »
“Our choice is either to innovate, or to not be around,” is the advice Scott Anthony has for those who want to be players in our rapidly changing world. Anthony is the managing director of Innosight, Asia-Pacific, and the author of The Little Black Book of Innovation. He spoke with the DorobekINSIDER to share hisRead… Read more »
The Jetsons premiered almost 50 years ago, but where’s Rosey? Science fiction has been predicting the rise of robotics in daily life for decades and, for the most part, science fact has delivered, with ever-improving artificial intelligence driven by faster processors, and continued advancements in mechanical engineering allow machines to perform increasingly complex physical functions.Read… Read more »
This has got to be one of the coolest initiatives of the Obama Administration! They just launched a new Presidential Innovation Fellows program. This new initiative will bring top innovators from outside government for focused “tours of duty” with our best federal innovators on game-changing projects. Combining the know-how of citizen change agents and governmentRead… Read more »
Mark Drapeau (Washington, DC) — A few years ago, in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, a bar called The Taj opened. What was unusual about it was not so much the fact that it was the only bar in the eastern part of Afghanistan, but the method of payment: data. In brief, if Taj visitors had useful dataRead… Read more »
The connected bureaucrat faces many challenges and pitfalls in a world where what you say on Twitter, Facebook or just about any social network becomes part of the public record. As more and more public servants begin to use social networking, it is important to begin defining boundaries and addressing the life of the bureaucratRead… Read more »
An article in AZcentral.com highlights innovative efforts undertaken by local governments in Arizona: – The city of Mesa eliminated some departments and challenged the rest to rethink how they operate. One of the earliest results was a proposal from the Fire Department to stop sending large engines and four-person crews to every medical call. TheRead… Read more »
Do more with less. We’ve all heard it, and it’s great to create lean services during austerity. However, there’s a limit to lean, and a point where we need to try new things and do things differently. Chris Dorobek of the DorobekINSIDER spoke with Ron Ashkenas, Managing Partner at Schaffer Consulting, author of Simply EffectiveRead… Read more »
I recently had a midyear review with each member of my team, where we sat down for about 30 minutes, shut out the daily grind, and talked about how things were going. I know some folks, both managers and staff, don’t really like doing these reviews. I think they’re a terrific opportunity. As we talk,Read… Read more »