Last December, the Integrated Award Environment (IAE) team laid out our core Architectural Principles related to our goal of bringing together the government’s systems that facilitate and track federal award activities. First among those principles is the requirement that “IAE Must Be Open.” On May 13, IAE will be hosting the third in our seriesRead… Read more »
President Obama has said he will sign new legislation that will have far-reaching effects on federal agencies and hundreds of thousands of recipient of federal funds – grantees, contractors, universities, non-profits, states, and localities. The new law gives agencies three years to implement a set of new reporting requirements to track federal spending, but itRead… Read more »
Open data is no longer just a fad. We’re now living in a world that demands government data be open to the public. So how can agencies cope? Last year the Sunlight Foundation came out with their Open Data Policy guidelines. The goal of the guidelines was simple: get government started on the path toRead… Read more »
Have you ever wondered how many traffic tickets New York hands out every year? Or how many health outbreaks affect the Empire State? Now, with Open NY, the state’s transparency and openness initiative, you can. Governor Andrew Cuomo initiated Open NY in 2013 to create “unprecedented transparency across all levels of government.” Now, about twoRead… Read more »
During the UK riots in 2011, the UK Prime Minister suggested shutting down social networks in future riots to prevent information sharing amongst rioters. Now Turkey has blocked access to Twitter, stating the service was ‘biased’ and did nothing to stop the ‘character assassination’ of politicians in the current ruling party accused of bribery. LikeRead… Read more »
If you ask 20 people to define open government, you will get 20 different responses. The lack of uniformed definitions makes implementing open government services very difficult. It would be like asking a pastry chef to bake a cherry pie and then providing 20 different recipes. The chef would have no idea which pie youRead… Read more »
A few days ago LinkedIn launched its latest IOS app, Intro. The app promises to integrate LinkedIn profile content directly into emails, allowing more rapid connections and helping give email recipients access to a range of relevant information about the sender. Given both Apple and LinkedIn are well-known brands, many people are likely to trustRead… Read more »
I found out about the Association of Government Accountants’ “Citizen Centric Reporting” initiative through the Government Performance Coalition in DC. Evie Barry of AGA runs the Initiative and put together a webinar recently where representatives of Scottsdale AZ and Suffolk VA talked about their experience in developing plain-language reports describing strategic objectives, performance, costs, andRead… Read more »
The bruising battles over the budget and debt ceiling only resulted in pushing the goal posts for completion down the road a few months. Are there any lessons on how to be more successful? A timely new book by veteran public finance experts at the International Monetary Fund describes how budget and finance reforms haveRead… Read more »
I’ve been completing a survey for the Spatial Industries Business Association (SIBA) related to the Queensland Government’s open data initiative, where one of the questions asked Can you list or describe any learnings that would be useful in Queensland? I’ve provided a number of my thoughts on this topic, having closely observed open data initiativesRead… Read more »