Yearly Archives: 2011

Really Vancouver youth? Really?

The whole time I was watching the riots after the game in Vancouver from my Regina hotel room, I couldn’t help but think of how easy it will be for Seth Myers on SNL to do his “Really?” skit after this sad scene. I hate to slam against youth, being a Gen Y’er myself, howeverRead… Read more »

CfA Summer Kick-off: DJ Patil, Ev Williams, and Jason Goldman Come to CfA

Last week, CfA kicked off its summer internship program with two notable visits: DJ Patil, Chief of Product at Color, and Ev Williams and Jason Goldman formerly of Twitter. Both talks offered unique insights about technology, entrepreneurship, and social change. Patil shared his broad range of experiences in academia, government, and tech — highlighting keyRead… Read more »

Federal or DOD Emergency Management – Public Safety Cloud Concepts

What are the most important aspects of Federal and/or DOD Emergency Management solutions that you would be willing to move to a Cloud? What would motivate you to using a Cloud versus a premise based solution? I would like to make this a running topic and build input from many sources as this is aRead… Read more »

CTOlabs.com Assessment on “What You Need To Know About Hadoop”

More data is being produced than we can analyze! CTOlabs.com, a subsidiary of the technology research, consulting and services firm Crucial Point LLC and a peer site of CTOvision.com, has just published a white paper providing context, tips and strategies around Hadoop titled “What You Need To Know About Hadoop.” This paper provides a clearRead… Read more »

Government Layoffs – The 10 Cities Who Have It Worst

The Top 10 list: New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA Detroit-Warren-Livonia, MI Stockton, CA New Haven-Milford, CT Fresno, CA Providence-New Bedford-Fall River, RI-MA Bakersfield-Delano, CA Kansas City, MO-KS Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA Methodology: “24/7 Wall St. used data from the Bureau of Labor for statistics for estimated government employment and regional unemployment. The employment change figuresRead… Read more »

Data Visualization Platform, Weave, Now Open Source

With more and more civic data becoming available and accessible, the challenge grows for policy makers and citizens to leverage that data for better decision-making. It is often difficult to understand context and perform analysis. “Weave”, however, helps. A web-based data visualization tool, Weave enables users to explore, analyze, visualize and disseminate data online fromRead… Read more »

Pivotal Ohio budget nears completion

Deltek Principal Analyst Jason Sajko reports. When John Kasich (one of our nation’s 36 new state governors) was sworn in January 10, 2011, he immediately set out to craft a budget to address Ohio’s expected $8 billion shortfall in what is potentially the toughest budget the state has ever tackled. Kasich and appointed Director ofRead… Read more »

GovBytes: Spending Money To Train Citizens How To Use Your Site

Could this be the future? Brian Heaton of Government Technology wrote Wednesday that at least one local government will soon be offering online training to educate citizens on how to use their new and improved website. The Community Digital Forum, to be held Wednesday, June 29, will feature hands-on instruction on how to navigate theRead… Read more »

Plain Language Win: USDA’s ChooseMyPlate.gov

Eat more vegetables. Use a smaller plate. Eat foods with ingredients your great-grandmother would recognize. Simple, right? How about this: Make half your plate fruits and vegetables. That last one comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Surprised by the simplicity? Earlier this month, the USDA replaced its food pyramid with a plate. DividedRead… Read more »