Yearly Archives: 2011

The Government Man and the Plain Language Act

With all of the hoopla about the Plain Language Act, the Government Man thought this would be a perfect opportunity to spread some wisdom and of course hype his own creation. In my book, Confessions of a Government Man, I devote an entire chapter to “Language of Government.” Maybe our lawmakers read it prior toRead… Read more »

The Shuffle: White House lands big Twitter hire, campaign season heats up

You can also read this post on BeltWiki Blog from WhoRunsGov.com. Originally posted there on May 31. In this week’s shuffle: communicators move around, the White House lands a big Twitter hire, and even more campaigns staff up. Who’s moving where in Washington, after the jump. CAPITOL HILL Hill veteran Brad Bauman has landed atRead… Read more »

GovBytes: Do You Know the Difference Between Cloud Computing and Virtualization?

Confused about cloud computing and virtualization? Apparently you’re not alone. Nearly two-thirds of state and local government employees felt that there was confusion in their organizations over the meaning of cloud computing and virtualization, according to a recent article in Government Technology: “The survey was surprising,” said Paul Christman, Quest Software’s vice president for stateRead… Read more »

World No Tobacco Day 2011

The global fight to end the destruction of lives from tobacco is something I can get behind. Today is World No Tobacco Day – a global initiative from the World Health Organization. Some statistics that many public health professionals are aware of but always a good reminder: The tobacco epidemic kills nearly 6 million peopleRead… Read more »

Hack for Change & The Ingredients of a Successful Hackathon

We believe in bringing together smart and passionate people, and motivating them to take on hard problems with hard deadlines; that’s our fellowship — 20 fellows, spending the year tackling some interesting civic challenges. An upcoming event, however, aims to light a fire under that model: 50 people, just one day! That’s Hack for Change,Read… Read more »

Retain User Adoption consultants beyond the initial contract to sustain ROI.

This article was originally published on Tri Tuns Blog. OBSERVATION You are responsible for ensuring end-user adoption of the IT system in your organization. To ensure this occurs, you retained consulting services unique to user adoption, such as Tri Tuns. Now that the contract is near completion, you are worried that you may see aRead… Read more »

Grants news you can use…

Grant recipients (both pass-through entities and subrecipients) may want to take note of an interesting item in OMB’s recent guidance on implementation of the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act (PL 111-204). OMB says that for grant programs, agencies must consider payment recapture audits at the grant recipient level. “Federal agencies should work with stateRead… Read more »

Will Synthetic Trees Remove CO2 in the Future?

Researchers at Columbia University have developed an artificial tree. Why would we want artificial trees? Well, these trees can absorb CO2 about 1,000 times faster than natural trees, and will store it in its “leaves” until it is processed. Of course this prompts the question, “what’s the correct level of CO2 for the atmosphere?” ButRead… Read more »

Inspiration through Momentum!

Think about what inspires you. We probably all have a mental checklist: intelligence, discipline, perseverance, vision, compassion, etc. But what about “momentum”? By momentum, I mean the combination of physical and intangible inertia that you generate throughout the day. There are certain people that seem to always be driving forward. Their presence makes you sitRead… Read more »