Yearly Archives: 2012

In Perth this September? Come to RightClick!

If you’re based in WA, or in Perth on 5th September this year, consider attending the Western Australia Institute of Public Administration’s fourth annual RightClick conference, focusing on “Technology but not for its own sake”. I’ll be providing a keynote on ‘shiny new things’ and why people are attracted to them and there’s a greatRead… Read more »

Key Training Ideas for Your Customer Service Program

Not everyone is or is willing to be computer literate to take care of basic business. We all have different ways to train. Some would say some of us remain in the dark ages, but you also might argue that not all that’s old-fashioned is bad. We often buy things because they are antique orRead… Read more »

Introducing: Brigade Weekly News, August 1, 2012

Each Wednesday we are going to post our favorite stories of the week to this blog. Today, August 1, 2012 is our inaugural edition. Denver Mayor releases 80 GIS datasets for Colorado Code for Communities Brigade event Brigade member, Denver captain, and Colorado Code for Communities organizer Jason Lally reported in the forum that theRead… Read more »

Amazon Instant Video for the iPad, Google unveils Android Blog and more

Amazon’s Instant Video is a great capability, and it is now mobile! In order to provide more value to their users, Amazon has rolled out the instant video app for the iPad. Amazon’s instant video offering has a huge library of free streaming video for Prime subscribers. Amazon is trying to show that while NetflixRead… Read more »

Red Cross Hurricane App

Here in the U.S. we’re in the middle of Hurricane Season — it ends Nov. 30, 2012 this year. The season’s been off to a bit of a slow start over the Atlantic but, as we on the East Coast know too well, it’s typically the later months of summer that bring the most devastatingRead… Read more »

Government Reform: An International Snapshot of Progress on Performance Management (Part 1)

The World Bank held a series of seminars this past Spring on the state of the international public sector performance and results movement over the past two decades. I came away more encouraged than I had expected regarding advances in several developing nations – with implications for the more developed countries. The World Bank heldRead… Read more »

Local Governments Do Not “Like” Facebook’s New Page Name Policy

The City of Olathe, KS, along with many other cities around the world, is facing a Facebook dilemma. The popular social media site is cracking down on their page management policy, and according to their Facebook Page Terms, name guidelines must not consist solely of generic terms such as “beer”, “pizza”, and now geographic locationsRead… Read more »

#localgov – customers vs active citizens

To some people this may seem like a pointless semantic issue around the use of the words “customer” and “citizen” but I think it is actually quite an important issue. Some basic points first around definitions: Customer = A person that buys or obtains goods or services from another. Active Citizen = a citizen whoRead… Read more »

City of Houston Produces Video About Surviving a Workplace Shooter

Last week, the City of Houston’s Office of Public Safety, with grants from the Department of Homeland Security, posted a video called RUN. HIDE. FIGHT: Surviving an Active Shooter Event as part of their Ready Houstoninitiative. It’s a professionally done, six minute instructional video about what to do if someone were to open fire atRead… Read more »

Link roundup

I find this stuff so you don’t have to: Enyo JavaScript Application Framework – “Use the same framework to develop apps for the web and for all major platforms, desktop and mobile.” Features | Re-usable Drupal recipes for government websites – Nice New Zealand government site sharing open source compontents for Drupal for gov webbiesRead… Read more »