Yearly Archives: 2012

“Read all about it” – Get your daily dose of political news from Aussie Federal politicians on Twitter

Following on from mapping all Australian Politicians using Twitter (which has unfortunately declined by two with Senators Bob Brown and Nick Sherry retiring), I’ve created online “newspapers” based on key groupings, so it is possible to get a daily dose of what Australia’s Federal Politicians on Twitter are talking about. To view them go toRead… Read more »

TV Seen as Most Influential-Is the Internet Really That Powerful?

Http://LeonardSipes.Com I was listening to a “Social Media Today” podcast where guest participants addressed the wonders of social media and all things internet. It was a love fest about the power and impact of social and internet use. While I share their enthusiasm about the “potential” of social, we still have a long way toRead… Read more »

Moving Forward with Innovation by Looking Back

Most organizations have their unfortunate history of major initiatives thrust on them by well-meaning executives and zealous consultants: total quality, six sigma, employee engagement, knowledge management, and other fads. While all can have their value, the reality of a sudden change in direction – “something completely different” – is a huge leap that often failsRead… Read more »

MERX 2.0 – Open Government eProcurement

The principle theme of Cloud 2.0 is the business transformation required to progress through a “1.0 to 2.0” evolution. In the case of the public sector, this is ‘GovCloud 2.0‘ and means adoption of Open Government best practices, which we can illustrate through discussing a hypothetical scenario ‘MERX 2.0’. MERX is the main portal webRead… Read more »

New Energy Chief Information Officer, A New Cybersecurity National Lab, and More

Here is today’s federal cybersecurity and information technology news: The Department of Energy has named its former Deputy Chief Information Officer Bob Brese as the new CIO. More here. The National Security Agency will not reveal how many Americans had their communications monitored to senators out of privacy concerns. More here. The U.S. Computer EmergencyRead… Read more »

FMLA and the Public Sector

So, I just came back from a couple weeks of maternity leave. People think I’m crazy not to have taken the full 3 months off after having a baby. There’s also the misconception that I would be paid for all 3 months, not just for the leave time I have accrued. I’m not complaining though.Read… Read more »

#bowlerhats

I am a pompous faceless bureaucrat, devoid of anything even faintly resembling a sense of humour. I spend my days correcting the drafting of my junior colleagues, usually by annotating the margins with Latin tags, using a carefully selected shade of violet ink in my fountain pen. By such means, I steadfastly pursue my goal,Read… Read more »

At the Forefront of Public Sector Innovation

Where does government innovation come from? In the United States there are examples like DARPA’s collaboration with universities and the private industry, and the CIA’s In-Q-Tel private sector partnership. In Denmark, there is MindLab, a private-public enterprise not existing within one department but expanding throughout multiple organizations which acts as something of an innovation special-op.Read… Read more »

Tracking digital government initiatives: Is your agency green, yellow, or red?

With the release of the White House’s Digital Government Strategy, agencies are being asked to take certain steps towards growing digital government in the United States. Already, Jay Huie, who consults as a senior information engineer and an information architect, has built a website to track how well agencies are doing in their digital governmentRead… Read more »

11 Unintended Consequences Of Government Executive Disclosure Act

Legislation intended to deter members of Congress from profiting from stock trades based on inside information is inadvertently forcing 28,000 federal employees to expose their personal financial information on the Internet. The result, according to a trade group for senior government executives, is a number of unintended risks that federal employees must now bear, andRead… Read more »