Yearly Archives: 2012

Access Anywhere – IRS Goes Mobile with Help from GovDelivery

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) unveiled an updated version of their smartphone application, IRS2Go, in early February. The app was “designed to provide taxpayers easier access to practical tools and information,” and the update included an application programming interface (API) integration with GovDelivery Digital Communication Management (DCM), which allowed app users to sign up toRead… Read more »

What Does it Take to be a Leader in the Digital Era?

How should we define the keys to successful leadership now that we are fully immersed in the Digital Era? This post shares diverse perspectives on the core characteristics and offers preliminary thoughts on integrating ideas and identifying themes. Readers are invited to contribute additional ideas, insights, and analysis. Background As the Founder of both theRead… Read more »

GovBytes: Government takes on Pinterest

As Pinterest gains in popularity on the Internet, government is taking notice; Pinterest is already the 3rd most popular social networking website, behind only Facebook and Twitter. It specializes in allowing users to create their own pin boards and share photographs they find interesting with their followers. The Military has taken advantage of Pinterest, andRead… Read more »

Real-World Civic Innovation Through Online Gaming

Mark Drapeau (Washington, DC) — When you think of “games,” you might think of Gears of War for Xbox, or Angry Birds for iPhone, or perhaps Zynga games for Facebook. But increasingly, people working in the public and civic sectors see value in leveraging games and game mechanics to accomplish real-world change. In that vein,Read… Read more »

Big Data, Big Deal

Yes, big data is a big deal which has contributed to the big hype. But, behind the hype there’s a simple story. For decades, organizations have been making decisions based on transactional data stored in relational databases. Today we extend beyond that critical data, however to leverage a potential treasure trove of less structured data:Read… Read more »

New Paradigms For Collaboration & Knowledge Sharing

I was recently asked to present at an Institute For Employment Studies event for corporate HR and Heads of Learning & Development. The slides I used are embedded at the end of this bog, and also available at Slideshare and Authorstream. The title of the event was “Getting maximum business value from your L&D activity”,Read… Read more »

GREAT WORK: 23 bright ways to use social media in the public sector

There was a brilliant update on Twitter the other day which hit the nail right on the head. “The best social media,” it read “doesn’t happen in an office.” That’s dead right. For a long while now I’ve been arguing that communications people should share the sweets, relax a little and learn to let go.Read… Read more »

Steering By The Rear View Mirror

As corporate and government leaders we depend on data and historical trends to make sense of today’s economy. We look at quarterly performance, study charts of changing sales numbers, analyze trends in housing prices, and examine the number of new jobs created last month. Unfortunately, much of the data has been disappointing, or worse, veryRead… Read more »

Presidential Proclamation – National Volunteer Week (April 15-21, 2012)

April 9, 2012 –President Obama issued his annual Presidential Proclamation for National Volunteer Week. The President declared that, ” Service is a lifelong pursuit that strengthens the civic and economic fabric of our Nation. With every hour and every act, our lives are made richer, our communities are drawn closer, and our country is forgedRead… Read more »