Yearly Archives: 2012

POTUS Re-Election: 5 Key Issues for Feds

With the 2012 Presidential Election now behind us, a host of key issues affecting federal employees nationwide are once again front and center. Following is a post-election primer presenting a snapshot of five key issue areas for Feds during President Obama’s second term. To watch the President’s acceptance speech, click here. 1) Sequestration & FiscalRead… Read more »

Ethics and Values in Cloud Computing Architecture

By Kord Davis Cloud computing and data center infrastructure providers are realizing more and more what Dion Hinchcliffe pointed out to me months ago during an interview for Ethics of Big Data. Namely that the physical manifestation and configuration of their architecture can be viewed as a direct, real-world expression of their organizational values. WhatRead… Read more »

You’ve Won, But Are You Willing To Lead?

The confetti has fallen, the balloons have been released and the adoring crowds are gone. The moment that every candidate hopes to face is here—victory. Yet, this the point at which successful candidates must pivot from election year warrior to genteel statesman or woman. The challenge for so many elected officials is that they rarelyRead… Read more »

HYPER GO: Nine ways to dodge unconference pitfalls

Hoorah. For the third time in three years there will be an unconference for those in and around local government in the West Midlands. Called Hyper WM this half day event has grown from being a half germ of an idea to something a bit big a bit splendid and I’m proud to be involvedRead… Read more »

Why Can’t People Get Work Done at Work

Jason Fried on “Why work doesn’t happen at work.” Audience and Theme Mr. Fried is speaking mostly towards the non-managerial working professional crowd. Structure and Style Mr. Fried’s structure is a straight-forward Attention-Problem-Solution format. Mr. Fried primarily uses colloquialisms, rhetorical questions, and casual analogies. Best Practices I like Mr. Fried’s use of analogy, such asRead… Read more »

Citizenship Beyond the Election

Following up on yesterday’s election, a member of our team asked me to write up some thoughts around the meaning of citizenship and democracy. We talk often not only how our work is about government and not politics and how we’re trying just as hard to reinvent citizenship as much as bureaucracy. But what doesRead… Read more »

Engage!

We like campaigns at Code for America. Campaigns provide us motivation, inspiration, and support for reaching shared objectives and goals. Each of our Brigade campaigns is designed to direct energy in support one of our five activities. Each of those activities advances our strategic outcomes. Our summer campaign, Open Impact, was about advocating for changesRead… Read more »

Transitions and New Beginnings

It’s an interesting time to be at Code for America right now. November marks the formal beginning of the “transition” phase for the 2012 Fellowship Program. Fellows are hard at work transitioning their applications, transitioning the relationships they’ve established in City Hall and in their communities – and transitioning themselves into exciting new chapters inRead… Read more »

Sit In the BIG Chair. . . Be a Blue Pencil/Gold Screen Judge!

by Marisa Ellison, Competitions Director for the National Association of Government Communicators and Customer Relations Manager for the Missouri Department of Transportation (Northeast District) If you’re like me, when you sign up for something, you’re in it for the long haul. You don’t give 50% or 75%…you give 110%. As communicators and public relations professionals,Read… Read more »