Yearly Archives: 2014

Life Lessons Applicable to the Public Sector

Collectivism is a core concept in public service. In my last post, I introduced the concept of leading without a title (insert hyperlink to that blog post). So much of our personal development happens outside the office. Our life experiences, personal lives and hobbies paint a picture of our values, ethics and interests. Reflection isRead… Read more »

open311 Use Cases

Exciting new advancements are taking place in the world of open311, which is a data standard that various applications can be built on. A number of open311-compliant open source and commercial applications allow data to be easily shared and used by each other, such as CRMs, mobile reporting apps, and other web interfaces displaying reportRead… Read more »

Protecting Public Health with Smart Data

From clean water supplies to the polio vaccine, the most effective public health interventions are typically preventive interventions and policies that help stop a crisis before it starts. However, predicting the next public health crisis has historically been a challenge. Thanks to new technologies, we innovate age-old public health workflows and methods of analysis. WeRead… Read more »

Looking Inside the Maple Leaf – How Canada Does Transparency

How many potholes have been filled this spring in your city? Are buses arriving on time this weekend? What’s the number of business licenses granted in the past month? How fast are emergency vehicles responding on-scene to accidents? These are just examples of questions citizens ask their local government on an everyday basis. Frequently, findingRead… Read more »

Can You Retrofit Your Colleagues for Digital?

It is a fairly standard challenge to be asked to make an organisation ‘go digital’. Or more specifically make the people working there use digital tools and engagement techniques. At an interview one of the most common question is ‘can you give an example of how you got the press office/senior management/policy officials to goRead… Read more »

The latest video communicating social media policy to public servants – Social Media Man

The Queensland Government recently introduced a new approach to communicate departmental social media policy to staff, a light and humorous video featuring ‘Social Media Man’. It’s the latest in a line of video-based tools used to communicate social media policy to public servants in Australia, following some great work from Victoria. The first, in MarchRead… Read more »

Are Private Contractors the New Federal Workforce?

Last Sunday was graduation day at Duke. In our Master of Public Policy program, over half of the graduating students are employed, and over half of those employed are going to work for government consulting firms. Their salaries are about 20% higher than those who are working in government jobs, and they have been impressedRead… Read more »

A Fed Makes the List of the Most Creative People – Plus the 7 Gov Stories

On GovLoop Insights’ DorobekINSIDER: In the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks, much of the focus in the transportation world was on securing the nation’s airports. But what about the other access points across the country? How secure were America’s many ports? It was that question Anthony Regalbuto, Chief, Office of International and DomesticRead… Read more »

Securing the Ports and Securing the Nation – One Man’s Mission

In the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks, much of the focus in the transportation world was on securing the nation’s airports. But what about the other access points across the country? How secure were America’s many ports? It was that question Anthony Regalbuto, Chief, Office of International and Domestic Port Security, set aboutRead… Read more »

Your BYOD Framework – A NASA Case Study

Our recent GovLoop report on mobility focused on the importance of centrally managing devices and the impact of mobile in government. That’s why I was excited to sit in on a BYOD session at FOSE, one of the premiere events to educate government employees and share best practices on government IT. John Sprague, Enterprise ApplicationsRead… Read more »