Yearly Archives: 2014

Open Source First

It was great to see the recent blog of US General Services Administration (GSA) CIO Sonny Hashmi in which he establishes “open source first” as an agency policy: “Simply put, any solution developed using taxpayer dollars should be in the taxpayer’s domain (open source). At GSA, we believe that all code we developed should beRead… Read more »

Raise Your Likeability

It’s been said that everyone can light up a room — some when they enter, and others when they leave. Which type of person are you? Likeable? Or not so much? Research has consistently proven that we are inclined to respond positively to people whom we like. That means we buy from those we like,Read… Read more »

DHS Hacker Threat Info Unveiled

On GovLoop Insights’ DorobekINSIDER: Did you ever play the game telephone as a kid? It was one of my favorite games, because no matter how hard you tried, the message always got muddled somewhere along the way. Messages from government leaders can also run the risk of a telephone esq misunderstanding. We look at someRead… Read more »

IT Solutions with Speed, Savings

When I meet with agency customers, I hear about the struggles we face to get IT acquisitions done efficiently and smoothly. Most government agencies–federal, state or local—face similar acquisition problems: How do we acquire IT faster? How can we continue to find savings? Can you make it easier to acquire mission-critical IT solutions? Can youRead… Read more »

Government-ize Your Resume

If you’re considering applying for your first federal job (or if you’re hunting for a new one), don’t plan on using a traditional resume. There are a number of specific things the feds are looking for that don’t usually apply to the private sector. What follows are some tips on how to rework your resumeRead… Read more »

2 Free Twitter Network Visualization Tools

Lately, my associates and I have been doing quite a bit of social network visualization research for clients, typically using raw social data and comprehensive, fee-based custom tools. While these are great for deep analysis and strategic planning, sometimes a simple free tool can do the trick if all you are looking for is quickRead… Read more »

Does Gov Need an Exit Strategy for Facebook?

You want every selfie and status update to get attention from your friends. But are all your friends seeing your posts? If they are, are you engaging them? Government organizations face this same challenge. Given Facebook and Twitter’s popularity in the last few years, federal, state and local organizations have worked to engage people onRead… Read more »

7 Ideas for the U.S. Digital Service

This week it was announced that the U.S. federal government is creating a U.S. Digital Service team led by Mikey Dickerson with a goal to “improve and simplify the digital experience that people and businesses have with their government.” Personally, it’s exciting to hear about the announcement of this division (with some decent staffing fromRead… Read more »