At today’s GovLoop training, The Citizen and the Government – How they Connect, we heard from Martha Dorris, Deputy Associate Administrator, Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies (OCSIT) at the General Services Administration (GSA). She started off by telling us that if we didn’t get anything else from her speech (don’t worry, we did!),Read… Read more »
There are some basic features—things like buildings, water systems, parks, roads, electrical lines and buildings—that comprise the infrastructure of any city. And many people, myself included, often think of these as static features within the city landscape. However, if you work in state or local government, you know that’s not the case. The infrastructure ofRead… Read more »
The average four-year-old girl asks 390 questions per day, mostly to her mother. Yep, you read that right. Three hundred ninety. Sorry, Mom. Warren Berger, our keynote speaker at GovLoop’s State and Local Innovators Virtual Summit and author of A More Beautiful Question, said this number isn’t all that surprising. At that young age, childrenRead… Read more »
“Treat human data with humanity.” This was the plea from Jer Thorp, data artist and keynote speaker at GovLoop’s 4th Annual Government Communications Summit, gave to the audience. That’s a relatively simple request, right? Turns out, not really. It’s pretty easy to get lost in the data, and forget the people that are using it,Read… Read more »
Jer Thorp is a data artist. He literally breathes life into data, by creating interactive visualizations of immense data sets. At today’s GovDelivery 8th Annual Federal Federal Communications Summit, he introduced what he calls the Ohh/Aah Principle. This idea guides how he presents data and, after today, it should guide the way your present dataRead… Read more »
Data access. Data virtualization. Data consolidation. Data security. Data analytics. What do all of these things have in common? Ok, yes, they all have something to do with data, but that’s obvious. What’s not so obvious is that all of these data-centric tasks rely on storage solutions to facilitate them. Data has to be storedRead… Read more »
Let’s be real. Being young in the government is not easy. Yes, it’s a privilege to serve your country. And yes, the opportunities in government are often endless. But you’re also entry-level in a bureaucratic, top-heavy organization, where many of your colleagues are significantly older and more experienced than you. That being the case, it’sRead… Read more »
Government increasingly advocates for enhanced telework opportunities within the federal space. However, according to a 2013 report on telework in the federal government, many employees face management resistance when attempting to work remotely. This isn’t really surprising. Teleworking has gotten a bad rap for decreasing productivity, disrupting work routines, and creating security issues. The recent PatentRead… Read more »
A couple of days ago, I was at the Data Transparency 2014 conference, hosted by the Data Coalition. Throughout the day, we discussed a lot of reasons open data is important. It can maximize efficiency, highlight pressure points, illuminate trends, and do about 1 million other things that help government run more smoothly. If youRead… Read more »
Especially in government, we constantly talk about doing more with less. But most often, those conversations focus on physical resources like office supplies, amenities, or space. And when we do think about the human element, it’s often in detached terms like ‘labor hours’ or ‘workforce supply’. However, if you manage an overburdened team, you areRead… Read more »