Introducing the GovLoop 2015 Spring Fellowship Cohort

Over the past four years, GovLoop has hosted a Graduate Fellowship Program in which current or recent graduate students and college graduates have joined us for a semester or more to contribute to our mission to “connect government to improve government.” We’ve had over 40 fellows support us on our core projects, including our research guides,Read… Read more »

5 Ways to Have A Quick One While He’s Away

It’s lunch time here at the cubicle farm and I’m distracted while trying to come up with a clever subject for this week’s blog. I have three, seriously three, colleagues sitting near me clearing their throats every 30 seconds or so. Not in time or anything synchronized because that would be very funny. I don’tRead… Read more »

GIS-based Real Property Management for Government

Recently, GovLoop, Esri, and PenBay Solutions hosted an online training titled, “Facilities are Mission Critical: GIS-based Real Property Management for Government”, to illustrate how facility managers can utilize GIS to improve building and real property management. The speakers for the online training included: Bill Barron, Chief Executive Officer of PenBay Soltutions Benton Yetman, Director/Strategic Technology atRead… Read more »

Tell Me Straight: Plain Language in Governance

Reading wordy language is a real pain. As a graduate student of a social sciences discipline (I recently got a Masters’ in gender studies), I saw some of the most ridiculous examples of convoluted and elaborate language out there – social theory seems to spontaneously inspire this habit. It was annoying as a student, asRead… Read more »

Is Open Data Worth the Hype?

“Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing.  Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset.”                      – President Barack Obama, in Transparency and Open Government memo. Today, there is an increased focus on the value of open data, especially inRead… Read more »

“I’m Going to the Super Bowl Again!” Reaching Goals Through Teamwork

What is the key in achieving great things? I have been thinking about this since the Seahawks’ championship win against the Packers that has had everyone up here in the Pacific Northwest walking around in a glorious euphoria. In case you missed it here is a quote from QB Russell Wilson’s post game interview thatRead… Read more »

Identifying and Dealing with a Weed (Toxic Person) in Your Garden?

Dealing with Toxic People (in my People Gardening terms I really like “Weeds” better), is not always easy. Of course we go through those same thoughts I asked originally, pull them, ignore them, eradicate them, but you know, what I’ve realized, is that it doesn’t make us any better to pretend them away in any… Read more »