Acquisition

Would a Learning Contracting Officer Help Your Agency?

In general, there are three types of contracting officers — the procuring contracting officer, the termination contracting officer and the administrative contracting officer. It may be time to add a fourth type — the learning contracting officer (LCO). You see, contracts specialists train to become full-fledged contracting officers. Much of what we contracts specialists doRead… Read more »

Recovering from the Recovery Act, Part 2

President Obama put Vice President Biden in charge of the implementation of the $787 billion Recovery Act. Ed DeSeve had an eagle eye’s view of the interaction between agencies, states, localities, and non-profits. He shares his lessons learned from Recovery Act implementation, as well as advice for “the next big implementation challenge,” whatever that mightRead… Read more »

If You Could Pick One Thing For Congress To Do Regarding CyberSecurity, What Would It Be?

A friend who is a former Representative and a respected advisor of many senior politicians recently asked me for some thoughts on cyber legislation. In general, people ask my thoughts because of time I’ve spent working strategic cyber issues in the Cyber Conflict Studies Association (CCSA) or because of my history at DoD’s Joint TaskRead… Read more »

Where do you think Social Government should go ?

In many ways, Government is as skilled or even leading private industry in applying social technologies to transform itself. Government already makes heavy use of social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook to communicate with constituents and is pushing into new spaces with efforts to better communicate during emergencies or to facilitate reporting ofRead… Read more »

The Dog That Caught The Bus – GSA Administrator Martha Johnson

I’m at ACT/IAC Executive Leadership Council where 800 gov’t IT leaders are congregating. Keynote is entitled “The Dog That Caught The Bus” by Martha Johnson, GSA Administrator GSA’s mission is everything for everyone everywhere. To federal, state, local, executive, legislative branches. Change is happening-Previously – budgets were squeezed. We were put on a diet-Today ourRead… Read more »

OSS Procurement FAQ: Part 1

This is part 1 of a recurring series regarding some frequently asked questions on procuring open source software in government. Check back weekly for new installments here at civiccommons.org. At the Code for America Summit last week, I introduced to the assembled community of civic technologists and supporters the Civic Commons Legal and Procurement IssuesRead… Read more »

Legacy

Let’s say you are a manager who has worked in an organization for a number of years. You have worked hard to create new processes and systems that assure that your division is working at top efficiency. You have developed a policy manual, written rules, and if you happen to be in government, you haveRead… Read more »

Weekly Round-up – October 21, 2011

Gadi Ben-Yehuda First the bad news. QR Codes are now being infected. This is all very Snow Crash. Next, some good news. Fierce Government is reporting that government employee’s use of social media is growing. Key take-away: “Thirty-seven percent of federal workers said they are permitted to use social media as representatives of their agency.Read… Read more »