Most Americans would probably agree that government—at all levels—is less than competent when it comes to efficiently managing taxpayer money. If you conduct a web search on “wasteful government spending,” you will be presented with a multitude of results that highlight the sad reality of government waste. Yet, despite this grim view of government operations,Read… Read more »
Unemployment poses big challenges for governments and citizens worldwide. Its negative consequences don’t just stop at economies. In addition to lost wages and tax revenues, unemployment also results in negative societal consequences affecting citizen wellbeing and health. Rising rates of unemployment cited in a recent IBM report highlight the urgency of this issue. According toRead… Read more »
According to the Congressional Budget Office, spending on health accounts for nearly 27 percent of the US federal budget. On the state level, a similarly large portion of budgets is dedicated to Medicaid spending. While those staggering numbers highlight a large expense for government, they also represent a large opportunity to cut costs. And accordingRead… Read more »
This blog post is an excerpt from GovLoop’s recent guide, the Open Data Playbook for Government. Download the full guide here. Data is powerful. It can tell us more than we ever hoped to know about ourselves and the world around us. It’s also vital for solving today’s problems and predicting government’s future needs. ThisRead… Read more »
“It would be false to say that people are happily sharing their data with us.” That’s how the Department of Defense’s Col. Bob Saxon explained his agency’s efforts to open up government data. For all of its potential benefits, open data also presents security risks to those providing the information. From loss of agency confidentiality,Read… Read more »
Christina Ho started off her presentation at GovLoop’s recent data analytics with a simple anecdote. “This area has changed fast,” she chuckled at the beginning of her presentation. I was walking here this morning and I was thinking how my office I used to work at was here at 9th and H. I used to overlookRead… Read more »
How many agencies are in the federal government? Seems like a straightforward question, right? Well, it depends on whom you ask. Hudson Hollister, Founder and Executive Director of the Data Transparency Coalition, recalled his days working as a congressional staffer for Rep. Darrell Issa and searching for an answer to that very question. “One dayRead… Read more »
Astounding. Amazing. Eye-opening. These are the kind of words that David Kushner, Director of Big Data Analytics and Cyber Practice at ViON, used to describe the current state of the world of analytics at GovLoop’s recent data analytics event. “A new world of possibilities is being opened for us,” he stated. “Today is a very exciting time.” According toRead… Read more »
This blog post is an excerpt from GovLoop’s recent guide, the Open Data Playbook for Government. Download the full guide here. What separates good data from bad data? Well, a couple of things: How the data is displayed, its accuracy, and useful context about the data are all key. Whether we know it or not,Read… Read more »
When I was little I made a lot of important decisions based on color. Choosing between a red shirt and a blue? I chose blue every time. Blue was a better color. Between Icee pops? Same thing. What can I say I liked blue. Over time I learned that for somethings color wasn’t a greatRead… Read more »