Communications

“Women Only” Parking Lot – Legal or Not?

With the high rate of recent attacks on women in secluded parking lots, especially during evening hours, the Minneapolis City Council last week approved an ordinance to establish a ‘Women Only’ parking lot at the Mall of America. All security officers, maintenance personnel and even the parking lot attendants are exclusively female so that aRead… Read more »

When Are “Open Data” and “Hiding in Plain Sight” Synonymous?

Alex Howard’s Beware openwashing. Question secrecy. Acknowledge ideology. is a welcome discussion of what “open” can mean when it comes to government services. Terms like “transparency,” “open data,” and “open government” tend to get thrown around a lot without critical discussions of their meanings. Howard discusses how “open” inevitably becomes intertwined with philosophy and politics.Read… Read more »

Brainstorming or A Scavenger Hunt

Michael Starobin – 1AU Global Media, LLC gave a brilliant presentation about creativity in leadership at the Leadership Breakfast of Maryland recently. One question he asked: ‘brainstorming’ – is this a creative exercise? And offered an observation: “it stinks.” WOW! This is popular exercise for organizations – business and otherwise – all you need isRead… Read more »

Immigration in the Age of #Social: The Benefits of Managing Social Media Data

Quantity has a Quality all its own. This famous and perceptive phrase has been variously attributed to the German philosopher Hagel, Engels, Lenin, and finally Josef Stalin. Despite the largely shady cast of characters associated with it, the phrase captures an important truth: that large volumes often have characteristics far beyond the traits of aRead… Read more »

Transparency Report Card – Did your state make the grade?

For the past four year the US Public Interest Group has graded each of the 50 states on their level of transparency. While 7 states made the honor roll, six states received failing grades. How did your state do? Phineas Baxandall is a senior analyst for tax and budget at the US Public Interest Group.Read… Read more »

DYK? National Equal Pay Day 2013

Today is National Equal Pay Day 2013. Did you know? According to the National Committee on Pay Equity: “Equal Pay Day was originated by the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) in 1996 as a public awareness event to illustrate the gap between men’s and women’s wages. Since Census statistics showing the latest wage figuresRead… Read more »

Considerations for the Digital Public Information Officer (PIO)

This topic has come up time and time again here on GovLoop and I felt it was time to revisit the greater discussion involving use of social/new/2.0/3.0/etc technology for the purposes of emergency response, recovery, mitigation, citizen engagement, and so forth through the optic of the PIO. To this end, an entire world-wide group ofRead… Read more »