Communications

Have You Ever Participated in Creating a Better World, One Couch At A Time?

I recollect being introduced to the interesting CouchSurfing Project at last spring’s DC Gov 2.0 Uncamp. I first heard of this hospitality network while watching a social media documentary that took viewers into a month in the life of a first time American couchsurfer visiting London. I was instantly fascinated by the concept. CouchSurfing’s missionRead… Read more »

A fundemental problem in introducing new technology and business change

On my Capgemini Blog www.capgemini.com/ctoblog someone posted a very insightful comment recently; “If you are a carpenter with a traditional saw and you buy a motor powered bench saw (new technology) then you had better change the way you work because lifting up the new bench saw and taking it to the wood certainly isn’tRead… Read more »

Join Me at Open Gov West: Our Model Works Best with 2 or more Opensocial Portals

Join me @OpenGovWest March 26, 27 2010 in Seattle, WA: OpenNASA/OpenXXX, our model works best with 2 portals: http://bit.ly/7SdY4w My idea for two next-gen portals: Gadgets for Govt Benefits. OpenOPM/OpenNASA: http://tinyurl.com/ykjj6g8 My idea for two opensocial portals: Disaster Recovery use case. OpenDHS/OpenNASA: http://ideascale.com/t/UB3dZGF0 OpenEPA v2.0 Portal: Earth Apps for “Going Green”: http://openepa.ideascale.com/a/dtd/24726-7042 Apps.gov on SteroidsRead… Read more »

Frederick software company employee uses resources to help native Haiti

[source — gazette.net] For Rosemary Dyer, clicking the refresh button on her Facebook page for the last two weeks has been a matter of life and death. The Haiti native, a quality assurance analyst at the downtown Frederick software-building and technology company, Yakabod, has been using the social networking site to find out what happenedRead… Read more »

OpenGov is Real (I’ve added it to my spellcheckers)

February 6, 2010 — OpenGov websites and Public Engagement Tools A week ago, OpenGov with the progress of the Open Government Directive moved to a new level, and one that many of us in the community have long anticipated. The schedule laid out by the OGD prescribes an almost ‘lightening round’ (for the slow, deliberateRead… Read more »

Pip.io comes out of beta, mostly

I wrote about Pip.io at the end of October and I was very impressed with the product in its beta form. If you have not yet read the post, you should. The product, as I wrote about it then, has not changed dramatically in terms of functionality. The team has focused on the underlying platformRead… Read more »

How Should Elected Officials Use Twitter?

My husband loves USA Today (no offense to him or the paper, but it’s mostly because of the colors and graphics). A few weeks ago, he called me at work to ask if I’d seen their story “More governors finding Twitter tweets sweet.” (Background: This is relevant to me since I oversee social media forRead… Read more »

Best Practices: U.S. Coast Guard Uses YouTube to Recruit New Guardians

When I first started exploring social media recruiting, I kept asking myself one question. How do you successfully use YouTube (or any video sharing site) to recruit? Well, I think I have found my answer. I recently ran across the Coast Guard’s YouTube recruitment channel. The channel made its debut in March of 2009 andRead… Read more »

Employee Engagement/Organisational Culture Surveys

Has anyone else observed the phenomena of employee engagement/organisational culture surveys being conducted across organisations by Human Resource/Organisational Development/People areas and then the results being cascaded down through the hierarchy? It’s a bit like drip feeding people information and is, well, disengaging. Wouldn’t it be great if the results of these surveys were anonymised byRead… Read more »

Plain Language Awards

The Center for Plain Language, a 501(c)(3) with headquarters in the DC area, is giving awards for the best plain language documents and websites at a ceremony at the National Press Club on April 29. They’ve just extended their entry deadline to March 1. Entries are free this year. They’ll be giving ClearMark awards inRead… Read more »