Miscellaneous

How Ping Pong helps Agencies Innovate, Making Budget Transparency Easy, and the 411 on Online Training

How Ping Pong helps Agencies Innovate, Making Budget Transparency Easy, and the 411 on Training by GovLoop Insights On Today’s DorobekINSIDER for Tuesday April 17, 2012: The science behind innovation — and how showering, napping and ping pong fit into the process. Really…ping pong makes people more creative. You’ll learn how with a new bookRead… Read more »

Teleworking Isn’t As Easy As It Seems (How in the world do you work from anywhere?)

After a decade of working for other people, I’ve started my own business. I’m pretty excited. I’m using my skills, knowledge, abilities, and connections, and I have no one to answer to but myself. If I succeed, it’s because I worked hard. If I fail, it’s because I didn’t get the formula right. The bestRead… Read more »

The EIGHT gov’t stories you NEED to know — including video of NASA’s last Shuttle flight over DC

April 17th, 2012 — Newscast by cdorobek Your Government News for Tuesday April 17th, 2012: The Space Shuttle — Discovery, mated to a specially modified Boeing 747, made her way to the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum this morning — landing at Washington’s Dulles International Airport and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center.Read… Read more »

Data Transparency Coalition launches with fourteen members and one mission

[Editor’s note: This update is cross-posted on the Data Transparency Coalition’s blog.] Yesterday, thirteen tech companies and one nonprofit organization launched the Data Transparency Coalition.Our ambition is to be the main private-sector voice for federal data reform. We want the government to publish its information online and use consistent data identifiers and markup languages toRead… Read more »

Lonely Planet: NASA Needs Your Best Ideas About Exploring Mars

Mark Drapeau (Washington, DC) — Due to severe budget cutbacks, NASA’s Administrator Charles F. Bolden, Jr. has instructed a number of his senior administrators to “lead a reformulation of the Mars Exploration Program” in order to continue space exploration on a budget. To do that, NASA is sponsoring a June, 2012 workshop in Houston toRead… Read more »

Just Say No to Pinkerton Detectives

If there’s one thing I love, it’s forgotten, obscure laws, regulations and policies. They’re even better when they’re in my line of work. So here’s one for you — FAR 37.109, i.e. just say no to Pinkerton Detectives. 37.109 — Services of Quasi-Military Armed Forces. Contracts with “Pinkerton Detective Agencies or similar organizations” are prohibitedRead… Read more »

Frequently Asked Questions about Gov 2.0: How do we convince risk-averse management to say yes to social media initiatives?

This is the second in my series of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) posts to address some of the ‘persistent’ questions related to social media and Government 2.0. The question I am addressing is “How do we convince risk-averse management to say yes to social media initiatives?” This is one of the most common questions IRead… Read more »

Gearing Up for Food Day 2012

The second annual Food Day, the nationwide celebration of healthy, affordable, and sustainably produced food, is just months away. Food Day is October 24 every year. Food Day brings together organizations and individuals working on food issues as varied as hunger, nutrition, agriculture policy, animal welfare, and farmworker justice. Last year, some events were largeRead… Read more »

The Fundamentals of Government Procurement: Part II

April’s blog posts are dedicated to the fundamental “blocking and tackling” of our procurement system. Given recent events, this week I am going to focus on the vital importance of nurturing and maintaining a highly qualified, professional acquisition workforce. I believe in the professionalism and dedication of our acquisition community and am proud to beRead… Read more »

The SEVEN Gov’t Stories you need to know…including a Prostitution Scandal with the Secret Service

Newscast for Monday April 16, 2012 by cdorobek The SEVEN stories that impact your life in YOUR GOVERNMENT COUNTDOWN: 11 secret services agents were put on administrative leave on Saturday in Colombia after they allegedly brought prostitutes back to their hotel rooms. The Defense Department says and additional five military service members were suspended forRead… Read more »