Students design vending machine for bike helmets
A group of MIT students has designed a vending machine to dispense helmets for riders of Hubway, Boston’s bicycle-sharing system. Original post
Miscellaneous
Fixing the Rules of the Game
The budget stalemate back in the spring, the summer debt ceiling debacle, the recent failure of the “super committee,” and the near paralysis over extending the payroll tax cut the are all symptoms of a broken governing system. The non-partisan Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform recently issued a series of recommendations on how to beginRead… Read more »
Top 5 – Lessons from Steve Jobs
I read the Steve Jobs biography over the holidays. What I enjoyed most about the book was all the details of how he handled complex situations and launched new products. As always, I find the behind-the-scenes of decisions much more interesting and informative than the hype. As such, here are my top 5 lessons fromRead… Read more »
Energy: Who Bought It & What We Paid
The two EIA graphs above tell a good-news/bad-news tale. The good news? Industrial and transportation energy costs have gone down significantly lately. The bad news? Residential and commercial costs haven’t, and those two of the sectors that have grown the most, by consumption, since 1960. Thanks to the EIA for the visuals! Original post
What would you like policy-makers to know about computing? Brian Kernighan’s so lution
After interviewing the illustrious co-inventor of Unix, Brian Kernighan, I posted this yesterday and realized it might be of interest to GovLoop members: http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/12/what-would-you-like-policy-mak.html
Learning Registry Plugfest 2
A few weeks ago, the second Learning Registry Plugfest took place at the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) headquarters in Boulder, Colorado. Over the course of two days the community gathered together, worked across organizations (and technologies) and surfaced some critically important questions and ideas the will drive the next wave of development for theRead… Read more »
Top 5 Social Media Networking Places for Govies of 2011
LinkedIn Groups LinkedIn, being renowned for being the professional social network, is a place not only to connect with others in your agency, but to reach out and connect across agencies for advice, sharing ideas, and more. One of the best ways to do this is to connect through groups of common interests, areas ofRead… Read more »
Christmas Vacuum
Well, I didn’t have a Christmas tree this year. Not even a fake one. But I did have a vacuum cleaner. A big red vacuum cleaner. With presents. It was just perfect. Of course, what does this have to do with procurement? Well, have you ever thought what it takes to manufacture an actual vacuumRead… Read more »
Don’t Worry; Trust the Government – Why Citizen Engagement is Difficult
It’s a rather obvious observation that the modern world is complex and confusing. There is a lot that have major influences on our lives but we don’t know much about. Things like climate change, global poverty, Mideast peace, etc. When we feel ignorant about a subject that affects us personally, we do research to learnRead… Read more »
GovLoop – A Year in Review, A Look Ahead
GovLoop – Year in Review, A Look Ahead I love the end of the year as it’s a great time to reflect on the year that has been and plan for the year ahead. 2011 Review 2011 was an awesome year here in the Govloop community. This last week, as a community, we’ve done aRead… Read more »