U.S. Department of State and the Adobe Foundation Launch Online Video Contest to Amplify U.S. Public Diplomacy

The Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, in conjunction with the Adobe Foundation, today launched an online video contest to amplify U.S. public diplomacy using web-based outreach campaigns and social media platforms. The interactive Video Contest “My Culture + Your Culture=? Share your Story,” is expected to draw thousands of people worldwideRead… Read more »

Pay-for-Performance or Pay-for-Show Up?

Since this is my first blog entry, I thought I would introduce myself and my organization first and then try to dodge all the tomatoes that may be thrown my way. My name is Jeff Press and I am the Executive Director of the Center for Radical Improvement. The Center is dedicated to bringing passionateRead… Read more »

Reinventing Public Service

I’ve previously made my case for the value of the word “bureaucrat” but it’s a tough battle. To appease the 50th complaint, I changed the profile question to “Who is your favorite public servant?” Which bring me to public service. A lot of talk has occurred recently on reenergizing public service. When I was inRead… Read more »

Federal Eye: Federal Employees Donate to Their New Boss

The Obama-Biden Transition Project has earned $1,170,937.44 since it began accepting donations on Nov. 15 and among the 1,776 people that have donated, 35 are federal employees or members of the military. They have donated $5,925 basically to help their next boss, Barack Obama, prepare for his new job. All appear to be rank-and-file typesRead… Read more »

The Personal Rapid Transit Revolution

As the world searches for an answer to reducing the use of fossil fuels, cities are starting to look to the personal rapid transit (PRT) system as a potential solution. Lately, MISTER, a Polish-based company, has gained increasing notice for their innovative PRT system. MISTER is an acronym for Metropolitan Individual System of Transportation onRead… Read more »

DHS and the (Not Yet Created) TechSolutions Wiki

Originally posted at the GenerationShift blog: A couple weeks ago, while attending the National League of Cities conference in Orlando, FL, I connected with representatives from the Science and Technology Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security. Our conversation began by them highlighting a new website called TechSolutions. According to the website: The TechSolutions ProgramRead… Read more »

Is e-government a dangerous enthusiasm?

Yes, according to the conclusion reached by Gauld, Goldfinch and Dale* after a number of e-government case studies in New Zealand and a survey of wider literature. And it is an interesting judgement in case of New Zealand, a country with 4 million population, but well advanced in e-government. By mid-1990s most New Zealand governmentRead… Read more »

Bridges 2.0: how applying Web 2.0 tools — and attitudes — to public works can cut costs and contribute to economic recovery

I had an op-ed in Engineering News Record, the “bible” of the engineering and construction industry, this week, dealing with what I call “Bridges 2.O,” how using Web 2.0 tools such as wikis and structured data feeds, and, equally important, the Web 2.0 ethos of collaboration, can revolutionize public works projects. As I point out,Read… Read more »

Georgetown Univ offering MA in Democracy and Governance

Does anyone know about this program? Democracy and Governance Studies at Georgetown Univ

Mainstreaming

Seems to me like this little economic crisis thing may just propel our profession into an organic change of its own. For some time I’ve thought that the next evolution for HR will be to displace responsibility to operational management. Said differently, that we enable others to do for themselves what we’ve been doing forRead… Read more »

Project Management