Tech

The Supreme Court’s “Inconsistent” History on Affirmative Action

I recently heard an assertion that the United States’ Supreme Court has acted “inconsistently” in regards to its affirmative action decisions, and decided that it was a strong enough claim that I ought to have an opinion myself. I know—what kind of crazy person would find this type of discussion interesting? Well, for better orRead… Read more »

Best Practices for Government Libraries 2010 – Now Available

Best Practices 2010: The New Face of Value. is now available in a PDF version. Best Practices is a collaborative document that is put out annually on a specific topic of interest to government libraries and includes content submitted by government librarians and community leaders with an interest in government libraries. The 2010 edition includesRead… Read more »

NSA can demonstrate commitment to privacy by releasing FISA Amendment Act documents

Privacy is of utmost concern to the National Security Agency, according to its head, Army Gen. Keith Alexander. “I know that some have concerns about intelligence community involvement in securing the nation’s cyber infrastructure. Those concerns are valid, which is why the professionals at the National Security Agency have robust and rigorous procedures to minimizeRead… Read more »

Elephant in the Room? “Culture” and Social Media uptake in the Public Sector

The last few weeks I was at a couple of government-focused social media events, one in person (Gov 2.0 Expo) and one virtually (GovCamp). They were both really good and provided a lot of value I think. There were some similarities in the events, through a recurring theme. Specifically, everyone (ok, well most everyone) inRead… Read more »

Internet Skills

Last week, I heard about another teacher telling students their papers would be discarded if they used Wikipedia. Dana wrote about the teacher in Texas confiscating open source software CDs since they were “stolen” and “unlicensed.” Journalists dismiss bloggers for lack of “professionalism.” People complain about not being able to trust unrecognized sources of informationRead… Read more »

Social media for diplomats – practical guide 2.0

About a year ago I wrote a post explaining basic guidelines on using social media by diplomats (here: http://diplomatstalk.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-diplomats-should-use-social-media.html).One year later, I would like to update some things and add others. After all, there is nothing like experience…I will comment about three major tools: Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. Here are the topics discussed: So whyRead… Read more »