Tech

The long pause (life without Internet)

Since September 16th, I’ve been without Internet access at home. Now, I realize that people lived for centuries without the steady stream of 1’s and 0’s from our Gore-inspired Information Superhighway; but I would insist they never really lived. Seriously, a life without electronic mail? No Google Maps? No Google, even? No online library cardRead… Read more »

Mugging the rich bastard lawyers

Cross posted from Online Journalism Blog, where I’ve been updating all day – find any further updates here. If the famous media gaggers, the libel law firm Carter-Ruck, scourge of Private Eye, thought they’d scored another famous victory (these guys are big on bragging) suppressing news they hadn’t reckoned with social media. #trafigura is asRead… Read more »

Here Comes Everybody

At the Gov 2.0 Summit in Washington DC this past September, I had the opportunity to hear Clay Shirky speak about the way social media is changing societal behaviors. I was so enamored with his talk that I went out and bought his book: Here Comes Everybody, and wrote a blog post about it onRead… Read more »

Transparency – what’s the end?

In an October 9th article in the New Republic, Lawrence Lessig authored an important critique of the transparency movement. Primarily asking the questions – transparency is all fine and good, but what is the end? Lessig’s article and a related article by Jill Lepore in The New Yorker point out that the rush to transparencyRead… Read more »

Spook.gov? Contest ends Wednesday! Re-branding web urls for Gov’t agencies

Al Kamen, Washington Post “In the Loop” columnist, is running a fun and thought-provoking Gov 2.0 contest via his WaPo column. He’s asking readers to submit memorable, succinct, humorous-yet-accurate alternate web urls for Gov’t agencies, such as www.Spook.gov for the CIA. Here are Al’s comments and instructions: What-Dot-Gov? Don’t forget to enter the Loop rebrandingRead… Read more »

Happy Columbus Day – Govloop’s Bureaucrat on Sports – College Football National Championship Picture and Selected Week 6 Picks

Happy Columbus Day!! Yikes, the Hokie Guru’s been busy over the last couple of weeks… he just got admitted to the Georgetown University Executive Master of Policy Management Program… it’s a program that is specifically set up for federal government inspector general employees. If you don’t know, the federal government inspector general is essentially theRead… Read more »

3 Ways to Save Money on Municipal IT Energy Costs

by Sophicity When a municipality is tasked with reducing operating costs, one often overlooked area is energy use in the IT infrastructure. With energy prices on the rise, an increasingly taxed power grid and growing public concern over efficiency, new technologies and approaches to the way IT operates can lead to a dramatic reduction inRead… Read more »