I spoke to a group of civil servants this week as part of their development program’s lunchtime speaker series; the talk covered a lot of ground and I wanted to take the opportunity to share some of my key messages from the discussion. The web is disruptive The internet has disrupted, is disrupting, or willRead… Read more »
Not just a buzzword throughout the technology industry, cloud computing has been a hot topic inside the Beltway. From the data center consolidation movement to the federal “cloud first” mandate and now with mobility and big data seeing an uptick in popularity, the government is shifting their discussion away from cloud being the destination toRead… Read more »
Does big data really matter? TechAmerica’s new survey says a resounding yes. “We found there is a lot of potential for big data. The government could save up to 10% a year. 10% is no joke, that is about $380 billion a year,” said Jennifer Kerber. Kerber is the President of the TechAmerica Foundation. SheRead… Read more »
There are dozens of applications as to how GIS can be used to improve the public sector, everything from improving service delivery, gaining efficiency, and monitoring and assessing government programs. One emerging area of GIS is the use of GIS to help plan and optimize facilities. Public sector organizations operate and maintain thousands of facilities,Read… Read more »
I bought a newspaper today. I can’t remember the last time I did since I acquire all of my news on the internet. If I had a smartphone, I’m sure I’d be even more up to date, being constantly attached to a plethora of information. But today I picked up a copy of the NewRead… Read more »
Recently, I’ve talked to a number of government employees whose agencies are in full cost cutting modes as related to sequestration. All of them said they are looking for ways to cut costs. So I thought I’d write a list – so here you go: 22 Ways to Cut Costs in Time of Sequester: 1)Read… Read more »
A few simple questions to avoid this ↑ I’m sure there are a lot of people out there that have experienced system design and lived to tell about. I had a scrape with it this morning and I thought I’d share because I think it highlights some of the type of thinking that absolutely hasRead… Read more »
The Government Accountability Office has looked at the growing number of cybersecurity threats facing our nation. And it’s no small number. The GAO says the increase in cyber attack reported to CERT in the last 6 years has grown by 782%. There were 5,500 incidents in 2006, last year there were 48,000. So what isRead… Read more »
The movement to assess and improve the usability of federal government websites is small, vocal, and growing. GSA’s First Fridays program makes free usability testing available to federal agencies, and a wide range of agencies have undertaken their own regular assessments of their sites and applications. Slowly but surely, the archaic mindset that a .govRead… Read more »
This morning Bloomberg Philanthropies announced the winners of the Mayors Challenge. The press release can be found below, and I am excited to see how the projects shape up. I’ll dive into the projects a little more later this week, but wanted to share quickly some resources and information on the 5 winners: Providence, RIRead… Read more »