Tech

Weekly Round-up: March 16, 2012

Gadi Ben-Yehuda Transparency not-yet-accomplished. Alice Lipowicz writes in Federal Computer Week that many agencies have yet to complete their current transparency plans, though their next-gen plans are due in April. Mobility on the way. Lisa Schlosser, deputy chief information officer at OMB, talked about mobility in the federal government with Wyatt Kash of Gov.AOL. KeyRead… Read more »

Temple University Opens Early Stage Biotech Incubator

Stephanie Baum (Philadelphia, PA) – A university is offering early stage companies from its academic community office space in an incubator as the institution doubles its technology transfer office staff. Philadelphia-based Temple University has opened an office in the University City Science Center that serves as an incubator for many life science and technology companies.Read… Read more »

Local Governments Need To Embrace The Passion Of Amateurs!

One of my favorite quotes is: “ Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead The first edition of Britannica Encyclopedias appeared in Scotland in 1768. In 11 years a group of Internet volunteers has ended the 244Read… Read more »

Civic institutes this summer (via Peter Levine’s blog)

Here’s a great little list straight from Peter Levine’s blog at http://peterlevine.ws/?p=8351… People interested in various aspects of civic education and civic renewal have a whole range of summer institutes to consider in 2012. At Tufts, we offer a Summer Institute of Civic Studies (a seminar with a strong focus on theory) followed by aRead… Read more »

Educating Chicago

Chicago parents have a new tool for understanding the public school selection process: Chicago Public School Tiers, an app launched last week by Open City. The application is a perfect example of how independent civic developers can use open data to improve complicated yet important public processes; an approach that Code for America supports byRead… Read more »

Overcoming Obstacles to Social Media Use in Government

Participants in the Government Social Media Class offered by Digital Government University’s recently compiled a list of common arguments they’ve heard against the use of social media in government. How do you counter–firmly, but politely–these arguments? Are there any others that you encounter and have had to defend against? Please respond to these and addRead… Read more »

Strategies to Increase Digital Literacy and Accessibility

Microsoft had an interesting blog series all surrounding the digital divide, accessibility and strategies to help overcome the digital divide. The digital divide can be looked at through multiple lenses – but at the core, the digital divide relates to accessibility for all. The Microsoft series identifies a 2010 IDC study that finds 50% ofRead… Read more »

May 2012 PEP-NET Speakers Announced

From PEP-NET: PEP-NET Conference May 14, 2012 Hamburg, Germany Registration is free at http://www.amiando.com/pep-net.html Check this page also for the latest program agenda “PEP-NET Summit: Out in the Open will cover urban development, eParticipation and transparency. We have speakers who will showcase some examples from here in Hamburg and from abroad. Anyone can join usRead… Read more »