Tech

Colorado Aims to Improve Education Via Assessment and Accountability Systems

Deltek Principal Analyst Brian Coyle reports. A few months back, President Obama announced a plan to offer greater flexibility from federal education mandates in exchange for a strong commitment to core reforms that boost student achievement. After the announcement, 11 states formally submitted to the U.S. Department of Education requests for waivers from key provisionsRead… Read more »

Government Big Data Award Nominee: GCE Federal

The Government Big Data Solutions Award was established to highlight innovative solutions and facilitate the exchange of best practices, lessons learned and creative ideas for addressing Big Data challenges. The top five nominees and overall winner was announced at Hadoop World in New York City on November 8 2011. The Government Big Data Solutions AwardRead… Read more »

GovFresh 2011 Awards Nominations and Voting Now Open

As some of you may be aware the #SMEM community made a huge push to get #SMEM into this years top categories for consideration on GovFresh’s Awards for social media engagement. Well, I have some good news. Not only did our efforts get #SMEM as a category this year pay off, #SMEM will have twoRead… Read more »

It’s not just that we aren’t the users

We can never be a normal user of our own services. We can temper that by being self-c0nscious in reflecting on our experiences as users of other people’s. But even that tacitly assumes that we are like normal users other than in our expertise as providers of a particular service. But that assumption may beRead… Read more »

Moore on OpenGovernment.org: Researching U.S. State Legislation

David Moore of the Participatory Politics Foundation (PPF) — and a member of our community — has posted OpenGovernment.org: Researching U.S. State Legislation, on the VoxPopuLII blog, published by the Legal Information Institute at Cornell University Law School. In this post, Mr. Moore discusses OpenGovernment.org, a new, free, open, citizen engagement and transparency service forRead… Read more »

Research and Best Practices eNewsletter 01/02/2011

From Data to Decisions (11/30/2011) – The Partnership for Public Service and IBM’s Public Sector Business Analytics and Optimization Practice examined seven programs using analyticsin eight agencies including the Coast Guard, Navy, and Social Security. The report notes common practices of successful efforts, such as leadership commitment, staff having a clear line of sight, andRead… Read more »

GovBytes: Is Social Media a Valuable Law Enforcement Tool?

Last Friday, GovTech published a report outlining how law enforcement tools have evolved from wanted posters, to social media outreach. This form of “community policing” has helped officials with finding missing children, reporting suspicious activity, and informing the public about crimes committed in their neighborhood. “Social networking rapidly has become a valuable intelligence-gathering tool forRead… Read more »

GovLaunch: New Zealand’s “Social Media in Government: Hands-on Toolbox”

The New Zealand Government’s “Social Media in Government: Hands-on Toolbox” was written to assist practitioners with setting up social media accounts. The guide is written for public servants with limited exposure to social media tools and offers guidance on how to start using social media at their agency. Here is a quick excerpt from theRead… Read more »