What I’m Up To These Days

Just a few weeks ago I thought to myself, “I should really start posting to this blog every day.” Almost as soon as I had that thought, the number of things vying for my attention during the week, and the number of hours I need to spend on them, went through the roof. And I’veRead… Read more »

Contented Citizens Vote Against Change

From the March 24 issue of Science Daily: “US citizens who have a high quality of life are more engaged in the direct democracy process, according to Ryan Yonk from Utah State University and Professor Shauna Reilly from Northern Kentucky University in the US. Their study, looking at the effects of quality of life onRead… Read more »

Federal Coach: Learning From West Point: Talking With the Deputy Director of ICE

Kumar Kibble is the deputy director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the principal investigative agency for the Department of Homeland Security with more than 400 offices worldwide. Kibble has held several leadership roles at ICE headquarters, and has also completed numerous field assignments across the nation. His government career began as an infantryRead… Read more »

Lessons from Internal Social Media at Department of State

Tiffany Smith from the Department of State recently spoke with Professor Ines Mergel’s Government 2.0 course at Maxwell about Diplopedia and other internal social media tools within the agency. Below, I summarize 5 key lessons from the lecture that may be applicable to internal social media use at other government agencies. 1. Internal social mediaRead… Read more »

GovInsights: Challenges Government Faces Today are No Different Than The Past

This interview is part of a series on GovLoop called “GovInsights” where we are interviewing and highlighting the thoughts and perspectives of professors at colleges and universities who are researching and writing about government issues. This time we talked with, Professor Sonja Walti- Assistant Professor for the Department of Public Administration and Policy at AmericanRead… Read more »

Failure

As I write this, I am fast approaching 29 months without full-time employment. While I am appreciative of the 30 hour a week job as City Clerk of a small bedroom community in the Twin Cities area, it IS PT and the pay is way below what I earned in my FT positions. I doRead… Read more »

New resource comparing ten online idea-generation tools

This week, the National Academy of Public Administration’s Collaboration Project released a resource on stakeholder engagement that I hope will be useful to Govloopers. Tools for Online Idea Generation: A Comparison of Technology Platforms for Public Managers compares ten web-based idea-generation platforms, many of which we have used for various projects, with the intent toRead… Read more »

Weekly Round-up, March 25, 2011

Gadi Ben-Yehuda No more misplaced keys (or cars, or drivers?). Government Technology has two articles–one about adding a “First Responders” layer to GIS, the other about adding bar codes to municipal inventory–that should be read against one another. Each activity can act as a force multiplier for the other. Event, LiveBlog, Stream, Needle, Praise, Recap.Read… Read more »