Is OpenGov 1950 Stymieing OpenGov 2010?

The Obama Administration is committed to using technology to better engage citizens in their government. Ironically, legislation crafted in the 1950s to open citizen access to government documents may be a barrier to today’s Open Government initiatives. The Federal Records Act of 1950 creates a framework to manage agency records. It puts the National ArchivesRead… Read more »

GovInsights: What We Need Right Now — Spending Cuts, Higher Taxes and Closer Friends

This interview marks the second of a brand new series on GovLoop called “GovInsights” where we are interviewing and highlighting the thoughts and perspectives of professors at colleges and universities who are teaching, researching and writing about government issues. This time, we talked to Dr. Eric Langenbacher, an Assistant Professor at the Department of GovernmentRead… Read more »

A few of my notes from the Adobe Government Assembly (or “What I learned from David Plouffe”)

Yesterday, I attended the Adobe Government Assembly at the Reagan building. This was my second #govtassembly. I took 2 1/2 pages of notes from the afternoon keynote by David Plouffe, author of “The Audacity to Win” and Campaign Manager, Obama for President 2008. I thought I’d put some of my notes here so that youRead… Read more »

Top Webinar Tips – How to Manage Citizen Feedback and Reduce Overhead

We hosted a successful webinar yesterday, How to Manage Citizen Feedback and Reduce Overhead. Nearly 60 governments attended to hear Citywide Records Manager, Wendy Klock-Johnson from the City of Sacramento, discuss how the city successfully streamlined citizen participation with a new tool called eComment and why social media didn’t work! Wendy posted a blog articleRead… Read more »

Bureaucrats Need Not Apply?!?

I recently ran across a post card advertisement for GovLoop that reads “Calling all Gov’t Rockstars; Bureaucrats need not apply.” Are we not bureaucrats? Why has bureaucrat become a dirty word? Max Weber defined a bureaucrat as the following: He/she is personally free and appointed to his/her position on the basis of conduct He/she exercisesRead… Read more »

Rich Market Opportunities: Startups and Open Government

Image by ahockley via Flickr Last night I did the keynote/opener for a startup event in Boston and spoke about, based upon my own experiences, startup best practices and the large number of opportunities for startups and other companies to get involved with the fast growing open government marketplace. While you can scan through theRead… Read more »

Focusing on WHY to Drive Adoption: iPad is Current, Learning and Productive. What is Government?

These past two weeks have been a whirlwind of travel and conferences. I’ve enjoyed several typical byproducts of those types of events (networking, learning, etc…) but also a few things that are much rarer: inspiration and re-energized passion. This is largely thanks to my most recent stop: NASA’s Education Innovation Summit, held in Orlando, FLRead… Read more »

I Went from Beauty Queen to Govie Geek: And I’m Proud Of It!

GOVIE GEEK (2010) BEAUTY QUEEN (2008) Thats right! I spent my younger years (really not all that long ago) competing for various beauty queen titles, including everything from Miss America to Miss Hawaiian Tropic. But behind all of the glitz, glitter, and butt glue(yes thats right we glue our swimsuits to our bottoms)…all I wantedRead… Read more »