Transparency Camp thoughts: an ode to basic research

Several people have asked me what I took away from Transparency Camp, an “unconference” held this past weekend here in DC (read the Twitter stream to get an idea what it was like). I did get a few concrete facts out of it, but fundamentally to me, it was all about basic research, not applied.Read… Read more »

Federal Eye: Bill Would Separate Census From Commerce Dept.

House Democrats will unveil a measure Tuesday that splits the U.S. Census Bureau from the Commerce Department and makes it an independent government agency similar in design to the National Institutes of Health or NASA. The proposal comes in the wake of Republican allegations that the Obama administration is attempting to politicize the census byRead… Read more »

TSP Talk – We need more TSP options

Good Monday morning TSP participants. It’s time for your weekly TSP Talk. Stocks opened in dire straights on Friday, but quickly found their footing turning a 150-point decline into a small gain by the afternoon, but by the close sellers jumped back in and took the Dow down 119 points. After a dismal 2008, theRead… Read more »

Federal Eye: Challenges Await Sebelius at HHS

President Obama will nominate Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) today as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, a job originally offered to former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, who withdrew last month due to issues with back taxes. Experts suggest that in addition to the administration’s health care reform efforts, Sebelius, 60,Read… Read more »

Federal Eye: ‘Liberal Leave’ for D.C.-Area Federal Offices

Washington, D.C.-area federal offices will operate today under “liberal leave” or “unscheduled leave” and delayed arrival status, meaning employees who cannot make it to work can request off, or should otherwise arrive to work no more than two hours later than normal, according to the Office of Personnel Management. The decision comes as school districtsRead… Read more »

What is Transparency? More Than Publication – the Role of Citizen Exchange

Fair to say that Title XV of the Economic Recovery Act requiring transparency has unleashed a tidal wave of pent up energy and justified momentum towards a more open government. The “strings attached” funding provisions ensure that there will be a solid attempt at top down enforcement of transparency for state and local jurisdictions. ButRead… Read more »

TransparencyCamp: 97 Tweets from 100 Pages of History

I couldn’t make it to TransparencyCamp, but it sounded fabulous. I did wade through 100 pages of Twitter Search history (as much as it keeps). Here’s what I came up with, for what it’s worth. Unlike my other summaries, while this is in chronological order, more or less, the fact that there were a lotRead… Read more »

Citizenship 3D!

Citizenship 3D By John Mahan on February 23rd, 2009 (http://www.socialrealization.com) cit·i·zen·ship (noun) 1: the status of being a citizen 2 a: membership in a community (as a college) b: the quality of an individual’s response to membership in a community Have we achieved “ethical” citizenship on the Internet? The old English proverb that states “EveryRead… Read more »