Weekly Research and Best Practices

Best Practices

1. GSA Launches Notification.usa.gov (09/21/2010) – New site makes it easy to see the most current government notifications, alerts and to sign up for ongoing updates via email or text message pushed directly to personal computers or mobile device. The site menu provides a live stream of content updates with a Twitter-like search capability. http://notifications.usa.gov/

2. Leveraging Social Media to Enhance Customer Service (03/22/2010) –Is social media at the center of your customer service strategy? Article highlights reasons to think about leveraging social media in this capacity and how to accelerate acceptance and implementation of social customer service strategies in your organization. http://www.focus.com/briefs/customer-service/leveraging-social-media-enhance-customer-service/

3. City in a Box: Municipal Makeover Comes to Texas (09/23/2010) – This week the White House visited Manor, Texas, a small bedroom community outside Austin. Manor is endeavoring to transform itself into an innovative, efficient, and well-functioning community by rebuilding its institutions from the ground up with the help of free or cheap digital tools. http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/20/city-a-box-municipal-makeover-comes-texas

4. NARA site brings history to life (09/2010) – Great new interactive site provides document-based lesson plans and activities. Teachers can create lessons from scratch, adapt lessons from others, let their students create the lessons; and a single suite of tools can be applied to a broad range of subjects and skill levels. NARA staff developed the site in collaboration with teachers. http://docsteach.org/

5. Where do good ideas come from? (09/17/2010) – Fascinating video on how we generate the ideas that fuel innovation. Steven Johnson concludes that with today’s tools and environment, radical innovation is extraordinarily accessible to those who know how to cultivate it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NugRZGDbPFU&feature=youtu.be&hd=1