Weekly Round-up: August 02, 2013

Gadi Ben-Yehuda

• One minute of internet time, visualized: three days of video uploaded to YouTube and more than 200 million emails.
• A block for me, a block for you: Nancy Scola has started a new blog, The Shared City.
• Giants, Meatballs, Apps? (Three things you could find in clouds): Government Technology reports on governments that are turning to cloud-hosted applications.
• Why Mobile? FedTech magazine investigates “Why Federal Agencies Are Building Up Mobile Workforces“

Dan Chenok

• Federal Shared Service Providers release information through “Uncle Sam’s List.”
• Steve Kelman on examples of evidence-based decision making that matters, fro outside the beltway.
• GSA releases major services RFP, OASIS.

John Kamensky

• Praised by Both OMB and GAO? Patience Wait, with InformationWeek, writes that the Department of Education’s approach to inventorying its data collection is a model for the government. Interestingly, Wait writes: “The GAO report was prompted by a request from the House Education and the Workforce Committee, responding to complaints from states and school districts that data collection and reporting was burdensome and duplicative.”
• OMB’s “Moneyball Memo” Is Out. Charles Clark, with Government Executive, writes: “The top team at the Office of Management and Budget on Friday directed all agency heads to be sure their fiscal 2015 budget requests include suggestions for strengthening the “use of evidence and innovation.” Interestingly, the memo was co-signed not only by the director of OMB but also by the White House heads of science policy, economics, and domestic policy. Sean Reilly, Federal Times, adds that the memo promises a series of workshops this Fall on how to use evidence to make better budget decisions.
• GAO Inventory of Its GPRA Reports. GAO has developed a really helpful webpage that inventories 20 years of reports on “Managing for Results in Government.” It’s worth bookmarking because you really cant’ find it easily via its search engine!
• Pending Legislation: Customer Service. The House passed the Customer Service Improvement Act of 2013 and sent it to the Senate, reports Adam Mazmanian, with FCW. This bill would require governmentwide standards of service, and require agency performance improvement officers to set customer service standards within their agencies, and tie them to employee appraisals. Parallel legislation is pending in the Senate.

The Business of Government Radio Show: Fast Government

The Business of Government Hour features a conversation about management with a government executive who is changing the way government does business. The executives discuss their careers and the management challenges facing their organizations.

What is fast government? How is the national archives transitioning to the electronic records environment? How are changing work habits and technology decreasing the federal government’s real estate footprint? What is national health security? How are VA and HUD working together to end veteran homelessness? How is NASA building its leaders of tomorrow today? Listen to the latest The Business of Government Magazine and find out.

Broadcast Schedule: The show airs Monday at 11 a.m., and Wednesday at noon, on Federal News Radio 1500AM WFED

If you can’t wait, though, you can listen to (or download) this week’s program and all our previous interviews at businessofgovernment.org and by searching our audio archives.