Weekly Round-up, August 26, 2011

Gadi Ben-Yehuda

For 20 years, August has been a “cruel month” in Russia. This August has been no picnic for the US or England, but social media has helped to ameliorate certain events:

• The Problem and the Solution: Tech President reports that social media (Twitter in particular) has helped authorities respond to the London Riots more than it was used to foment disorder.
• Social Media was Buzzing, While Phone Circuits Were Busy. Writing for GovFresh, Alex Howard opines that the “East Coast earthquake cements role of social media in government crisis communications” and gathers in one place many digital artifacts from the quake, including video of the Capitol Building shaking, infographics, interviews, and an XKCD comic.
• If You’re Good at Something Never Do It for Free. In the wake of Hurricane Irene, SeeClickFix is offering local governments free use of its service to handle storm-damage issues.

Dr. John Bordeaux

• OPM takes three hours to alert workforce to its departure policy following an earthquake, because “it had never conducted an earthquake-related disaster drill.” There are ways to plan other than the old method of predicting every possible event. Resilience thinking may be useful in preparing OPM for agile response, perhaps better than “where’s the earthquake plan?”
• Data privacy measures in US continue to lag Europe – but is that a problem or opportunity? For some people, it is a problem; particularly when they learn the slipperiness of the “right to privacy” provisions. “As a general matter, companies in the United States don’t have to recognize your right to be deleted.”
• The effects of policy driven by sensational anecdote – unintended effects almost guaranteed.

Dan Chenok

• Agency moves to the cloud spurred by budget, security pressures
• NIST preparing agencies for next generation of cyberattacks
• GSA proposes to implement commodity buying vehicles

John Kamensky

• OMB releases performance.gov website. Stories from around:
  · Washington Post: Office of Management and Budget Puts Accountability Online
  · OMBlog : Improving Performance and Making Government More Accountable
  · Federal Computer Week: White House Opens Doors to Its Management
  · Gov Exec: Performance.gov goes Lives after Lengthy Preparations
  · WFED Jason Miller: OMB Finally Launches Performance.gov Portal
• OMB Guidance for GPRA Modernization Targets Role of Chief Operating Officers. In an article “WH Memo Puts COOs on the Hotseat,” Federal Computer Week’s Alice Lipowicz notes that OMB Director Jack Lew has charged agency COOs with leading two efforts: reducing wasteful spending and boosting performance. Related: “OMB Details Agency Obligations Under the Government Performance Act”, Government Executive.
• SES Assessment Framework to be released. Measuring up: New SES framework will help evaluate managers, Federal News Radio.
• The Importance of Setting Goals. Agencies Must Set 2-Year Priority Goals by September 12, Federal News Radio.

The Business of Government Radio Show: Dr. Robert Childs

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. Past government executives include Administrators, Chief Financial Officers, Chief Information Officers, Chief Operating Officers, Commissioners, Controllers, Directors, and Undersecretaries.

Dr. Childs is the Chancellor of the Information Resources Management College (iCollege),. Under his leadership the college has become the international leader in providing graduate-level educational services and learning experiences in Information Assurance, Chief Information Officer, “E” Government, and strategic leader competencies to government employees; and was designated as a “National Center of Excellence in Information Assurance Education.”

Each week, The Business of Government Hour interviews government executive who are changing the way government does business. The show airs four times a week on two radio stations in the DC Metro Area. If you can’t wait, though, we also put it online. You can also search our audio archives for your favorite interview.