Weekly Round-up – July 22, 2011

Gadi Ben-Yehuda

• Recommended Daily Downloads? The FDA has proposed health-related mobile application guidelines. The Food and Drug Administration reports that there are more than 350,000 health-related apps for Apple devices, and tens of thousands for other platforms. Because these apps are tantamount to medical delivery devices, the FDA argues, they should be regulated like other such technologies. Their proposal is on Regulations.gov and is open for comment.
• But How Is Government Using Mobile? Gov 2.0 mainstay Chris Dorobek will be moderading a panel that disuccses how government agencies are moving into the mobile Web. Register!
• Nobody Reads the Terms and Conditions. The South Park kids notwithstanding, most people don’t read the terms and conditions for the digital services and applications they use. So artist Ryan Estrada helpfully illustrated what users agree to upon joining Google+ .

Dr. John Bordeaux

• The DoD moves beyond perimeter defense as the default approach to cyber security, but insists the strategy remains defensive.
• DiMaio poses a contrary argument regarding government as a platform, or at least the current emphasis. Open government implies a willing populace.
• Making innovation real – start with people strategies first.

Dan Chenok

• GSA’s McClure on five trends affecting Federal IT in the next year.
• Mobile apps are coming to a government agency near you — hopefully learning lessons from the past.
• Vivek’s top 10 lessons for Federal IT.

John Kamensky

• Performance Management Task Force Report Due Out in September. According to Federal Times’ Steve Losey. An “Employee Performance Management Work Group, made up of top personnel officials, labor leaders and other employee representatives, is holding weekly meetings to discuss ways to improve performance management.” Their goal is to unveil specific “suggestions on how to better hold poor performers accountable and reward hard workers.”
• “Flat” is the new Up! That’s the judgment of veteran GAO and budget officials these days, regarding what agencies should aspire to in their next budget! Former GAO Comptroller General David Walker adds to the Chinese menu of budget fix options available. It’s entitled: “Restoring Fiscal Sanity.”
• Are things really as bad as everyone says? Just look at a sample of this week’s headlines from Federal Times:

1. Plan would freeze pay, cut workforce by 300,000
2. USPS Chief: Saturday delivery could end soon
3. Agencies to close 373 data centers by 2012
4. Congressional standoff may mean FAA furloughs by Saturday

The Business of Government Radio Show: Dr. Ines Mergel

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.Ines Mergel discusses the managerial, cultural, behavioral, and technological issues that public managers face in starting and maintaining Wikis.

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