Weekly Round-up: June 08, 2012

Gadi Ben-Yehuda

• Social Media: Useless and indispensable? Naomi Simson writes a contrarian post titled “Face it – social media is not the answer to customer engagement” which juxtaposes nicely with “Social Media Customer Service Faces a High Bar,” an article that demonstrates how customers expect a response through social media within 24 hours. How much more true is that for government?
• Twitter: Helpful, mostly?: GEOData Policy writes about a new report that “questions Twitter’s role in disaster aftermath,” even as Ines Mergel’s report on Twitter, “Working the Network,” explores how government agencies are use this service and can improve upon their efforts. Bonus: Two reporters report tweet-worthy scooplets on annoying ways reporters tweet on twitter.
• Who uses Twitter anyway? This Pew study reveals that smartphone users are much more likely to participate on Twitter, which is kind of obvious, but they put numbers on it:

One in five smartphone owners (20%) are Twitter users, with 13% using the service on a typical day. By contrast, internet users who own more basic mobile phones are roughly half as likely to use Twitter overall (9% do so), and just 3% of these more basic phone owners are “typical day” users.

Dr. John Bordeaux

• FedRAMP tackles the security approval process for cloud computing. Imagine if we had a central standard 30 years ago for enterprise computing, how many certification and accreditation cycles would have been saved?
• Flipping a classroom – what if students reviewed lecture material from home, and came to school for the ‘homework?’ Teaching becomes coaching, as individual exploration drives the pace of learning rather than the teacher’s lesson plan. This is a big idea.
• A teenager creates the global index of vulnerable machines. Now what?

Dan Chenok

• Federal CIO VanRoekel says IT Reforms were key to change.
• GSA takes next step in implementing its security program for cloud computing, FedRAMP.
• New Procurement Policy Administrator announces guidance on modular contracting for technology.
• Regulatory reforms helped by technology.

John Kamensky

• OMB Celebrates 18-month Anniversary of 25-Point IT Reform Plan. OMB’s Steve Van Roekel shares a status update on the progress of the 25-Point plan with Federal News Radio’s Jason Miller. “We couldn’t be prouder of where we are,” Van Roekel tells him. The government is on track to cut IT spending by 10 percent by 2014. He also said agencies have moved about 60 functions to shared services in recent months, and that 1 million email accounts have moved to the cloud. He also says more guidance is coming.
• GAO See IT Reform Cup Only Half Full. In contrast to Mr. Van Roekel’s assessment, the Government Accountability Office offers a less-effusive assessment. In its report, Information Technology Reform: Progress Made; More Needs to Be Done to Complete Actions and Measure Results. GAO looked at 10 of the 25 items in the IT plan that OMB declared to be completed and concluded that only 3 of the 10 were actually completed. OMB disagreed with GAO’s conclusion, but agreed that more could be done.
• NSA Claims Hiring Reforms are Model for the Government. Kathy Hudson, the National Security Agency’s chief human capital officer, told Federal News Radio’s Julia Ziegler that it now takes the agency only three to six months to bring a new employee completely onboard, which includes a full security check. NSA has a goal of hiring 3,000 new analysts by the end of the fiscal year. They also go to hackers’ conferences to recruit talent, as well as the traditional university-based recruitment efforts.

The Business of Government Radio Show: The Business of Government Magazine Spring/Summer 2012

Federal News Radio 1500-AM
Mondays at 11 a.m., Wednesdays at 12 p.m., Fridays at 2 p.m.

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.

On this program, we introduce a select group of government leaders who offer their insights, outline successes, and tell us how they, in their own unique way, are making a difference in an era of fiscal austerity.

Broadcast Schedule: The show airs Monday, June 11, at 11 a.m., Wednesday, June 13, at noon, and Friday, June 15, at 2:00 PM 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.