Weekly Round-up: May 04, 2012

Gadi Ben-Yehuda

• You Had Me at “Sociocultural.” Here’s a report showing how the DoD is using social media to engage with foreign populations. The title alone is worth reading: “Sociocultural Behavior Research and Engineering in the Department of Defense Context“
• From Brasilia to LA. Two summations worth your time: of the Open Government Partnership in Brasilia and of the Gov 2.0 L.A. Hybrid Un-conference.
• ‘Open:” Its Discontents and Proponents. On Tuesday, Tom Slee threw down a gauntlet with a post titled “Why the “Open Data Movement” is a Joke.” Picking up the gauntlet was Kevin Merritt, who wrote “Reinventing Government with Open Data Is No Joke.” As if to compliment , published an article in the Guardian about the people using all that open, “The open source problem solvers creating government 2.0.”
• Too Much of a Good Thing? Two interestingly juxtaposable articles from FCW: “Citizens have an appetite for more digital government worldwide, survey shows” and “Who needs 21 e-mail systems?” So citizens want more access to government services online and governments are currently spending too much money putting services online? Actually, both are true.

Dan Chenok

• Big data could remake science — and government.
• ‘Stand Your Cyberground’ Law: A Novel Proposal for Digital Security.
• OMB gives agencies four months to figure out shared services.

John Kamensky

• Federal IT Shared Services Strategy Released. Federal News Radio’s Jason Miller reports that Steve VanRoekel, the federal chief information officer, announced in a blog post the release of a Federal IT Shared Services Strategy, and steps that agencies will need to take, by August 31st. The objective is to reduce duplicative spending across about $46 billion in IT investments.
• Government IT Project Deploys 2 Years Ahead of Schedule! This may fall into the category of ‘man bites dog,” a great news story in government. . . . NextGov’s Bob Brewin reports that “the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments will install an integrated electronic health record in hospitals in Norfolk, Va., and San Antonio in 2014, two years ahead of schedule.” They had originally thought it would take four years to reach this point in the project. . . .” When the two departments complete the iEHR deployment, it will stand as the largest electronic health record system in the world, serving 7.8 million veterans and 9.7 million military personnel through 59 military hospitals and 152 VA hospitals with a combined staff of more than 350,000.”
• Is it Real, or Am I Being Spoofed? According to Information Week, GSA has created a new “social media registry” webpage where “federal agencies can list their accounts on 22 social media platforms. The public can also use the registry to verify whether accounts are bona fide government accounts.” The tool will be ready in two weeks – here.
• Data-Driven Decisions: The Impact of CompStat. New York Times contributor Tina Rosenberg takes an in-depth look into the evolution of the NY Police Department’s pioneering use of CompStat and how it has evolved over the past 18 years. It’s use has not only led to a significant drop in crime in New York City, but its use has been applied in other arenas such as parks and homelessness, with positive results. According to Rosenberg, “at least 19 United States cities, a couple of counties and two states — Maryland and Washington — that use CompStat for activities other than police work. Some federal agencies are also adapting the model.”
• Status of Labor-Management Pilot Projects on Negotiating Over Permissive Subjects of Bargaining. Here’s a 177-page status report by the National Council on Federal Labor Management Relations describing the results of 12 pilot projects over the past two years to allow labor and management to bargain over topics that have traditionally been prohibited, such as the right to determine the number of employees it would take to perform a task. The report assesses the impact of allowing such bargaining in the pilots on organizational performance, employee satisfaction, and labor management relations. The conclusion? “. . . many of the pilot projects had success in working collaboratively on issues involving permissive subjects and other topics. [Including] Increased communication, collaboration, and satisfactory labor-management relations . . ,” but . . . “The Council has determined that challenges remain.“

The Business of Government Radio Show: Tina Nabatchi

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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.

Learn from Professor Professor Tina Nabatchi how program managers can assess whether their efforts to increase citizen participation in their programs are making a difference.

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