Weekly Round-up – October 21, 2011

Gadi Ben-Yehuda

• First the bad news. QR Codes are now being infected. This is all very Snow Crash.
• Next, some good news. Fierce Government is reporting that government employee’s use of social media is growing. Key take-away: “Thirty-seven percent of federal workers said they are permitted to use social media as representatives of their agency. Last year just 9 percent were permitted to do so, finds the survey. Thirty-three percent said they were premitted to use it in an official capacity but with restrictions, compared to 25 percent last year.”
• Some unsurprising news. Government workers are using mobile devices to access social media. From Alice Lipowicz at FCW: “The Social Media in the Public Sector survey covered 884 workers, including 352 federal employees. . . .Seventy percent of the respondents reported they are accessing social media with mobile devices. That compared with 92 percent using home computers and 74 percent using work computers, the survey indicated.”
• Not totally related, but still relevant news: David Vladek, the FTC director for the Bureau of Consumer Protection, warns app developers not to collect data that “they don’t need,” unless they want “a visit from us,” reports Business Insider.
• News you can use. Geoff Mulgan shares “Measuring Social Value,” in which he outlines why it’s so hard to do, and lists 10 ways that organizations can, indeed, measure social value.

Dr. John Bordeaux

• IARPA project ready to begin – NYT calls it “Big Data Eye in the Sky,” echoing the Total Information Awareness project. Did we really believe that TIA would not be pursued again? Big data is already around us, the tools to exploit it are available. Remember the cardinal rule of databases: they will be used.
• The remarkable story of New Orleans schools. Is there any path to reforming a broken system other then the one that runs through destruction?
• Facebook wants your kids, please don’t be surprised. Read a great but unattributed quote this week regarding social media: “If you aren’t paying for the service, then you are the product.”

Dan Chenok

• GAO says CIOs need more clout
• Leading industry group sees flat or slight decline in IT budgets over next several years.
• Government proposes mandatory privacy training for contractors:

John Kamensky

Three “Must” Reads. People often ask me what I read on a regular basis to keep up with what’s going on in government. Here are three (free) resources I turn to on a regular basis:

• GovManagement. John Martin’s daily email that aggregates that day’s news of what is happening in government management at the federal, state, and local levels is something I look at every day, and find something that I’d never have seen otherwise.
• The Behn Report. Harvard’s Bob Behn publishes a 2-page on-line report on public management that provides insight, advice, and droll comments on government management, especially when it comes to improving performance.
• The B&G Report. Journalists Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene survey the state and local government scene, reaching back to their contacts in every state and every major city, to provide context and insight on a regular basis to readers of Governing magazine, every couple of weeks. They are always worth reading.

The Business of Government Radio Show: Dr. Nick Nayak

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.

The show airs fives times a week on two radio stations in the DC Metro Area.

Dr. Nick Nayak is helping to professionalize the federal acquisition workforce; implement methods to obtain acquisition savings; and recruit the next generation of acquisition professionals.

Broadcast Schedule: Saturday, October 22 at 9:00 a.m & Friday, October 21 at 2:00 p.m on CBS Radio 1580AM on For those outside of the Washington, D.C. area, you can listen to our live webstream on CBS Radio 1580AM. Monday, October 24 at 11 a.m., Wednesday, October 26 at Noon, and Thursday, October 27 at Noon on Federal News Radio 1500AM WFED

If you can’t wait, though, you can listen to it or download our interview with Beth and all our interviews at businessofgovernment.org and by searching our audio archives.