FOSE Preview – Plus the DorobekINSIDER’s 7 Stories

On GovLoop Insights’ DorobekINSIDER:

• In order for an agency to be innovative you have to empower your employees and leave room for failure. So which agencies are doing that effectively? Insights from the Innovation Index with Deloitte’s Dan Helfrich. Click here for the full recap.

But up front:

It is FOSE week — FOSE, which used to be the Federal Office Supplies Expo and now is just FOSE. While FOSE is a shadow of its former self, it is still the largest gathering of government IT people anywhere — and these days, there are fewer and fewer places where government people actually gather. The events go on Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday at the Washington Convention Center. Chris Dorobek will be emceeing many of the keynote presentations, which include federal CIO Steven VanRoekel and retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal, whose memoir, My Share of the Task: A Memoir actually discusses the challenges facing government and the power of sharing information.

And, by way of transparency, GovLoop is working with FOSE and its parent company, 1105 Media. That being said, they do not have any control over content.

Two other items:

1. What are state and local government organizations doing in the app world? The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) developed a new State Mobile Apps Catalog, a collection of over 160 state and territory native mobile apps that users can browse and download for smart phones and tablets. The apps are searchable by state/territory, by category and through an overall browse function. The catalog includes a vast range of topics including; public safety, health and wellness, public assistance, employee assistance, state portal, traffic/road conditions, parks and recreation, plus much more. Find the catalogue here.
2. And we will be talking more about the White House Executive Order on open data later this week and on Wednesday’s DorobekINSIDER LIVE, but David Eaves posts his initial review of the order on GovLoop: Thoughts on the White House Executive Order on Open Data.

The SEVEN stories that impact your life

1. The IRS has apologized for targeting groups with words like “patriot” and “Tea Party” in their names. The agency said they admitted the improper scrutiny because Lerner was asked about it during another event, but there are questions over whether the IRS timed Friday’s revelation to get out in front of the IG report. GovExec reports that President Obama vowed to hold the IRS accountable for improperly targeting conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status
2. The Defense Department has not announced a final decision on department-wide furloughs and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel continues to reevaluate the number of furlough days necessary for department employees a spokeswoman told GovExec. Navy officials maintained that the Navy does not need to furlough workers to meet sequestration budget requirements.
3. The White House has ordered agencies to start studying ways to narrow the pay gap between men and women in the federal government. Federal Times reports in 2007 female federal employees were paid 89 cents for every dollar that male federal employees earned. That pay gap in the federal government has narrowed since 1988, when women earned 72 cents for every dollar men earned.
4. The USPS reported a total loss of $3.1 billion for the first half of fiscal 2013, which is down from $6.5 billion last year. Federal Times reports that one reason last year’s results were so much worse is that the Postal Service had defaulted on two payments of roughly $5.5 billion each that was to pre-fund future retirees’ health care.
5. Sen. John McCain told Defense News last week that he doubts a fiscal deal can be struck before the late-summer break in August. Federal Times reports that there are multiple reasons the timeline is sliding away from the once optimistic schedule.
6. Reps. Timothy Bishop and Walter Jones have introduced a bill that adds fathers to a 10-point hiring preference already available to mothers of totally disabled veterans. The Bishop-Jones bill will keep the same criteria currently in place but extend the hiring preference to fathers.
7. And on GovLoop, register now for the DorobekINSIDER Live program on Digital Government Strategy – One Year Later. The live online webinar is on Wednesday at noon ET.

The DorobekINSIDER water-cooler fodder

• FastCompany’s 100 most creative people in business 2013: Data geeks, world-changes, actors, rappers, and all types of inovators prove the value of creativity at a crucial time in business In an era in which best-laid plans are quickly disrupted, the need for new tactics is constant. And that creates a need for constant inspiration. Our 100 Most Creative People in Business come from all industries around the globe; as they share their experiences in our pages, we hope they inspire yours. As in the four prior years, the 2013 edition features only people who haven’t been on any previous lists or profiled in our magazine before. And still, there was no shortage of mind-blowing candidates: from TV’s Connie Britton (Nashville), Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), and Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele (Key & Peele); to folks from outifits as diverse as Ford, Twitter, Dropbox, Live Nation, the NFL, the NBA, Yahoo, Samsung, American Express, Foursquare, Big Machine Records, Spotify, Gap, and dozens of companies you may not know, including a wonderfully named fashion blog, Man Repeller We gave this year’s No. 1 ranking to data king Nate Silver, whose FiveThirtyEight.comblog on the New York Times website so spectacularly predicted the outcome of last fall’s elections. Silver has also parsed big data to great success, forecasting sporting events and business trends (See Nate Silver’s Greatest Hits). But in our story, he talks eloquently about the limitations of data and the short-sighted, reflexive assumption that data can solve all problems. In other words, he talks about how creativity needs to be applied to find true meaning from our growing world of numbers.

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