What better way to celebrate the end of Public Service Appreciation Week than the…
Friday Fab Five!
For all of the public service men and women out there, today’s Friday Fab 5 is dedicated to you. And if you haven’t already, there’s still time to stop by WeLovePublicService.org to share your messages of appreciation and thanks to govies everywhere. Check it out!
Today’s Blog of the Week is brought to you by the number 5… 5 comments, 5 awesomes, and 5 Categories. The award goes to Frank McDonough‘s blog post entitled How Government Works & The 5 Categories of Personnel That Serve the Federal Government. Frank’s words come from a lifetime of federal service, and really show his expertise and experience in serving the country. From this one post it’s clear that Frank knows government like the back of his hand. This was also Frank’s first post here on GovLoop, and we can’t wait to hear more of his wisdom in the near future. In case you missed it, here’s a small excerpt to encourage you to go check it out:
Two out of three government employees work in just four departments: the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Justice including the FBI. Note that the majority of Americans never have any contact with these organizations.
The government employee is a well-educated individual with 20% possessing a master’s degree or above compared to 13% in the private sector. Fifty-one percent of government employees have at least a college degree compared with 35 % in the private sector.
Nobel Prizes have been awarded to fifty current or for= mer government employees for contributions including eradication of polio, mapping the human genome, and the harnessing of atomic energy. -Frank McDonough
The Top Forum of the week goes, hands down, to Mr. GovLoop’s own discussion, Osama Bin Laden Dead… Thoughts? A simple question really, but quite possibly one of the most commented forums of GovLoop history. 80+ in a matter of a couple of days- an obvious testimony to the significant impact the news had on the American public. Below you’ll find just a few of the comments from the community’s reaction:
The violence he fostered eventually found him. Hopefully our country can use this event to come together for a change. -Ed Albetski
I’m just hoping that now, after such an extensive period of time has passed, that terrorists won’t claim Bin Laden as a martyr and respond with immediate violence. -Elliot Volkman
I don’t doubt that he is gone, but would like to see photos just to satisfy my grisly curiosity. The conspiracy theorist will find a conspiracy whether the photos are released or not; especially, in this digital age of Photoshop, etc. -Vincent L. Thompson III
Want to thank our intelligence officers and troops for all their work. To me, more a relief and glad that he’s no longer with us. But bragging/gloating feels weird to me as well…. -GovLoop
Well, I’m worried that the death could actually make it harder to fight terrorism and the Taliban. -Andy Oram
God Bless our Service Men and Women, and their families thank you for your sacrifices. Thank you for protecting our freedoms!! Let’s all remain vigilant! -Tammy Turner
The Most Active Group goes to Google for Gov. The Google Group saw a spike in membership this past week and a decent amount of activity around the page. Why, you may ask? The group’s recent discussion started by Dan Israel, Join Google for Innovation for the Nation 2011, led the charge and opens up to the community a great opportunity to attend a cool event coming up next month- June 9th. All you have to do it answer this simple question by May 12th for a chance to win free passes: How have you used technology to improve collaboration among your agency’s employees? So head on over, and share your thoughts! Who knows, you might just win.
Our Quote of the Week comes to us from a popular blog post entitled At the Social Media ‘Playground,’ Somebody Will Always School You by Michael Rupert. If the title alone isn’t enough to win the quote of the week, Michael cleverly lays out the social media facts-of-life along with their pick-up bball game counterparts. Brilliant! Observe (and don’t forget to read the whole thing for more informative entertainment):
2. Never Underestimate the Goofy Looking Dude Who Came by Himself
It’s too easy to dismiss the skinny old dude wearing what appear to be vintage Chucks, khaki shorts and Jazz Festival t-shirt. But when he steals the ball from you and hits repeated jumpers off the glass in your face, you quickly learn this guy can ball.
Some of the freshest minds in the business have just a few hundred followers. And they look like co-eds, have avatars with baseball hats, and they are geniuses. Appearance – and follower/friend counts – means nothing. Even some of the most important leaders in the digital space have around 1,500. It’s never going to be an easy to identify the right people. It just isn’t. It’s always going to be hard work.
And finally, Rockstar of the Week goes to Heather Krasna. Heather is a career coach extraordinaire, and the brains behind our most recent infograph 7 Steps To Social Networking Success. If you haven’t checked it out already, definitely head on over for some excellent tips and tricks to help you organize and leverage your network, and eventually land yourself a job. Yet another rockstar-worthy point is that Heather will be speaking live next Wednesday May 11th at 12 noon EST on How To Find the Right Gov Gig for You! You do not want to miss this awesome online training, so register today if you haven’t already done so. Thanks for being a rockstar, Heather, and keep being awesome!
Hope everyone had a great Public Service Appreciation Week! If you are a public servant, thank you, and keep up the awesome work. Let’s keep innovating and moving forward. And don’t forget: have a great weekend!