GovLoop’s DorobekINSIDER: What are your #opengov challenges? + The #GovMustRead List

Hey there. I’m Christopher Dorobek — the DorobekINSIDER — and welcome GovLoop’s DorobekINSIDER… where we focus on six words… helping you do your job better…

On GovLoop’s DorobekINSIDER:

• Character matters: Too often these days, we discover character failures. Jack London, the long-time force behind CACI, the government contractor, writes about it in his new book: Character: The Ultimate Success Factor. I talk to him about why character matters… and how it connects to success. Read more and hear the conversation.

But up front:

What are the challenges around #OpenData?

Having just coming off this week’s DorobekINSIDER LIVE talking about enterprise architecture, I’m already thinking about our next discussion — focusing on open data. It will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 8 at 2p ET.

But what should we talk about?

Our discussion follows many others on open data — and a series of discussions on GovLoop…

It comes off the publication of The GovLoop Guide on open data:

• Overview: Capitalizing on the Open Data Revolution [GovLoop]
• Excerpt: OpenFDA: Ushering in a New Era of Government [GovLoop]

… And the recent GovLoop event on open data:

• 5 Ways to Engage Users With Your Open Data [GovLoop]
• Creating a Data Culture with the Department of Commerce [GovLoop]
• How Your Agency Can Benefit from Open Data for the Long-Term [GovLoop]
• Open Data in Action: Industry Perspectives [GovLoop]

The question as I work on finding guests to have a conversation around open data: How can we help you do your job? What are the big open data challenges?

It seems to me the big challenge still is using data to help accomplish the mission. That is the connection that will prove to be lasting beyond any executive order.

Who is doing open data well? What do you need to be able to do your job better?

I’ll be searching for good folks who can spur that discussion.

The DorobekINSIDER #GovMustRead list:

• House approves $1T spending bill [The Hill] Without the funding measure’s passage, the government would shut down on Oct. 1. House approves $1T spending bill through Dec. 11.
• VA Official Acknowledges Link Between Delays and Patient Deaths [The New York Times] In a contentious hearing before Congress, a senior official from the Department of Veterans Affairs’ watchdog agency acknowledged for the first time on Wednesday that delays in care had contributed to the deaths of patients at the department’s medical center in Phoenix.  The disclosure by an official from the department’s inspector general’s office, coming after more than two hours of tough, sometimes confrontational exchanges with members of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, was a significant development in what has become a heated dispute over the quality of care at the Phoenix hospital, where revelations of secret waiting lists and other schemes to disguise long delays in care turned into a national scandal.
  • Related: The Washington Post: VA plans to offer salary boost to attract new doctors
• The Evolution of Chuck Hagel [Politico] Hagel’s tenure as defense secretary was supposed to include a shrinking defense budget, a smaller military and fewer adventures overseas, but this week, Hagel has been on Capitol Hill selling a new war.
• Federal background checks, one year after the Navy Yard shooting [The Washington Post] A year after a Navy and Marine Corps subcontractor killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard, the federal government has fired the firm that handled most of its background checks, conducted multiple reviews of security-clearance processes and changed key screening policies.
• Todd Park Subpoenaed to Testify on HealthCare.gov Security  [NextGov]
• Apple will no longer unlock most iPhones, iPads for police, even with search warrants [The Washington Post] The move, announced with the publication of a new privacy policy tied to the release of Apple’s latest mobile operating system, iOS 8, amounts to an engineering solution to a legal quandary: Rather than comply with binding court orders, Apple has reworked its latest encryption in a way that prevents the company — or anyone but the device’s owner — from gaining access to the vast troves of user data typically stored on smartphones or tablet computers.

Before we finish up… a few items from the DorobekINSIDER water-cooler fodder… yes, we’re trying to help you make your water-cooler time better too…

• Americans say local governments waste 37 cents of every dollar [The Washington Post] That’s the good news.–Americans estimate that local governments waste more than a third of every tax dollar, but local officials can take solace in this: that’s a lot better than other levels of government. Respondents estimated that local governments squander $0.37 of every tax dollar, according to a new Gallup poll. They estimate that states waste even more, $0.42, while respondents said the federal government wastes the most: $0.51 of every tax dollar.
• Judge OKs serving legal papers via Facebook [The New York Post]
• Science Fiction Writers Take a Rosier View [The New York Times] A group of science fiction visionaries have banded together to offer stories that are more utopian, which they hope will inspire engineers to build a more positive future.
• Millennial Generation Likes Old-Fashioned Technology: Books [NPR]
  • Read the Pew survey:  Younger Americans and Public Libraries: Younger Americans—those ages 16-29—especially fascinate researchers and organizations because of their advanced technology habits, their racial and ethnic diversity, their looser relationships to institutions such as political parties and organized religion, and the ways in which their social attitudes differ from their elders.
• The Daily Routines of Famous Creative People [Podio] Turns out great minds don’t think alike. Discover how some of the world’s most original artists, writers and musicians structured their day [HT Bill Eggers]