Search Results for: cio

Government Transparency Ain’t All It’s Cracked Up To Be — Yet

By Dennis D. McDonald, Ph.D. Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for “open government.” But there are problems inherent to real-world democracy that can’t be automatically solved by making the workings of government more visible to the public. This is especially true about the reporting by government of data collected from large and complex populationsRead… Read more »

FTC’s Stanley Lowe Builds 21st Century Data Center in Historic Building

Federal agency managers routinely talk about transformation and improving their infrastructures. For Federal Trade Commission (FTC) CIO Stanley Lowe, transformation of the infrastructure meant the infrastructure. In a building first occupied in 1938, that meant reinforcing floors and ceilings, adding new conduit, boosting power and putting in new racks, all without disturbing the appearance ofRead… Read more »

Practicing Safe Stress for the Holidays: “Fast Food for Thought” from the Stress Doc ™

Yesterday I had a blast. It only lasted ten-minutes but the ebb and flow of the audience’s riveted attention and hearty laughter produced a slow to fade afterglow. I did some serious shtick on “Practicing Safe Stress for the Holidays” at a holiday gathering for members of Federally Employed Women (FEW)/Metro Washington Region. Consider thisRead… Read more »

E-gov Versus Open Gov: The Evolution of E-democracy

One of the first questions I asked myself when familiarizing myself with the Open Government initiative was: “How is the Obama Administration’s Open Government (Open Gov) initiative different from the Bush Administration’s E-government (E-gov) initiative?” There are many people who use the two terms interchangeably but this paper argues that although they are distinct initiativesRead… Read more »

Measuring Relationships From Social Media

I had an opportunity to meet Katie D Paine on July 22nd at an Open Government and Innovation conference in DC. Katie specializes in public relations and measuring their effectiveness. Her commanding presence underscored her depth of knowledge, and her open and friendly demeanor in a one-on-one situation proved to me that she practices whatRead… Read more »

The Dangers of Being Too “Positive” in a Team Building Process: Or Don’t Just “Have a Nice Day!”

“You’re being negative!” Recently I led a team building workshop, and that was a federal government Division Director’s reply to my questioning, “Why the ‘Front Office’ meeting had not been working?” Preceding my operational assessment a number of people noted: a) that for several months people were not bringing relevant agenda issues to the meetingRead… Read more »

How-To: Hold a Meeting and Survive

How to Hold a Meeting and Survive Adam Sulewski “A committee is a group that keeps minutes and loses hours.” – Milton Berle We all have had the pleasure of attending a poorly-run meeting. Hopefully, these experiences will motivate you to ensure your own task-driven gatherings do not earn the same evaluation. Meetings can beRead… Read more »

Transforming the Conventional into the Creative: Discovering and Designing the “Bright Crystals” of Contradiction

These days everyone wants to be creative, to “think out of the box.” But how do you walk the talk? As a workshop leader who often tries to give organizations a “Jolt of CPR: Being Creative, Passionate and Risk-Taking,” let me share one concept that just might be an integral component of creative thinking andRead… Read more »

Open Gov Directive Hits the Streets (in an oh so ironic way)

So the White House released the long-awaited Open Government Directive this morning, appropriately accompanied by a live videostream at both the White House site and on FaceBook with Federal CTO Aneesh Chopra, Federal CIO Vivek Kundra and new media director Macon Phillips. With only time for a quick glance through the directive (it wasn’t madeRead… Read more »