Search Results for: plain language

Wolfram Data Summit, Thomas Lee of Sunlight Labs: Measuring Influence

Today I will be live blogging from the Wolfram Data Summit. First up is Thomas Lee, Director of Sunlight Labs, Sunlight Foundation, here is an overview of his presentation: From Dollars to Ideas: New Tools for Measuring Influence Director of Sunlight Labs, Sunlight Foundation To date, analytic examinations of the problem of political influence haveRead… Read more »

Searching for the best way to spell Qadhafi

The Foreign Officehas been around for a long time, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. Organisations that have survived for over 200 years (and there aren’t many of them) tend to create their own culture and language. In our case, those linguistic habits seem, to me at any rate, to be mostly initials and acronyms. I’veRead… Read more »

ABCs of Presenting — a Trainer Staple

Training and Development, and Communication are so intricately entwined that I can’t help myself talking about it. I argue that the basic communication process is not simple, but in concept it is really–and those who get the Primer embedded have the easiest time adding the complicated parts. Never say, “in other words.” Never say never.Read… Read more »

Using Mobile Technologies in Education and Training

While I host this Training and Development blog and use the occasional guest blogger, it is my hope that you will appreciate the other point of views. The article below by Jason Novosel, Novo Horizons Management Training, a company from Down Under spells out the phenomenon quite plainly. And, today, I share it with you.Read… Read more »

Of Civic Reflection & The Company Called USA, Inc.

Bravo to all of America’s political leaders. Well done. The debt ceiling was raised. Some cuts were made and an unprecedented default was avoided. Problem solved…right? Wrong! How American it is to wait until we are at the edge of disaster in order to force the hard choices. How American it is to rapidly debateRead… Read more »

Using Dashboards in Government

The use of dashboards in the federal government took off when President Obama released his Open Government initiative in early 2009. Here’s a snapshot of where they are today, and some lessons learned from the pioneers. Vivek Kundra is leaving the federal government after having served as its first chief information officer. Probably one ofRead… Read more »

Children are the best teachers…

One of the many joys of having young children is that they can teach you so much – how to enjoy simple moments, how to express yourself through dance and how to skip along to just about anything. One of the most interesting areas my children teach me most in is about how human behaviourRead… Read more »

Petitioning the elephant

A new e-petitions site for government was launched yesterday. It is clean, simple and elegant, with clear government branding consistent with other cross-government sites. So far so good. But managing a cross government service is a tricky business, for reasons I have explored before. Government is a veneer that sits above departments, and like anyRead… Read more »

Networking Strategies for Chocolate Lovers

Networking should be fun, like eating chocolate. Here are a few hints. Jay 1) Job Shadowing — Imagine you’re interested in taking a job in another office at your agency. But you’d like to test the waters before you make the big leap. Shadowing the leaders in that office is a great way to learnRead… Read more »

Hacked Off?

Kent County Council is always looking to create innovative and cost-effective methods of delivering services. One way in which this can be done is through hosting local hack-days for creative students and graduates to come together, to contribute and share ideas and to try out new concepts and prototypes. Who would we invite students toRead… Read more »