How do you communicate with someone you don’t talk to? This is some more fun stuff excerpted from my book,Confessions of a Government Man. Underlying the levity, however, was a serious personnel management issue. Have any of you faced a similar situation? * * * As a division director I was just far enough fromRead… Read more »
By Sam Williford, Associate Consultant While last week’s drop in unemployment was the first substantial good news for the economy in months (if not years), it underscores the work still that needs to be done to help the 12 million Americans unemployed as of last month. I have had the opportunity at Fels Research andRead… Read more »
Advanced KVM Technology Protects Government Desktops from Cyberthreats – http://bit.ly/NSKqzS VNM100312 – Over a three-year period, government agencies reported a 400-percent increase in attempted incursions into federal systems – demonstrating that cyber attacks on government systems are increasing at an exponential rate. While there is no current data on the number of attempts to compromiseRead… Read more »
Obtaining a security clearance can be a pain, but the career benefits are worth it. As someone in his or her twenties, putting together a security clearance package presents unique problems. It’s said that millennials are great at multi-tasking – their memories seem to be less clear, if you ask security clearance investigators, as manyRead… Read more »
Several developing countries are making seemingly breathtaking progress in developing performance management frameworks from scratch. What can we learn from them? Today’s focus is on the commonalities in the performance management approaches used across four developing countries. The World Bank seminars this past Spring continue to have me mulling about the progress of the performanceRead… Read more »
By Tess Mullen, Associate Consultant When I worked in Congress prior to coming to Fels, I quickly learned that debates over taxes dominate the House and Senate floor on a near weekly basis. As such, I came to graduate school with a desire to dig into the details of how different tax policies actually playRead… Read more »
By Eric Rabe, Fels Senior Advisor Recently, I wrote that bloggers who practice journalism cannot accept favors from those they cover. To do so destroys the writer’s credibility. When not disclosed is dishonest to readers. What about those who work in government? Of course, most towns, states and agencies draw clear ethics guidelines, and manyRead… Read more »
On July 26, 2012, the Center for Technology in Government (CTG) at the University of Albany / SUNY issued a press release announcing, in cooperation with SAP, an open government thought leadership program. I recently attended CTG’s workshop on this topic, along with 25 colleagues from government and academia, and we’re excited about the upcomingRead… Read more »
Can you correctly answer these three questions about our American government and nation from the 100-question naturalization test for new citizens? Most 8th and 12th graders in the U.S. could not! Read more in my new GPO Government Book Talk blog post called Quiz: Are you smarter than an 8th grade Civics student? in honorRead… Read more »
My last few blogs departed from the fun stuff from Confessions and shifted to some caustic commentary about the GSA scandal with just a few barbs pointed at the Office of the Inspector General. My You Tube videos did the same. Given the recent well-publicized and hard to justify midnight raid on someone’s hotel room,Read… Read more »