The theory that the federal government should outsource its operations to private firms usually rests on a simple premise: It saves money. But why should we believe it saves money? Often the argument is made by pointing to salaries for public- and private-sector employees in comparable jobs and noting that the private-sector employees make less.Read… Read more »
The Obama administration has released a status report on open government. The report, which I’ve embedded below, was released through a blog post at Whitehouse.gov by Steven Croley, special assistant and senior counsel to the President: President Obama has made open government a high priority. Greater openness renders our government more efficient and effective. ItRead… Read more »
Come one – come all! This is your chance to help the U.S. government figure out how to serve better, online. I told you a few weeks ago about the ground-breaking .Gov Reform initiative the White House and the General Services Administration have underway. In a nutshell, they’re taking a hard look at U.S. governmentRead… Read more »
6th edition of state-by-state Open Government Guide (HT NFOIC) How’d your state do? How do you think it could be improved? Social Media as a Credible News Source? “Still a little ooky about social media? Well, believe it or not, social media is a major element of news nowadays.” This talks specifically about social media,Read… Read more »
Sanjeev “Sonny” Bhagowalia has moved from a high-visibility federal job in the pressure cooker of Washington to become the CIO of Hawaii. Sound like a dream job? While Hawaii state government has a more casual dress code, the job brings new challenges to the table. Read about Bhagowalia’s eye-opening experiences since becoming Hawaii’s first CIO.Read… Read more »
As Jobs steps down as CEO of Apple what will happen to Apple’s federal market? Now that the iOS devices are becoming serious components in federal agency and military IT set-ups, will Apple put more energy into selling to the federal government? Learn more about what Apple might do with its federal presence. -> ReadRead… Read more »
Information warfare is thought to be a product of what, broadly speaking, is considered the ”information” era. However, if we correctly understand what information war is, we can see that it stretches back to the dawn of organized conflict itself. Dorothy Denning defines information warfare (IW) as “operations that target or exploit information resources.” InformationRead… Read more »
WILEY REIN’S ELECTION LAW NEWS. This month’s Election Law News has interesting items on proposed rules from the Office of Government Ethics and Hawaii guidance on gifts, among other topics. MORE ON OGE PROPOSAL. The Hill. “A new regulation proposed this week by the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) would prohibit all government employees fromRead… Read more »
Gadi Ben-Yehuda This week, it’s all about you. Citizen participation in its many and varied forms seemed to pop up wherever we looked this week, for example: Participatory Budgeting Comes to New York, NY. Between October 2011 and April 2012, four New York City Council Members will invite residents to directly decide how to spendRead… Read more »
The American Federation of Government Employees today commended a group of lawmakers for calling attention to the rapidly escalating salaries that government contractors charge taxpayers. Government contractors currently can charge taxpayers $693,951 a year for each of their five most highly paid executives, a benchmark that has more than doubled during the past 12 years.Read… Read more »