The 3% rule, developed by the IRS, requires federal, state and local governments to withhold 3% of payments they make to contractors for taxes, much like employers withhold a percentage of employees’ income for tax purposes. Last week the IRS delayed the rule going into effect, which means there might be time to kill it.Read… Read more »
INPUT’s final blog in a series dedicated to National Public Safety Telecommunications Week focuses on next generation 911 (NG911). According to the Federal Communications Commission, it is estimated that nearly 70 percent of all 911 calls are placed from wireless phones, and this number continues to rise. With the increase of cell phone usage andRead… Read more »
In the latest 2011 budget agreement, President Obama agreed to cut over $8 billion in foreign aid and assistance from the State Department and foreign operations budget. The money would have provided assistance in alleviating hunger, improving health and nutrition, and enhancing economic development in the poorest countries around the world. These measures have longRead… Read more »
Tiffany Smith from the Department of State recently spoke with Professor Ines Mergel’s Government 2.0 course at Maxwell about Diplopedia and other internal social media tools within the agency. Below, I summarize 5 key lessons from the lecture that may be applicable to internal social media use at other government agencies. 1. Internal social mediaRead… Read more »
Universities nationwide are getting involved in a Green Revolving Fund. ROI ranges from 29% (Iowa State University) to 63% (University of Denver). This seems to beg the question, what if local governments launched similar projects? Some universities are public institutions afterall…. Open publication – Free publishing
Yesterday, my colleagues at DCI Group released an interactive map of the United States that details state government social media participation. This resource displays research that indicates at least 46 states have legislators actively using Twitter and more than one-third of these legislators are utilizing Facebook, putting access to state leaders at your fingertips. TheRead… Read more »
If you tuned into the Oscars last weekend you may have noticed a familiar theme running through acceptance speeches…”thank you UNION WORKERS”. Several acceptance speeches included a direct thank you or acknowledgement of union employees. The recent budge crisis facing many states like Wisconsin and Ohio has lead to large protests in recent weeks, asRead… Read more »
Kim Nelson, Microsoft US Public Sector executive director of eGovernment I just celebrated my fifth anniversary at Microsoft. In those five years, my two daughters finished four years of high school and are now both in college. Like most parents of teenagers working at Microsoft, I’ve had to listen my girls bemoan the fact thatRead… Read more »
On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave her second speech on internet freedom and social media, two subjects for which she is a strong advocate. She said the internet has become the world’s “town square, classroom, marketplace, coffee house and nightclub”. Today, I attended Facebook’s DC Live Event: Social Media and the WorldRead… Read more »
Notes From NAGWThe National Association of Government Webmasters (NAGW.org) submitted a response to the USDOJ Advanced Notice of Proposed Rule Making, CRT Docket No. 110, (Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability; Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government Entities and Public Accommodations) on January 24, 2011. Representing the interests and concernsRead… Read more »