workforce

It was only a matter of time before social media’s impact in the marketplace would begin to alter the way executives go about their business in the workplace.

A new study commissioned by LinkedIn however, puts that evolution in some fresh perspective, with a look at how social media platforms are playing an increasing role in how information technology decision makers are making IT decisions. Keep reading →


For all of the difficult and complicated issues facing the federal government in the past year, the commitment to Serving Citizens shined through.

Nine civil servants (pictured above) were awarded the prestigious Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal from the Partnership for Public Service. Keep reading →


With talk of a fiscal cliff and sequestration, what’s already typically known as the hottest topic in government became a scorcher in 2012.

Federal Spending has taken on more scrutiny than ever before.
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The Department of Defense is taking a leadership role in leveraging mobile device technology to improve information sharing, collaboration and efficiencies. In a recent press release, Teri Takai, DoD’s chief information officer, said “As today’s DoD personnel become increasingly mobile, a wide variety of devices offer unprecedented opportunities to advance the operational effectiveness of the DoD workforce This strategy will allow mobile devices across the department to converge towards a common vision and approach.”

There are significant challenges that await agencies, like the DoD, that are looking to implement mobile strategies and “bring your own devices” (BYOD) policies – the most daunting being security. In order to overcome various security challenges, agencies must take several factors into consideration. The five tips found in this piece will outline crucial items for agencies to consider when adopting mobile practices for their employees: Keep reading →

My perspective on the outlook for cyber initiatives is quite different heading into the New Year than in past years.

While there are always budgetary uncertainties and looming cuts in government IT spending, this year, we face an unprecedented financial uncertainty as our nation stands on the edge of a fiscal cliff. That will impact not only the resources we have to invest in technology, but how people work and live. Keep reading →


In tight fiscal times, federal agencies need to embrace changing technology, focus on attracting and retaining the next generation of workers and striking a balance between information sharing and security. To reach these goals, organizations need to foster a culture of trust and speed, a senior Defense Department official said.

David Wennergren, assistant deputy chief management officer for the Department of Defense, cited Stephen Covey’s book Speed Of Trust in his keynote speech at the Government Information and Analytics Summit in Washington D.C., this week. Keep reading →

Mobile computing is evolving from handheld to hands-free with the introduction of a new headset-mounted computer that may soon be helping first responders and technicians record and stream data back to headquarters, or view information, building diagrams or schematics using voice commands and head movements.

The Motorola HC1 is a headset computer consisting of a headset, built in video camera, microphones, earpiece and a “view pod.” Designed entirely for hands-free use, the computer is controlled through a combination of voice commands and head movements, explained Nicole Tricoukes, a business innovation manager at Motorola Solutions. The computer will be commercially available in the first half of 2013. Keep reading →


It’s easy to take all the comforts of our modern lives for granted. Cars are basically parking themselves these days, and Wi-Fi on airplanes allows us to watch our favorite shows as we zip across the country in a matter of hours. Mobile devices can talk to and interact with us like humans – not to mention letting us securely accomplish our work from anywhere and at any time.

We sometimes forget that things haven’t always been this way. December 17 marks the 10-year anniversary of the E-Government Act of 2002 – America’s first step toward a modernized and accessible IT infrastructure.
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Tax evasion or illegal drug smuggling are often not observable events for federal law enforcement officials. But to effectively manage federal law enforcement activities, officials and policy-makers in charge must have an idea of what is happening.

The challenge of how to measure the unobserved events is one faced by many federal leaders. But there are actually five methods that can assist government performance analysts in estimating basic information on unobserved events.
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This article originally appeared as part of a new report from the IBM Center for the Business of Government, “Five Methods for Measuring Unobserved Events: A Case Study of Federal Law Enforcement,” by John Whitley.

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The Need for a Statistical Framework

Law enforcement can face tough measurement challenges, but the fields of statistics and econometrics have developed a framework for dealing with them and it is useful to begin this part with a brief overview of that framework. All violations of a federal law can be thought of as elements of a prospective data population.

The scope of the population can be defined in various ways — e.g., immigrants illegally entering the United States in a calendar year, or the illegal drugs smuggled across the southwest land border between the United States and Mexico.

To effectively manage their operations, federal law enforcement officials need insight into these unobserved violations; i.e., they need to know the properties or parameters of this population of data, such as its size and distribution

Law enforcement officials are generally able to observe subsets, or samples, of this population. The most obvious is the subset of violators apprehended or arrested. Detailed documentation of apprehensions or arrests is generally retained in administrative records. In addition, there may be other available sources of data, often partial and incomplete, that shed light on various aspects of the population, e.g., survey data on drug usage or the footprints in the desert of illegal border-crossers.

Actions can also be taken to increase the available data, such as increasing the size of the observable subset, drawing additional samples from the population, or generating a sample of new data that mimics the characteristics of the population of interest. The methods described here use such samples to make estimates of the total population.

When using a sample to estimate parameters of the underlying (unobserved) population, an important statistical property is whether the estimate is biased. Bias occurs when the estimate systematically diverges from the true value of the population parameter being estimated.

An unbiased and therefore preferred estimate does not systematically diverge from the true value. One primary cause of bias is a poor sample that is not randomly selected. A sample is random when every element of the population has an equal probability of being included. Examples of non-random samples may include:

Keep reading →


American companies and industry organizations are ramping up efforts that began last year to help employ returning veterans and meet growing IT workforce needs.

Private training and mentoring programs are bridging the knowledge and training gaps for veterans as federal agencies begin to process the influx of veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. Private efforts aimed at training for private industry and government jobs are also in response to President Barack Obama’s call last year for American firms and associations to help 100,000 veterans re-enter the workforce by the end of 2013. Keep reading →

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