The National Treasury Employees Union is tired of the bad rap federal employees have been taking of late and has gone on the offensive with a new set of radio and television public announcements.
“When you stop and think about the innumerable ways federal employees work to improve the quality of life in America, it is hard to comprehend why they have recently been the target of harmful attacks,” said NTEU National President, Colleen M. Kelley. Keep reading →
Private sector developers aren’t the only ones introducing new and useful applications for mobile devices. Federal agencies are also introducing mobile apps aimed at providing specialized services to the public.
Here are just some of the more recent mobile apps that were presented at the just-concluded FOSE Exposition and Conference, the nation’s largest government information technology convention: Keep reading →
Federal agencies are embracing social media as an increasingly common way to interact with the public. Yet, a critical consideration that is often overlooked by agency officials is how social media will be incorporated in disaster and emergency preparedness plans. If your agency hasn’t fully developed a social media plan for disaster preparedness scenarios, it’s time to add it to your priority “to do” list!
Information about practically everything – both factual and wildly inaccurate – now travels around the globe literally in minutes, through new communication tools – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, to name a few. In a natural or manmade disaster, if you don’t reach out to the public with the facts quickly, someone else will get there with rumor – and as we all know, misinformation can cause havoc, create panic, and potentially increase danger to those at risk who we want to protect. Keep reading →
The fight to obtain additional wireless communications spectrum capable of providing police, firemen and emergency managers with the same capabilities most 15 year-olds have on their smart phones has been ongoing since the attacks of September 11, 2001, when outdated radios prevented firefighters and police from communicating evacuation orders. Hundreds died because they could not hear those orders.
And while little has changed in the decade since then, the Obama Administration last month publicly announced its support to transfer a swath of wireless spectrum known as the D block to first responder agencies for the purpose of building a nationwide, interoperable wireless public safety network – a key recommendation of the 9/11 Commission.
The decision puts the White House squarely at odds with a powerful faction of wireless companies that continue to pressure Congress for a public auction of the available spectrum. Those companies argue the spectrum is critical to American competitiveness in an increasingly wireless world and a sale would raise an estimated $28 billion that could be applied to deficit reduction. Keep reading →
Internet co-creator Vint Cerf argues that discontent, the ability to fail, and the environment where managers can say “yes” are among the key ingredients for leaders to foster innovation in government.
Let me start by making an observation: Progress doesn’t happen unless somebody is discontented. Keep reading →
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is forging ahead with its plans to digitize billions of documents, a project that will take years to complete and that already has faced criticism over out-of-control costs.
At the helm of this digital effort is Pamela Wright, the chief Digital Access Strategist for the archives. She’s been in this job for just a year, overseeing NARA’s internal and external web pages, social media efforts and Online Public Access (OPA) prototype, the public face of its electronic records archives. Keep reading →
A recent survey of government employees revealed that federal workers have a strong desire, and many ideas, on how government needs to be restructured in order to significantly improve performance and reduce costs.
Moreover, the survey found that budget cuts tend to drive agency personnel to take a number of proactive steps, including: Keep reading →
White House Director of Digital Strategy Macon Phillips, on behalf of President Obama, makes the case in a blog that there are simply too many federal websites. The White House announced plans July 12 to reduce roughly 24,000 federal government website domains to fewer than 2,000 core domains.
As the President points out in this video, our government doesn’t need a website dedicated to foresters who play the fiddle. We also don’t need multiple sites dealing with invasive plants (here and here). And I’m pretty sure the website dedicated to the Centennial of Flight can come down… particularly since the Centennial was in 2003.s President Obama has said, we can’t win the future with a government of the past. How our government uses the internet to communicate and deliver services is an obvious and critical part of this modernization effort. Keep reading →
During my four decades of public service I have worked with many amazing people – some heroes who have risked their lives to save others, some who have risen to the occasion during crises like the Gulf oil spill and Hurricane Katrina, and many who have quietly gone about the business of serving the public with great dedication day-in and day-out. I was born while my father was at sea on a Coast Guard cutter.
In the current political climate and discourse over the national debt, we have done a poor job of distinguishing between the need for fiscal responsibility and the value of public service, which is enduring. Keep reading →
President Obama and Vice President Biden launch the Campaign to Cut Waste, which will identify and and eliminate misspent tax dollars in every agency and department across the Federal Government.
The President signed an Executive Order on June 13, 2011 establishing the Campaign to Cut Government Waste which includes two key initiatives: Keep reading →