DorobekInsider: ‘Enough about me… what do you think about me’

One of my favorite quotes (undetermined who said it): “Enough about me. What do you think about me?”

In that vein, there is a interview with me in this week’s issue of PRWeek.

PRWeek’s Washington Bureau Chief Ted McKenna did a really good job.

Chris Dorobek recently left Federal Computer Week as editor-in-chief to anchor a DC-area afternoon drive-time radio program covering the government community in all its sometime innovative, and sometimes bureaucratic, glory. He spoke with PRWeek recently about his new venture and his fascination with that multi-tentacle beast, the federal government.

I’m not sure I’d describe the government as a “beast,” but…

Read the full interview here.

And, to get all the “me” stuff out of the way…

CJD's home fire reconstructuion

Regular readers know that there was a fire in my DC row house earlier this year. But, now more than nine months later, we have reached agreement with the insurance company and… we’ve started reconstruction. ETA: Who knows. But… at least it feels good to be moving forward.

If you are so inclined, you can see the reconstruction photos here.

DorobekInsider: FedScoop.com — the rest of the story

FedScoop.com: All the government news that fit for links?

Earlier I told you about FedScoop.com, a new Web site — in fact, it was just “officially” launched yesterday — that pulls together information from many of the government publications.

I had asked Goldy Kamali, who is vice president of business development, public sector at Adventos and the person responsible for the site, for the story behind FedScoop. She sent me the FedScoop press release, which does provide more information.

Through word of mouth alone, fedscoop.com has become the most popular news source for the Government IT community prior to its official October 1, 2008 launch. FedScoop’s Founder and President, Goldy Kamali, is not surprised. “I guess everyone was as tired as I was of going to 15 different places to search topics like Telework or cloud computing,” says Kamali. A prominent high tech sales and marketing executive, Kamali most recently served as Executive Director of AeA’s Government and Commercial Markets Group where she ran all of AeA’s Federal Business Development programs and initiatives.

FedScoop’s inception and sleek, user-friendly format resulted after a lunchtime brainstorming session with Nigel Ballard, Federal Marketing Manager at Intel. “The Federal space was crying out for single online port of call for busy Federal IT professionals. The solution seemed rather obvious, an onlinemashup of disparate Federal news sources, brought together in one easy-on-the-eyes website. And FedScoop is it,” says Ballard. “For those who have been struggling to settle on one must-read Federal web site to save as their home page, that search is finally over.” Ballard has remained actively engaged in the progress and development of the site.

Existing, similar sites depend on editors to edit and approve individual stories. FedScoop, however, automatically pulls stories from different Federally focused news sources 24/7. In addition, FedScoop allows for custom searches of the entire contents of all of the featured sites and blogs.

I’m thrilled to say that Kamali added this blog to FedScoop — Woot to that! (And I’m right next to CJD-fav Robert Carey’s blog, the CIO of the Department of the Navy and the first government CIO to post a blog. Of course, the editor in me would say that this blog and the Carey blog — and others — are of more relevance to government audiences then, say, the NYT blog, The Caucus. That’s why the “about” page becomes so important… But the WSJ blogs, The Washington Wire and the WSJ’s Business Technology are quite good. But this is really just nit picking, isn’t it? )I said earlier that I think people like to know who is pulling information together, even if it isn’t done by editors, and the above item, which is posted on the “about” page helps. (And, of course, I noted that my “about” page isn’t showing up on this site. I’ll have to get that fixed.)

The layout, designed by FaraJoomla, sure is nice, isn’t it?

I look forward to seeing how it develops and evolved… and if it becomes a resource for people.

Again, stay tuned.

DorobekInsider: Two government (related) pubs shutter

Anybody even barely following the government market knows that it has been a tough year. It’s been a tough year for print publications — but it has been a particularly tough year in the government market.

I’ve confirmed that Penton Publishing has decided to shut down two publications, which covered government stuff to one degree or another: Access Control & Security and Government Security.

Anybody even barely following the government market knows that it has been a tough year. It’s been a tough year for print publications — but it has been a particularly tough year in the government market.

I’ve confirmed that Penton Publishing has decided to shut down two publications: Access Control & Security and Government Security.

The big IT publisher, CMP, has all but eliminated Government VAR, essentially merging it in to VAR Business. They do have a government business section on their Web site.

There had also been rumors around that Homeland Defense Journal, published by Market*Access International, was also shutting down. I touched based with Don W. Dickson, president of Homeland Defense Journal Media & Training, and he said they are doing just fine, thank you very much. They have built out and moved to new, much larger offices in Crystal City, VA, they have expanded their training courses, and they have hired three new marketing staff including a VP for Sales. They are working on a new Web site, and their newsletter continues its weekly release to over 24,000 subscribers, Dickson said.

Read Dickson’s full note after the break.

DorobekInsider: Feds making a difference in Nicaragua

Bridges to Community in Nicaragua

Originally uploaded by cdorobek

For the past three years, about 20 people from the government IT community have taken a week out of their lives to give back. They travel to a small town in Nicaragua to help build a town. It is part of a program called Bridges to Community and it is led by Leslie Barry, vice president of government affairs and business development for GTSI.

On Sept. 22, we spoke to Barry on Federal News Radio’s Daily Debrief with Chris Dorobek and Amy Morris. You can hear that interview here. [.mp3]

There is still time to attend the fundraiser on Thursday. Get information here.

I’ve posted one photo here, but… you can see a slideshow of photos from the 2008 trip. You can also read more about her 2007 trip from FCW, which features a conversation I had with Barry — complete with photos. FCW also spoke to Barry in 2006.

I’ve posted one photo here, but… you can see a slideshow of photos from the 2008 trip. You can also read more about her 2007 trip from FCW, which features a conversation I had with Barry — complete with photos. FCW also spoke to Barry in 2006.