Today on the Daily Debrief: U.S. Coast Guard 2.0 with Adm. Thad Allen

Update: We will be talking to Adm. Allen on Friday on Federal News Radio.

The U.S. Coast Guard has been one of the most interesting organizations to watch — generally well managed and yet often unafraid to try new things. And Adm. Thad Allen is jumping into the government 2.0 realm.

You can hear him yourself in his message, which he posted on YouTube.

We’re going to talk to Adm. Allen this afternoon on Federal News Radio’s Daily Debrief with Chris Dorobek and Amy Morris.

Anne Laurent, who oversees the blog The Agile Mind, wrote about the Coast Guard’s Web 2.0 initiatives a few weeks ago.

The message couldn’t be clearer: Coasties need to start social networking, right now! Yesterday on YouTube, in his firm, ramrod straight-arrow style, Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen ordered his entire service, and especially its leaders, to get into Web 2.0, double time.

Fun worth having — tonight’s GIT Rockin’

So you’ve probably been to a battle of the bands before? But have you been to the battle of the government IT bands? (One friend of mine calls it “geeks with guitars.”)

The third annual GIT Rockin’ is coming up tonight — I’ll be emceeing. GIT Rockin’ — GIT for Government IT — is a  battle of the bands where all the bands members are from the government IT community. To be eligible to participate in GIT Rockin’, bands had to have at least two members from the government IT community.

AND… in addition to all the fun, the proceeds all benefit USO of Washington. Last year, GIT Rockin’ raised more than $17,000.

The event takes place in the State Street Theater in Falls Church.

This year’s bands:

• Cobb (Commonwealth of Virginia’s Interoperability Coordinator’s Office and Touchstone Consulting at DHS OEC, DHS OIC and SBA OCIO)
• The Eddie Becker Band (OMNIPLEX Corporation for DHS, Systek, Lockheed Martin)
• Nameless Droogs (CACI, SAIC, CSC)
• Tom & The Rhodes Squallers (ManTech Corp. for USSOUTHCOM Theater C4S Support Center )
• Wes Tucker & The Skillets ( U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Northrop Grumman)

This wonderful idea — and the past two years have been very fun — was created by Amy Fisher, who, until recently, was the Executive Director of Media Marketing and Events for the 1105 Government Information Group, which includes Federal Computer Week, Government Computer News and Washington Technology. (Fisher is now with Governing magazine.)

We had Fisher on Federal News Radio’s Daily Debrief with Chris Dorobek and Amy Morris a few weeks ago. You can hear that conversation here. [.mp3] You can also hear Federal News Radio’s Max Cacus’s report on last year’s GIT Rockin’ here.

See FCW’s coverage — including photos — here and here [.pdf]

So… come out on a Thursday… have some fun… listen to some good music… and support a very worthy cause.

Hear the discussion of OMB’s CIO memo for yourself

I mentioned last night that OMB is preparing to come out with a memo detailing the role of federal agency chief information officers.

Today on Federal News Radio’s Daily Debrief with Chris Dorobek and Amy Morris, we spoke with Transportation Department CIO Dan Mintz about his views of the role of the CIO. You can hear that interview here. [.mp3]

But I have also pulled Evans comments about the memo so you can hear them for yourself. You can find them here.

Hear OMB’s Karen Evans talk about the pending OMB CIO memo