Archive for March 2012
03.30.2012 DorobekINSIDER: Your FOSE 411
Welcome to GovLoop Insights Issue of the Week with Chris Dorobek… where each week, our goal is to find an issue — a person — an idea — then helped define the past 7-days… and we work to find an issue that will also will have an impact on the days, weeks and months ahead. And, as always, we focus on six words: helping you do your job better.
This also closes out the first month of GovLoop Insights’ DorobekINSIDER program… This week, we talked about cyber-war and whether it is myth or reality… Steve Resser — Mr. GovLoop — his favorite this week was Frank DiGiammarino’s career advice.
But we decided to look forward with the issue of the week… into next week… Next week is the FOSE trade show — the biggest government IT trade show out there… well, the only one right now, I think. Thousands of people will convene in Washington, DC at the Washington Convention Center for FOSE.
And anybody who has been in the government IT market knows that there have been better days for FOSE — for most trade shows, actually, but… after more then three decades, FOSE is showing its age. That being said, there is no other place that brings together thousands of government IT people — government and industry. FOSE still is the government IT town meeting.
We wanted to introduce you to the man who is working to change that… working to make FOSE relevant to today’s government environment… Daniel McKinnon, Vice President, Government Events at 1105 Media, which produces FOSE… I asked him how the conference is evolving.
03.28.2012 DorobekINSIDER: Frank’s career corner – the ‘who’ question; making diversity matter; are LinkedIn resumes honest?
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Happy Wednesday… And a glamorous night ahead… Federal Computer Week’s annual Fed 100 Awards Gala… Looking forward to seeing some of you there and honoring the winners… and then tomorrow, I’m moderating a panel at the Acquisition Excellence 2012 conference… we’re talking about what doing more with less means for acquisition. And we’ll bring you highlights here on the DorobekINSIDER.
Before we get to the rest of the days news… a few items up front…
The lack of transportation bill: And we’ll go into more in the news, but… yes, there are only a few days for Congress to take action on the highway bill or it is highway Armageddon… well, that’s what The Washington Post calls it. The House again dodged efforts to move forward. Everybody keeps thinking that this will get resolved, right, because… well, really? Politico says that it is looking bleak. They say it looks eerily similar to previous struggles… we all remember the good times around the stalemate over government spending bills… or the showdown over increasing the borrowing cap… and, of course, the payroll tax holiday. We’ll see. There are only a few days left. Saturday is the big day.
Supreme Court health care arguments: And we have to mention the continuing arguments about healthcare before the U.S. Supreme Court. Today is the third and final day. And if you have some time, it is well worth your time to listen to the arguments. These days, it is difficult to find really smart discussions and debates about real issues, the arguments before the Supreme Court meet those criteria. They are smart. Yesterday, the question was about the mandates: Can the federal government require citizens to buy a good or service. Today, the discussion is about severability: if the Court rules the mandate is unconstitutional, how much of the law can survive?
- Heard the audio…also here [HT: PBS NewsHour]
- Read the transcript [PDF]
- SCOTUSblog: The ‘plain English’ summary of the arguments
- WashingtonPost.com WonkBlog: The 3 ways the Court could rule against Obamacare’s mandate
Photo: NieuweHeren
Keyboard pants: And… You may know somebody with fancy pants. Well, what about keyboard pants. That’s right — they are jeans with a built-in keyboard… and they are designed for… maybe… public works crews, police, emergency responders and the military… they have a wireless rubber keyboard that is sewn into the midsection. The idea comes from the Netherlands… They have a set of speakers, a wireless mouse and a keyboard… all integrated into the jeans… and they bring a whole new meaning to the phrase, Is that a keyboard in your pocket?
On today’s program…
- Are you happy in your career? Yes — happy and career can go together. Frank DiGiammarino will walk us through the first step of the career framework.
- Diversity in the federal workforce — does it matter? or is it just another mandate? We’ll talk to Tom Fox of the Partnership for Public Service.
- And that traditional resume… and the one people put on, say, LinkedIn. Which is more accurate? We’ll talk to the person who has actually done research to determine the answer.
All that ahead…
But after the break… we start with the stories that impact your life for Wednesday the 29 of March, 2012… your government world in 120-seconds…
03.27.2012 DorobekINSIDER: A Yelp for government healthcare; Budget transparency; using virtual worlds at work
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Happy Tuesday…
And we have to start out with the historic debate at the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday over the health care bill — the first of three days of talks. The Washington Post notes that Monday was just the warm-up — arguments about whether the Supreme Court should take up the health-care case at all. Today, the focus is on mandates: Essentially, can the federal government require that all people buy health care. And Slate says that the arguments Monday showed the Supreme Court at its best. Slate says that arguments Monday showed that court doing what it does best: Taking complex old statutes and asking practical qauestions. Dahlia Lithwick says that while protesters outside were hollering about religion and freedom, the justices were boring those inside almost senseless with statutory construction. And, she says, “sometimes, check that, most of the time, boring is what the justices do best.”
Resources:
- The SCOTUS blog has been covering the health care arguments coverage
- Read the transcript of day one [PDF from the SCOTUS]
- Hear audio from day one of the proceedings from SCOTUS blog… and on SoundCloud
And we go from talking about how benefits of being boring… Well, here is a reason to go online… You’ve probably heard of the Twitter feed… well, it is S my Dad Says… Yes, use your imagination. It is the Twitter feed that was a short-lived TV show. Well, now there is S that bureaucrats say… hat tip to GovLoop member Mike Kujawski… We have the link online… and my guess is this will go viral and be much discussed around government water coolers… and yes, it is safe for work.
On today’s program…
- They’re debating health care at the Supreme Court. What if there was something like a Yelp of Government Healthcare… something that could help veterans navigate the confusing world of healthcare with dashboards.. and sharing information. We’ll talk about that…
- Making budgets transparent. It has been the goal of the federal Web site, USAspending.gov. But state and local governments have been doing this for some time… and there are some new rankings out… grades, really… for how they are doing. We’ll talk to the people behind the budget transparency grades…
- And yesterday we told you about the virtual worlds conference. And I heard some of you roll your eyes and say that this is just game playing. Today, we’ll talk about how these tools can actually be used — and, yes, how they can save you money.
- And later in the program… What do Conan O’Brien, Cory Booker, Sesame Street’s Grover, Suze Orman, Ted Leo, Neil Patrick Harris and NASA have in common? We will tell you about an award that NASA has won…
All that ahead…
But as we do each day, after the break… we start with the stories that impact your life for Tuesday the 27 of March, 2012… your government world in 120-seconds…
03.26.2012 DorobekINSIDER: Cyberwar: hype or reality; the import of CISOs; and evolving virtual worlds
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Happy Monday… did you have a good weekend? Here in Washington, it was rainy and relatively cool… I say relatively because it was close to 80 on Friday.
Photo: Flickr member CrazyGeorge http://bit.ly/GRadZ2
On this date 20 years ago — 1982 — there was a groundbreaking ceremony for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The design was controversial at the time — the names on slate layed into the ground between the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument… but the site has become one of the most popular memorials in Washington. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was officially unveiled in November 1982.
Remember earlier this month, we introduced you to Jennifer Pahlka of Code for America. She is a remarkable person working to make government better. Code for America is a non-profit that provides fellowships for technology experts to work in city government. Well, CNN spoke to her over the weekend. And she told CNN that reforming city halls in America requires the talents of a new generation of technology and design experts. Remember she told us about Adopt-a-Hydrant — it’s one of the apps that a Code for America fellows wrote last year for Boston. And it allows Bostonians sign up to dig out a fire hydrant when they’re covered with snow. Good work.
A busy week ahead… Wednesday is Federal Computer Week’s annual Fed 100 Awards gala… some really remarkable winners this year. Read the full list of winners. It’s a great opportunity to remember some of the hard work that has gone on.
And then on Thursday, I’ll be at the Acquisition Excellence conference sponsored by the American Council on Technology and the Industry Advisory Council. I’m moderating a morning panel that focuses on Acquisition Strategies in the age of austerity and how agencies can balance their needs with the reduced budgets. It should be a fascinating discussion.
But here today… we have a good program…
- Cyberwar — hype or reality? We’ll have an assessment of a professor of war studies.
- And then a very different perspective… as everybody looks to do more with less, some state and local governments are cutting their Chief Information Security Officers. We’ll look at that issue… and ramifications.
- It sounds like something out of Star Trek — remember the halodeck… but the future of Virtual Worlds is serious business. The 5th annual Federal Consortium of Virtual Worlds Conference is coming up in May. We’ll take a look at how these virtual worlds have changed and evolved over the past five years.
All that ahead…
But after the break… we start with the stories that impact your life for Monday the 26 of March, 2012… your government world in 120-seconds…
03.23.2012 GovLoop Insights’ DorobekINSIDER Issue of the Week: Battle of the budget, fiscal 2013
This also closes out our third week that we’ve been daily show… and we had some good conversations this week…
Yesterday, in fact, was our producer Emily Jarvis’s favorite show so far… we spoke with one of the real thought leaders in the government space, Bill Eggers of Deloitte, about disruptive innovation and how you can be ready for it… even embrace it. And we also spoke to the man behind the federal Web site Ethics.gov, but also behind Virginia Decoded Web site — a site that was called the prettiest version of legal code… and who knew the laws of the land could be pretty… but we talked about how you can make all that data useful… usable…
And earlier in the week, we spoke with Warren Suss, who has been watching the government market for decades… he joined us this week to talk about how the doing more with less is actually causing fundamental changes in the government market.
And there was some lighter stuff along the way… This week was the sixth birthday for Twitter — that ubiquitous social media platform. I started a discussion about how Twitter has changed government. It’s interesting because one person argued that Twitter is a waste of time and money — his words. I’m not sure how one can make that arguement these days. In fact, Alec Ross, who is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s tech guru, has argued that Twitter and Facebook and these other sites have created a massive shift of power. He says that social media isn’t just about personal communication. It’s a collective network of users that brings great influence — and great power. We’d love to hear your thoughts about it…
OH… an update on GSA’s March Madness brackets — no, not basketball. We told you earlier this week that GSA has brackets for your favorite federal architecture. We have the update… The final four starts today — and you can cast your vote… Vote on GSA’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/GSA.
And I can’t really start the program today without noting that it was on this date in 1775 that Patrick Henry made his “Give me Liberty, or give me Death!” speech to the Virginia House of Burgesses, urging military action against the British Empire. The speech was made at St. John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia and the speech spurred the the Virginia House of Burgesses to pass a resolution and add Virginia troops to the Revolutionary War. There you go…
Our issue of the week… your money… the budget… and the battle of the budget: fiscal 2013 edition…
That is just ahead.
Also ahead on the program… We’ll also have your weekend reading list — the weekends are a good time to rejuvenate — but also some time to take a step back and ponder. And we’ll have some reading that may guide you as you work to think outside of the box. Among our items this week… amid the talk of pay freezes and pay cuts, we’ll tell you how you can meet the hackers to sell spies the tools to crack into your computer… and we’ll also tell you about a really big paper airplane. What can I say — it’s just too awesome to pass up…
All of that just ahead…
Each day on the DorobekINSIDER, we bring you the news that matters to you. On Fridays, we like to take a step back and look at the stories from the week that rose to the top. So… your government world for the past seven days… in 120 seconds… after the break…
03.22.2012 DorobekINSIDER: Disruptive innovation with Deloitte’s Bill Eggers; creating Ethics.gov and Virginia Decoded
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Happy Thursday.
We start off with a topic we come to so often… your money…
The House Budget Committee passed the Republican version of the fiscal 2013 budget yesterday — but just barely. Ezra Klein in the Washington Post’s WonkBlog notes that the House Budget Committee has 38 members — 22 Republicans and 16 Democrats. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the chairman of the House Budget Committee, is the man who has in many ways defined the conservative approach to the federal budget… and yet the Ryan budget passed by only one vote.
Some of that leads the Wall Street Journal to suggest we may be headed to… yes, you know it — a government shutdown… even in the weeks before the election. The Journal says the budget act passed last year has been coming apart in pieces and the disagreements between the White House and congressional Republicans over spending levels has heightened the chance of a government shutdown just weeks before the November election. The budget agreement signed into law last August was supposed to help avoid such a showdown, but today, it seems possible. And the Journal says the flashpoint came this week Congressman Ryan called for more than $1 trillion in discretionary spending for the year beginning Oct. 1. That represents $19 billion less than the level agreed to with the White House last year and put into law.
We’ll watch it carefully, of course… we always try to stay away from shutdown hype, but even the talk impacts how government operates, so we’ll keep an eye on it.
On today’s program…
- Disruptive innovation. What is it… and what does it mean for you? We’ll talk to one of the smartest people I know… one of the real thinkers… Deloitte’s Bill Eggers, author of If We Can Put a Man on the Moon: Getting Big Things Done in Government…
- You’ll meet the Johnny Appleseed of open source — and the man who created Ethics.gov. He also created the site Virginia Decoded, which has been described as the “prettiest state code” you’ve seen. We’ll tell you about that.
All that ahead…
But after the break, as we do each day, we start with the stories that impact your life for Thursday the 22 of March, 2012… your government world in 120-seconds…
03.21.2012 DorobekINSIDER: At work bullying; making mobility work (at work); the first take of the New iPad
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Happy Wednesday… SO much to get to today.
On Tuesday, the House Republicans unveiled their version of the fiscal 2013 budget. There is a lot of stuff in there, as you might imagine. The budget wars are heating up again. Government Executive says the plan includes an extension of the federal pay freeze and a reduction in the federal workforce. We’ll get to some of those details in just a minute.
Let’s be honest… just as the Obama administration’s version of the fiscal 2013 budget is really just a vision document, this plan by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan isn’t going to get passed as is. But it is an important read because it gives you a real sense as to the issues in the debate.
Read the full Ryan fiscal 2013 budget plan… and read the analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.
And… Today marks the 6th birthday of Twitter — the now ubiquitous collaboration platform where people share 140 characters of information. It was on On March 21, 2006, Jack Dorsey (@jack) sent the first Tweet.
And it’s GovLoop — we’re looking for your insights… How has Twitter changed government? how you do your job? how you get information?
On today’s program…
- Bullying doesn’t stop in middle school. Tips for dealing with a workplace bully with the Partnership for Public Service.
- Making mobility work…its not an easy 1,2,3…but you can do it, with some tips from our expert panel of federal CIOs and CTOs.
- We’ll talk about the New iPad… my first impressions…
- And how is your March Madness bracket doing? Not great? Well… we’ll tell you about the bracket that GSA has going on… it’s cool stuff…
All that ahead…
But as we do each day, after the break… we start with the stories that impact your life for Wednesday the 21 of March, 2012… your government world in 120-seconds…
03.20.2012 DorobekINSIDER: The changing government market; dealing with tech junk; opening up government legal documents
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Happy Tuesday.
Up front today… two interesting items that sure show how times are changing.
One… would would guess we would ever say Bon Jovi, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Urban Development together in one phrase? Well, welcome 2012. VA and HUD have unveiled a new federal app challenge designed to help homeless veterans quickly find shelter and other kinds of assistance. TechPresident reports that the mobile app will, essentially, act as a travel portal for homeless veterans. And Bon Jovi said that the idea for the project came to him after a volunteer at the JBJ Soul Kitchen in New Jersey asked for help finding a bed for the night.
The other story that shows how times have changes — or are changing and will change… Imagine if the CIA could spy using your washing machine… or dryer. Wired says that those intelligent household devices may be able to be tapped. And CIA Director David Petraeus has said that the Internet of PCs is leading to the Internet of things — devices of all types. And that could be tapped. And it is a legally gray area.
Ah, times have changed…
On today’s program…
- The changing face of federal IT and its acquisition process.
- What happens to hardware in your office when it’s no longer fit for service? Hit the dumpster? You’ll learn what GSA wants you to do.
- The challenges of making legal documents available online. We’ll talk to a professor who has studied the issue.
All that ahead…
But after the break, we start off, as we do each day, with the stories that impact your life for Tuesday the 20th of March, 2012… your government world in 120-seconds…
03.19.2012 DorobekINSIDER: IT strategic plan; ACT-IAC plans for 2012; and smartphone security
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Happy Monday — I hope you had a good weekend.
And I’ve had a bunch of people ask me about the new iPad. I don’t have it… YET. Yes, it was supposed to be delivered Friday, but… we are putting on an addition at home and there was an electrical issues, so… I wasn’t home on Friday to get it. I’ll get it today and report back, of course.
On today’s program…
- Everybody is thinking mobile. And there will be a plan very soon. We’ll get a preview from the federal Deputy CIO Linda Schlosser.
- The American Council on Technology and the Industry Advisory Council have been bringing government and industry together for decades. We’ll talk to the leaders of both of those organization about what is changing in 2012.
- Do you have a password on your smartphone? We will tell you why you just may want to do that.
All that ahead…
But after the break… we’ll start with the stories that impact your life for Monday the 19 of March, 2012… your government world in 120-seconds…
03.15.2012 DorobekINSIDER: The ambiguity of open gov; Regulations.gov 2.0; what innovators don’t talk about
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So do you have an elevator pitch for your organization’s mission? Could you do it in one minute? Can you make strategy fun? Dave McClure, the associate administrator of GSA’s Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technology, has created a video laying out his organization’s strategy. And not only that — they’ve posted it online. We’d love to hear your thoughts about it. And it’s only one minute.
And do you remember last week we told you about Santa Cruz, California where they are using big data to help them actually find where crime happens — it allows them to get ahead of crime. It’s a pretty awesome story about another case where data mining can now be used to help catch crooks. Researchers from the University of Memphis were able to detect local crime patterns – geographic hot spots on the city’s map and moments in time when they’re most likely to flare up. We have the link to our conversation with officials from Santa Cruz… and to the story in Atlantic Cities.
And today, I’m moderating a panel on mobile in the workplace for AFFIRM — the Association for Federal Information Resource Managers. We’ll have some highlights of that next week.
On today’s program…
- The polarizing power of Open Government…the problem could lie in the ambiguity of the term open government.
- Regulations dot gov gets a makeover. You’ll learn about the site’s relaunch.
- What are innovators NOT talking about…that’s what you need to be listening out for.
All that ahead…
But after the break, we start with the stories that impact your life for Thursday the 14 of March, 2012… your government world in 120-seconds…
DorobekInsider 