Posts Tagged ‘Web 2.0’
DorobekInsider.com: Getting insights into Government 2.0
Wikinomics co-author Anthony D. Williams
Regular readers will know that I am passionate about this Web 2.0/Government 2.0 stuff. (I was speaking to the ACT/IAC 2008 Voyagers class today and I like to ask how people define Web 2.0/Government 2.0. The responses were ranged for collaboration to networking to Web-based… My definition is that Web 2.0 embraces the concept that all of us are better then each of us individually. Web 2.0 taps into the Internet and the Web tools that can really enable that collaborative theory.)
So Thursday at 2:30p ET on Federal News Radio 1500 AM and and online at FederalNewsRadio.com on our mid-day show, InDepth with Francis Rose, I am going to join Rose for a conversation with Anthony D. Williams, co-author of the book Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything.
Williams, who spoke at IAC’s Executive Leadership Conference last year, is spearheading nGenra’s (formerly NewParadigm’s) Government 2.0 project. [See Williams’ 2007 post on the project here.]
OMB is one of the backers of the Government 2.0 project.
My connection to the Government 2.0 project… and Williams bio after the break…
Read the rest of this entry »
DorobekInsider: Increasingly impressed by the NASA Goddard CIO
OK — I have to admit that when I first saw Linda Cureton, now the chief information officer at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, I wasn’t that impressed. This was years ago, but she is now the reason that I just don’t trust first impressions. In her case, my first impression was just completely wrong. Cureton is a force in the government CIO community.
I have been increasingly impressed with Cureton over the years. In addition to being a passionate about her family — if you speak with her, you will her about her mother — but Cureton has grown into a strong and confident. She can occationally be controversial, but she is adept at building teams and consensus — and then presses forward with what she believes is the right decision. (Tomorrow, I will give you some addition insights about how Cureton has had a direct impact on the government IT community.)
Want an insight into her passion for her team. Read her most recent blog post:
Today, I attended the Robert H. Goddard Memorial Awards Ceremony. It honors the Goddard Space Flight Center workforce for their dedication to many vital areas, including leadership, management, science, engineering, mission support, and customer service.
The Management Award recognizes managers, supervisors, and organizational team leaders who, while providing day-to-day direction to work units, demonstrate through their management behavior, style, and approach, exceptional levels of achievement that creates a positive and productive work environment for their employees. GarciaBlount was recognized today for exemplary management and leadership qualities that make his Branch, Code 547, and Goddard, a technology leader in manufacturing support.
When his name was called, six people, obviously from his team, let out a tremendous and loud cheer that pierced my heart and touched my soul today. There were six sitting next to each other. They had to have come together, early in fact, to get adjacent seats in the crowded auditorium. They all had cameras, screaming and cheering as they called his name. Their excitement touched me. The frantic clicks of their cameras matched the tempo of what must have been their pounding of their hearts. And I heard it. I didn’t know Garcia, but I thought he must be one heck of a leader….
DorobekInsider.com: An amazing Rising Star’s view of Government 2.0… and GovLoop
- Rising Star Steve Ressler (photo by Matthew Borkoski)
If you don’t know Steve Ressler, he should be on your ‘to meet’ list. If you want to have faith in the next generation, make the opportunity to talk to Ressler. (I have to admit that I’m biased here. I was so impressed with Ressler, that when FCW created the Rising Star awards program three years ago — these are award that recognize the next generation of government leaders — we put Ressler on the cover… and featured him and his step-sister in the magazine. Can I just claim to have discovered him?)
Ressler is one of those people who is never satisfied just sitting back and saying, ‘We should do…’ He is one of those amazing people who actually does. So, for example, Ressler and Megan Quinn weren’t satisfied with the network that young government workers could create, so they co-founders of a group called the Young Government Leaders — and organization that has continued to evolve and grow.
Ressler has since created a social networking site called GovLoop.com, built on the remarkable Ning platform. GovLoop lets users — yes, you! — blog, network, connect with people you may know, or people that you may not know and want to know, and create discussions around certain topics. The idea isRessler’s baby — talk about “just do it” — and the site now has nearly 1,000 people who are ‘looped,’ so to speak. (FCW bloggers Steve Kelman and Judy Welles both wrote about GovLoop earlier this year.)
If you somehow cannot make time to meet Ressler, he is a guest blogger on the Wikinomics blog, which is related to the Wikinomics book, of course.
September 3rd, 2008, 09:12am
This guest blog is by Steve Ressler, founder of GovLoop.com, a social network connecting the government community. Mr. Ressler is also a contributor to the nGenera Gov 2.0: Wikinomics, Government, and Democracy project and the co-founder of Young Government Leaders, a professional organization of more than 2,000 government employees.Ressler has published articles on generational issues and Web 2.0 in various publications including The Public Manager and presented on these topics at a range of venues including Harvard’s Kennedy School andBrookings Institute.
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It’s official – Gov 2.0 is here to stay. From nGenera’s Gov 2.0: Wikinomics, Government, and Democracy project, NAPA’s Collaboration Project, and Mashable’s recent Gov 2.0 column, a lot has been written on the potential power of web 2.0 technologies in government. Government agencies across numerous jurisdictions have begun focusing on how Web 2.0 technologies can help foster workplace collaboration and innovation. Organizations such as the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Transportation Security Agency, and National Resources Canada have implemented organizationalwikis to provide a central point for ideas and discussion.
But while government organizations have begun to focus on fostering workplace collaboration from the inside, a new type of collaboration is developing outside the formal reach of government agencies. As part of the Gov 2.0:Wikinomics , Government, and Democracy research series, I recently completed a paper entitled “Net-Gen Networks: How Agencies Can Leverage Outside Innovation Internally.” In this analysis, I document the rise of informal networks in the government sector built around Web 2.0 applications as a means of facilitating collaboration, idea sharing and innovation both within and across agency lines. Whether via social networks likeFacebook, wikis , or blogs, these networks have created new authoritative resources for employees without the input or control of their superiors.
For example, Young Government Leaders, a professional organization for young federal employees in the U.S., started as two new government workers wanted to connect with peers. What started as a small happy hour has turned into a powerful informal network with over 2,000 members featuring a weekly leadership blog, professional development activities, community service, and bi-weekly newsletter. Young Government Leaders is not housed in a specific government agency but rather is run independently by volunteers on their own time and provides a sense of community to Net-Gen federal employees going through the same experiences in their career.
You can also read a Q&A with Ressler on the Municipilist blog.
He’s a good example of what one can do. Even if you don’t get to meet him, I think you’ll get a good sense of who he is from his words… and we’ll certainly try and get him on Federal News Radio.
Meanwhile, go join GovLoop and plunk around on it a bit… maybe even start your own conversation or topic.
DorobekInsider.com: Hurricane response 2.0
It has been really interesting to watch government implement Katrina’s lessons learned. By most accounts, federal, state and local agencies all did much better responding toGustov then they did with Katrina. [GSA deputy chief acquisition officer David Drabkin was on Federal News Radio’s Daily Debrief this afternoon talking about the acquisition aspects of hurricane preparedness (.mp3)… and Rear Admiral Dr. Craig Vanderwagen, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services was on FED’s Morning Drive this morning talking about the work done (.mp3)]
Of course, everybody is watching the other storms swirling out there in the Atlantic. No rest for the weary.
But it was interesting to see the Gustav response largely because there have been all sorts of developments in technology in the last three years that enables people to get information in various ways.
First off, blogger Andy Carvin noted that the Homeland Security Department has created a “hurricane response widget” that people can put right on their Web sites. It provides links that people can use to get more information.
I foolishly thought it was one of the first government uses of widgets, but… far from it. The FBI has one… as does EPA… and even Rep. Max Thornberry (R-Texas). They aren’t publicized all that much, so I don’t know how much these widgets get used, but… what a great way of getting information out.
Carvin also has a fascinating post about all the online resources that are available out there for people to keep track of what is going on. For example, there is a Twitter site that used to be focused onGustof and has now been rebranded “StormWire.” It can be found at twitter.com/StormWire. (Unsure about what Twitter is? FCW did a primer on it last week on Twitter… and there is a Plain English guide on Twitter.)
There is also a hurricane related ning social networking site about the storms that can be found at gustav08.ning.com.
See about the other named storm names here.
DorobekInsider 