Nextgov

from govexec

Chief Changes

August 24, 2011 When President Obama named then-District of Columbia Chief Technology Officer Vivek Kundra to be the nation's first chief information officer in 2009, he cited Kundra's "depth of experience in the technology arena" and said the new CIO would "work to ensure that we are using the spirit of American innovation ...

Tech Innovation Doesn't Mean Jobs, Greenspan Warns

August 23, 2011 Technological innovation, by its very nature, is about reducing jobs, not creating them, former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan warned an audience of federal information technology executives and contractors, Tuesday morning. That's not to say new technology can't contribute to economic growth, which will, in turn, raise employment, Greenspan ...

USGS crowd sources earthquake reports

August 23, 2011 Maybe Washington-area folks are more conscientious than others. By 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, nearly three hours after a 5.8 magnitude earthquake hit Mineral, Va., about 90 miles outside Washington, more than 9,000 people had responded to a U.S. Geological Survey crowd sourcing page that aimed to gather information about the earthquake's ...

Agency uses circumvention tools to advance democracy

August 23, 2011 As humorless border guards and red-penned press censors have given way to Internet firewalls and denial-of-service cyberattacks, the federal government's international broadcasting arm has had to find new ways to support the free flow of information in repressive states. The agency that once set up transmitters in Europe to overcome ...

from govexec

USGS crowd sources earthquake reports

August 23, 2011 Maybe Washington-area folks are more conscientious than others. By 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, about three hours after a 5.9 magnitude earthquake hit Mineral, Va., about 90 miles outside Washington, more than 9,000 people had responded to a U.S. Geological Survey crowd sourcing page that aimed to gather information about the earthquake's ...

from govexec

Quake's aftermath: From the conference room to the streets

August 23, 2011 As a rare, powerful earthquake rolled through Washington Tuesday, officials throughout Washington took cover, then took to the streets, at least briefly. One State Department official who asked not to be named told Government Executive he was in a meeting in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building when the quake hit. ...

Industry report recommends ramping up agencies' open government plans

August 22, 2011 Federal agencies haven't done enough to measure the extent of public participation resulting from their open government plans or to calculate what impact that public participation is having on agency decisions, according to an industry report released Monday. Overall, agencies have made strides in increasing the level of public participation ...

Mobile apps are reshaping government services and operations

August 19, 2011 Federal agencies so far have launched about 75 mobile apps aimed at everything from allowing citizens to more easily browse proposed legislation to helping anglers alert their peers when they've just released a short fin mako shark. Many of the biggest innovations in the government apps sphere, though, are happening ...

from govexec

Mobile apps are reshaping government services and operations

August 19, 2011 Federal agencies so far have launched about 75 mobile apps aimed at everything from allowing citizens to more easily browse proposed legislation to helping anglers alert their peers when they've just released a short fin mako shark. Many of the biggest innovations in the government apps sphere, though, are happening ...

White House Website May Be Blocked in Iran, but Not CIA's

August 17, 2011 Want to know what gets Iranian Web censors' transgenic goat? Well, it's tough to tell. The White House website, Whitehouse.gov, raises the censors' ire, according to the search site Blocked in Iran but sites connected with President Obama's 2012 reelection race are all in the clear. Even the presidential campaign ...