Weekly Round-up: January 28, 2011

Gadi Ben-Yehuda

• My colleague, John Bordeaux, has me thinking about the Internet of Things.  Slate ran an article about ThingD, which is trying to add a social dimension to that other internet.  (So far, though, I like Uncrate more--better curation. I'm saving up for a Seabreacher!)  I foresee strong implications for government agencies.
• Slate's Michael Aggar has a good review of "Reality is Broken," which argues that video games can make us better people.  Do you know that Govloop allows users to level up for blogging? 
• How we got here, and where we are: check out this slide show detailing the evolution of the Internet.
• The Washington Post has a story about how the State Department (and Phillip Crowley in particular) is embracing social media (and Twitter in particular).

John Kamensky

• Customer Satisfaction in Government Plummets. The American Customer Satisfaction Index released its annual report summarizing a survey of citizen satisfaction with about 100 federal government services. The report describes how satisfaction experienced the largest one-year drop since the survey began in 1999. Congressman Henry Cuellar announced that he was introducing legislation requiring federal agencies to measure customer service and report satisfaction scores for all federal government services.
• Obama Announces Plan to Reorganize the Government. President Obama announced during his State of the Union Address that he will reorganize the federal government. Afterwards, questions abounded about how he would proceed to do this. Read the IBM Center report, “Government Reorganization: Strategies and Tools to Get It Done,” by Hannah Sistare, to see what options he might choose from, based on prior efforts.

Dan Chenok

OMB budget policy to focus on cybersecurity situational awareness.

Open Government Initiative at Two Years:

• Views from outside expert Don Tapscott;
• Views from the insider now on the outside, Beth Noveck;
• Open government and a networked environment.

Business of Government Radio Show: Carol W. Pope

The Business of Government Hour features a conversation about management with a government executive who is changing the way government does business. The executives discuss their careers and the management challenges facing their organizations. Past government executives include Administrators, Chief Financial Officers, Chief Information Officers, Chief Operating Officers, Commissioners, Controllers, Directors, and Undersecretaries.

Carol Waller Pope currently chairs the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA).  She was nominated by both President William J. Clinton and George W. Bush, and has served as a Member of the Authority since November 2000.  She is the first FLRA career employee to serve as Chairman and Member.  

Each week, The Business of Government Hour interviews government executive who are changing the way government does business. The show airs four times a week on two radio stations in the DC Metro Area. If you can't wait, though, we also put it online. You can also search our audio archives for your favorite interview.