Weekly Round-up: March 28, 2014

Gadi Ben-Yehuda

• Government Technology writes that "Big Data Could Bring Governments Big Benefits," which dovetails nicely with what I argued, that "Sharing Makes Everything Better: Everyone Benefits When Small Data Goes Big"
• Speaking of sharing: citizens can now share their "genius" with one another on the topic of government documents.  DigitalGov reports "GSA Introduces News Genius to Decode Government Web"   Perhaps someone can annotate this infographic about the top six social media sites?
• Given my interest in 3D printing, I would be remiss if I didn't share the news that a new "3D Printer. . . Lets You Print Dishes With Fresh Ingredients"

Dan Chenok

• Cloud, mobility hold key to interoperable systems in government.
• White House announces plans for accessing phone data from providers.
• Key tech trends that CIOs are watching.

John Kamensky

• Savings Dashboard.  There are dashboards for everything these days, so why not one to track savings, says Scott Quehl, former CFO for Commerce, in a Federal Times op-ed.  Quehl writes: “Enterprise-wide dashboards can help departments set concrete targets for savings and improved mission support performance, and know whether or not the collective efforts of thousands of employees scattered across their agencies and functions are on track.”
• Killing Y2K Bug for Good.  Ryan McDermott, FierceGovernment, noticed that the Federal Acquisition Regulations is finally being revised and updated to eliminate a technology compliance requirement related to the Y2K computer bug which has been in the regs since 1997.  Since the Bug was successfully vanquished 14 years, it was finally time to erase the requirement.
• Canadian Shared Services Reach Governmentwide.  William Jackson, InformationWeek, writes: “Shared Services Canada cuts costs and improves efficiency by consolidating basic IT services across much of the Canadian federal government.”  He says if this approach were applied to the US federal government, it could save as much as one-third of the $80 billion currently spent on technology.
• Replicating Success.  Stuart Butler and David Mulhausen, both with the Heritage Foundation, ask in a National Affairs article:  “Can Government Replicate Success?”  They observe:  “the task of mimicking and scaling up programs that work is not so straightforward. Success is never a simple matter of easily traceable cause and effect, and even the people who have achieved a breakthrough often cannot pinpoint exactly what worked and why.”  And they try to figure out the answer by exploring different approaches.
• Sinkhole of Bureaucracy.  David Farenthold, Washington Post, writes about the cave where all federal employee records are saved in 28,000 files cabinets to await processing for retirement benefits – “one of the weirdest workplaces in the federal government.”  His story was seen as a metaphor for antiquated government processes. Office of Personnel Management director Katherine Archuletta responded:  “We will continue to make every effort to provide the excellent and timely service that our world class Federal workforce deserves.”

The Business of Government Radio Show: Conversations with Authors: Kathy Stack

The Business of Government Hour features a conversation about management with a government executive who is changing the way government.

What is program evaluation? What can be done to better integrate evidence and rigorous evaluation in decision-making? How can federal agencies conduct rigorous program evaluations and data analytics on a tight budget? How can federal agencies increase and enhance their evaluation capacity? Join host Michael Keegan as he explores these questions and more with Kathy Stack, Advisor for Evidence-Based Innovation, Office of Management and Budget.

Broadcast Schedule: The show airs Monday at 11 a.m., and Wednesday at noon, on Federal News Radio 1500AM WFED

If you can't wait, though, you can listen to (or download) this week's program and all our previous interviews at businessofgovernment.org and by searching our audio archives.