Weekly Round-up: October 28, 2011

Gadi Ben-Yehuda

It's not real until it's on YouTube. Writing in Huffington Post and Aol.Gov, respectively, Alex Howard and Deanna Glick cover Steven VanRoekel's inaugural appearance on YouTube as the US CIO, filmed in California.  Perhaps unsprising, given the speaker and the audience, VanRoekel said “America’s future now depends on our capacity to innovate, and to harness technology.”

Does this mean we can friend Hilda Solis?  Alex Salta writes that Facebook and the Labor Department will team up on a "social jobs partnership," by adding a social layer to people's job searches.

When all you have is a hammer. . . Clay Johnson argues that government overreliance on tried-and-true brainstorming tools, like IdeaScale, threaten the efficacy of outreach activities--because the same tools are often used for dialogue in addition to ideation.  His post is a good read, and an important reminder that the tools we use to shape our world end up shaping us as well.

Dan Chenok

• New Federal CIO VanRoekel outlines priorities.
• Agencies must accept identity credentials from outside parties or risk losing money.
• Future of mobility could be aided by portable cell towers.

John Kamensky

E-Rulemaking: The “E” Now Stands for “Engagement.”  FCW’s Alice Lipowicz writes in “New E-Rulemaking Site Facilitates Participation,” that Cornell University’s pilot Regulation Room with the Department of Transportation is generating citizen involvement in areas that they had previously not been involved, even though the proposed regulations affected them personally.  A Cornell study offers lessons learned, The pilot adds impetus behind other reforms to the rulemaking process, currently underway by the Administrative Conference of the U.S.

Would Citizens Do a Better Job Budgeting?  This is a question increasingly being addressed in cities across the US, and in some other countries as governments allow citizens set spending priorities in selected program areas at the neighborhood level.  These isolated experiments, in places as diverse as New York City and Toronto, are now being promoted more broadly by a new non-profit, The Participatory Budgeting Initiative.

There is a cost to not investing in good management training. Federal Times’ Sean Reilly reports in “$641 million: The Price of Disgruntled Employees,” that the US Postal Service has doubled its estimate of how much it will have to pay out in response to employee grievance settlements in the coming year.

“Tight budgets should trigger innovation, not fear.”  GSA Administrator Martha Johnson has the right lens on where the opportunities are for innovators, in her remarks earlier this week at the Executive Leadership Conference in Williamsburg, VA.

But would Moses approve of 100,000 Tablets?  Federal Computer Week reports that the Department of Veteran Affairs plans to buy 100,000 tablet computers to help transform the delivery of health care in VA hospitals and clinics.

The Business of Government Radio Show: Dr. Jonathan Woodson

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.

The show airs fives times a week on two radio stations in the DC Metro Area.

Dr. Jonathan Woodson is the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs and Director, TRICARE Management Activity.  In this role, he administers the more than $50 billion Military Health System (MHS) budget and serves as principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense for health issues.

Broadcast Schedule: Saturday, October 29 at 9:00 a.m & Friday, October 28 at 2:00 p.m on  CBS Radio 1580AM on   For those outside of the Washington, D.C. area, you can listen to our live webstream on CBS Radio 1580AM. Monday, October 231 at 11 a.m., Wednesday, November 02, at Noon, and Thursday, November 03, at Noon on Federal News Radio 1500AM WFED

If you can't wait, though, you can listen to it or download our interview with Beth and all our interviews at businessofgovernment.org and by searching our audio archives.