Weekly Round-up: June 27, 2014

Gadi Ben-Yehuda

And now, some local news:

• Shawn McCarthy rounds up some ways local governments are innovating in "All Data is Local, as Local Governments Become Innovation Leaders" 
• Boston will have a new CIO: Jascha Franklin-Hodge.  The Boston Globe reports that his priorities include "mak[ing] technology access critical in the Walsh administration. . . ensur[ing] that schools have adequate bandwidth for connectivity [and] boosting the current infrastructure so every neighborhood is properly wired."  Related: if they want to leverage the crowd, here are five ways to do that.
• Webinar to reduce waste: Granicus is hosting a Webinar on July 10 with the CEO of ReCollect, a tool that seeks to "educate and engage residents around solid waste and recycling."  The topic is hardly exciting, but stil important.

 John Kamensky

• SES Retirements on Rise. Andy Medici, Federal Times, reports that a new survey of federal senior executives shows a 36 percent increase in the number of retirements between 2009 and 2013.
• DeSeve on Risk. Former federal leaders Ed DeSeve and Shuresh Kumar wrote a Federal Times OpEd outlining four principles for managing risk in federal agencies, first observing that “there is almost no guidance — legislative or administrative — that deals with risk management issues.”  So they drafted the guidance!
• Defense Acquisition Reform, Redux. Adam Mazmanian, Federal Computer Week,cites former Defense reform executive, Beth McGrath at a congressional hearing:  “culturally, the department is still in the midst of a generational shift, from maintaining a staff of dedicated coders to grooming program managers with expertise in acquiring and implementing commercial off-off-the-shelf products for use in DOD business systems. Staffing and culture have ‘not kept up with the way the technology evolved,’ McGrath said.”
• FITARA, Senate-Style. Jason Miller, Federal News Radio, reports on what feels like a never-ending saga, a Senate committee passed an IT-reform bill (affectionately known as the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act, FITARA) on to the full Senate for its consideration, just as the Administration came out against it.  The bill would extend greater powers to agency CIOs. 
• State Government: Transforming Mission Support.  The Association for Government Accountants released a report summing a summit meeting of state government officials, convened as the first meeting of the  “Alliance to Transform State Government Operations.”  The number one challenge?  Getting the right talent.

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