Weekly Round-up: November 15, 2013

Gadi Ben-Yehuda

Bit of a dog's breakfast this week. But it was delicious at dinner.

• The rise (and fall?) of MOOCs: From Fast Company: "I'd aspired to give people a profound education. . . But the data was at odds with this idea."  - Professor Sebastian Thrun, MOOC pioneer
• State Tech gives readers "A Look Inside the Redesign of NYC.gov"
• The Economist ponders "The people’s panopticon," and how we are all contributing to a recorded society.  Interesting fact: "[A single 'life logger'] currently produces about a terabyte of data a year. That is more computer memory than was available on the whole planet 50 years ago. Today it can be bought, or leased in the cloud, for well under $100."
• A New York Times fellow explores the impact on journalism of the 'pageview' metric.  Important implications here for government as well as journalism, and a warning about how the metrics we choose come to determine how we evaluate (and thus develop) products and projects.

Dan Chenok

• New GAO study identifies critical success factors for IT projects.
• Beyond passwords -- Jeremy Grant, head of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC), discusses how to be more secure online.
• Los Angeles takes next steps in data-driven applications to improve local government.

Michael Keegan

DoD brings culture of open architecture to proprietary systems - Defense officials say shifting gears to build new systems with a focus on open architecture is a challenge. Even tougher is grafting open interfaces on systems designed to be closed and proprietary. 

PIOs unearth the real value of data, analysis  - An exclusive Federal News Radio survey of PIOs show agencies are using data to improve mission execution. Treasury PIO Nani Coloretti said tracking metrics is especially important during tight budget times.

Archuleta looks to 'forge a new pathway' to better engage feds -New Office of Personnel Management Director Katherine Archuleta said she wants to take steps to make sure federal employees feel engaged in their work. 

Automatic spending cuts would bite more in 2014 - It's not just longstanding battles over taxes and curbing mandatory spending that are obstacles to a year-end pact on the budget. Another problem is a perception among some lawmakers that the automatic spending cuts known as sequestration haven't been as harsh as advertised.Indeed, the first year of the automatic cuts didn't live up to the dire predictions from the Obama administration and others who warned of sweeping furloughs and big disruptions of government services.

DoD finalizing major rewrite of acquisition guidance -Pentagon officials are "very close" to finishing their work on an overhaul of the official guidebook to DoD's byzantine acquisition system, and the process led them to the conclusion that they need Congress' help to help unwind a cumbersome maze of laws that have been layered on through decades of well-intentioned reform efforts. The document in question is officially known asDoD Instruction 5000.02 — the key collection of guidance that describes the military acquisition process. Frank Kendall, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, logistics and technology, has been working on a revamped version for months. 

The Business of Government Radio Show: Dave Bown

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

David Bowen is the Director of the Health Information Technology (HIT) Directorate for the Defense Health Agency and Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Military Health System.  His primary focus is the consolidation, reengineering, and standardization of the HIT services in order to improve cost structure and deliver a single integrated HIT platform in support of an integrated health system. He works closely with the Army, Navy, and Air Force Surgeons General to ensure that the transition to HIT Shared Service operating model is well managed.

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.