Collaboration

The Next Four Years: Managing a Balancing Act

John Kamensky, Business of GovernmentAgency CFOs, CIOs, CAOs, CHCOs, and COOs have to find ways to connect with each other and to balance their customer service, compliance, and advisory roles.

 

Efficiency/Reorganization

Agencies take action as GAO knocks strategic sourcing effort

Matthew Weigelt, Federal Computer Week

After GAO found that agencies have made very little use of strategic sourcing, DOD and other agencies are pledging action to increase the use of strategic sourcing.

 

Innovation

Challenge.gov: Using Competitions and Awards to Spur Innovation

Kevin C. Desouza, IBM Center for the Business of Government

Government leaders are seeking new and innovative approaches to solve public problems. One new approach is the use of “challenges,” which use “crowdsourcing” to canvass solutions for particular problems.

How ‘Ideation’ Can Power Innovation

Neil Kleiman, Better, Faster, Cheaper

“Ideation” is defined as “directly examining a problem in a systematic way, amassing many possible solutions from many places, and then probing and testing those ideas to see which are likely to work.” Innovation delivery teams in several cities are putting this approach to the test.

Innovation At NWS: Data, Technology Fuel Advanced Tornado Forecasting

Judi Hasson, AOL Government

According to the article, “Technology and the ability to harness big data has drastically changed U.S. weather forecasting,” and the NWS’s efforts could be a model for other agencies that are developing their own prediction models for everything from economic data to the path of a disease.

Forging Governmental Change: Lessons from Transformations Led by Robert Gates of DOD and Francis Collins of NIH

Michael Keegan, Business of Government

How do leaders of very diverse agencies direct ambitious change? How do they achieve significant goals? What strategies do they use to overcome opposition and win allies? A new report from the IBM Center examines the roles played by Gates and Collins in leading transformation initiatives within their organizations.

 

Open Government/Transparency

Information Technology, Public Administration, and Citizen Participation: The Impacts of E-Government on Political and Administrative Processes

Hua Xu, Public Administration Review

The author writes that “the potential benefits of applying information and communications technologies in the public sector are manifold: improved transparency, accountability, and access and increased trust in government.”