Monday, September 13, 2010
Last week was more than just Labor Day . . . there were several interesting articles on government management that didn’t quite make national headlines but are worth noting.

Open Gov:  Keeping up with what’s going on, on Twitter.  A new on-line “daily paper” has been created and dedicated to OpenGov issues.  Basically it’s an aggregated news source on paper.li that pulls from blogs, Twitter streams, and other sources.  It might be worth bookmarking if you try to follow OpenGov issues.  Don’t like it?  You can create your own!

Challenge Grants: A great overview of the issues.  The Obama administration announced a new website:  challenge.gov, but a thoughtful piece on the Governing People website by Richard Fahey, “Promoting Innovation Through Prize and Challenge Programs,” examines lessons and strategies from a Case Foundation study on the issue, which are worth reading before developing your own program. 

 Mixed Messages Persist on Social Media. Government Computer News’ Kevin McCaney writes about how agencies are both promoting and discouraging the use of social media in their agencies.  As staff try to use, or to share, via social media, they run into more road blocks than green lights.

DOD creates five teams to tackle internal reforms.  Federal Times reports that Secretary Gates has formed five teams to begin work on his $100 billion in cost savings.  These include teams on:  affordability, incentives, contract terms, metrics and service contracts.

Obama Performance Agenda:  Stealthy and Radical, Federal Computer Week posted a commentary piece I wrote about the implications of the Obama administration’s performance agenda on the “performance community” across the government.  There’s more there than meets the eye!