Ever hear the news anchor or a reporter state at the end of their story: “If you’d like to know more about (story subject), please visit our Web site.”?  While I can appreciate the need to attract eyes to their web site to help sell advertisers, these news outlets may be providing a disservice to [...]

In “Twilight at Monticello,” author Alan Pell Crawford recounts Thomas Jefferson’s fear that “America was fast becoming a republic in name only, where power may have been derived from the people, but where they possessed it ‘only on the days of their elections.’ After this it is the property of their rulers.” President Obama’s first [...]

“…while all these “apps for democracy” are assumed to be a good thing, are they necessarily what are being sought after by the general public first or foremost from this new relationship structure?”

There are some great “year-end” blog posts and articles reviewing e-Gov, or government via the Internet.  This year, it is mostly about Gov 2.0 — stories or benchmarks for expanding collaborative technologies of Web 2.0 across the public sector.     All of these articles come from practitioners, intended for reading/discussion among other practitioners.  What’s missing? How [...]

Is the federal government up to the challenge of citizen engagement with the public on an individual basis?  Is it too much to expect an institution with an annual budget of three trillion dollars and as the nation’s largest employer with close to two million employees ready to go one-on-one with John or Jane Q. [...]

Florida Justice Summit brings together traditional methods and new technology to create and build an online community I had the pleasure to attend the first Florida Justice Summit on Monday/Tuesday (11/16-17) in Tampa.  The summit was hosted by the Collins Center for Public Policy.  The Collins Center is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that finds [...]

The Governor Mark  Sanford Situation I’m thinking about South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford and his situation and the response of the public and media. I wonder why, in the U.S., we (public/media) so vilify an unfaithful government official. In all of these cases there is so much lying that what began as an act of [...]

My first article with the online version of StateTech Magazine was published yesterday.  It is a brief discussion of the key challenges (data and technology) facing the soon (we hope) to be revised/repurposed Recovery.gov web site and administration of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  Add to these two formidable challenges a strategy for citizen [...]

Today, NPR’s Morning Edition had a story about the State of Michigan using part of its American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) stimulus funds to pay what amounted to operating expenses of the state government; pretty much to backfill spending cuts it had made.   In effect, the federal program that was created to stimulate economic [...]

A New Look at Govt-Citizen Collaboration using Social Media (Part II)   I’ve learned a new lesson about blogging: never post “Part 1″ until you have written “Part 2.”  I meant to write this entry right after I posted the first part, but had to travel, complete project deliverables, watch college basketball tournaments (men and [...]