The American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act of 2009 (ARRA), passed by Congress and signed by the President, is now available online. The text below is an attempt to summarize sections of the law that do the following:
All in Governance
Challenges Facing Recovery.gov and the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board
There’s a strong possibility that how the public sees and experiences the programs reported through Recovery.gov will have just as much potential for driving economic improvement as the programs themselves.
Technology Hasn't Given Us a "Direct Democracy" - Yet
Chris Cizilla’s White House Cheat Sheet: Bypassing the Media Filter is an oversimplification of the shifting role of social media in politics. He makes the usual “Obama is using social media to bypass the mainstream media to go directly to voters” comment, which I think misses the point.
A Panel Discussion, "Internet Technology in the Obama Age"
The main question addressed was, given the Obama campaign’s successful use of modern web and social technologies online, what will now be done with these technologies to actually improve government?
The Best Part of Obama's Inaugural Speech
This was my favorite part of President Obama’s inaugural speech; I’ve emphasized what I think is the best phrase:
In these heady days of transition, as we think about ways to improve government, it’s temping to over-sell the benefits of “Web 2.0.”
Six Ways Local Governments Can Use Social Media to Promote Energy Conservation
Here are six ways local governments can use social media to help promote energy conservation. If you think of more please comment below this post or send an email to ddmcd@yahoo.com:
In Marketing middleware socially Paul Gillin discussed why social software is already used in connection with the marketing of middleware:
Associations -- and Social Media -- Are Only Human
Ben Martin’s provocatively titled blog post As long as people don’t really care associations will survive addresses the common (these days) idea that social media and social networking somehow “compete” with the traditional idea of a professional association. After all, if anyone can throw together an online group of like-minded individuals at the drop of a hat, won’t professional associations inevitably lose members to such grassroots movements?
Will Merging U.S. Science Agencies Increase Innovation?
I read the news report Merger of US earth sciences agencies proposed by AP Science Writer Randolph E. Schmid with mixed feelings. The report describes a serious proposal to combine two US government agencies, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
Craig Thomler’s Make government data freely available neatly lays out, from an Australian’s perspective, a discussion of how the public can benefit if government agencies make raw data available for access by individuals and organizations who then analyze or present that data in a useful way. These points are from Thomler’s conclusions:
How Much do People Need to Understand Technology to Manage It?
Jeremiah Owyang’s post Gen Y Enter Stage Left, Baby Boomers Exit Stage Right got me to wondering how much people should understand about technology in order to manage it in an organization.
How To Avoid Common Strategic Planning Mistakes
For the past few months one of the most popular posts on this blog has been A Short Definition of “Strategic Planning.”
I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because the term “short definition” is in the title. Why read a “long definition” if a “short definition” is available?
Social Networking and Elsevier's "Grand Challenge" for Knowledge Enhancement in the Life Sciences
Netherlands-based mega-publisher (and former employer) Elsevier BV has issued a grand challenge:
Dennis Howlett’s The poverty of enterprise 2.0 and social media, once you get past the hyperbole of the title and ZDNet’s antiquated requirement to register in order to leave comments, makes some good points.
I was interviewed yesterday by a Forrester Research staff member about how CIO’s (Chief information Officers) should approach the implementation of collaboration tools (click here for a list of blog posts related to “collaboration”). We talked about the usual adoption issues related to “web 2.0” applications within the enterprise.
Project Management, Social Media, and Defining "Community"
As a continuation of our Conversation about Project Management and Social Media, Lee White in his recent post Project Community states the following:
The point here is not that Social Media, as discussed in earlier posts, directly drives efficiencies, but that it can create a community of project stakeholders that are passionate about the successful completion of a project.
Collaborative Decision making in Disaster Response Situations
Professor Murray Turrof recently sent me a draft of a paper that will be presented at the upcoming 5th International ISCRAM Conference in Washington DC in May of 2008.
The "Who" and "What" of Technological Illiteracy
Definitely worth listening to is Command Line’s December 19 podcast technological illiteracy among our leaders. His theme: we need to do something about the lack of knowledge our leaders have of how technology operates and impacts our lives.
What Should Project Managers Know about Social Media and Social Networking?
I’m a member of the online group SdB+PM Forum, a collective of 825 senior project managers who are also members of the Linkedin professional networking group.