December 2009
A Modest Proposal: TSA Must Immediately Ban All...
Christmas Day, 2009. A young Nigerian man with an engineering degree who was on UK and US terror watch lists purchased a one-way ticket from Europe to Detroit, Michigan using cash, checked no bags, seated himself over a fuel tank, snuck an explosive device past security, and nearly killed almost 300 people in US airspace. Two days later, we haven’t publicly heard from most any US government...
What Would an Always-On-The-Record Government Look...
Recently, I wrote a post about Government 2.0 predictions for 2010-12, and one of them was that government would “always be on-the-record.” By that I meant that the combination of (1) the proliferation of tech-savvy citizens with mobile camera/video devices, (2) the prevalence of wi-fi or other Web connections, (3) the massive number of people using social networks like MySpace,...
Gerald Celente: Forcasting (Scary) Trends for 2010
Got an interesting email from Gerald Celente today. Don’t know who he is? Too bad for you. He’s a remarkably wise trends forecaster. Here are his health, environmental, social, entertainment, cultural, business and consumer trends for 2010. • The Crash of 2010: The Bailout Bubble is about to burst. Be prepared for the onset of the Greatest Depression. • Depression Uplift: The pursuit...
The Rarity of Obscurity
Are you the best in the world at what you do? Ten years ago, it was very difficult to answer this question. One didn’t really have a good sense of who the best shoe salesmen, school teachers, and local writers were around the world. Now, things are different. You can actually find out very quickly who the most important people are in your community of interest, no matter where they live....
Forget Nigerian Scam Spam - I Just Got United...
Many people are probably familiar with some version of the “Nigerian spam scam” in which someone in Africa has $35,000,000 waiting and all he has to do is transfer it into your bank account in the U.S. - and then you get a cut! Simple, right? Well, at this point too many people know this is a scam for it to work. But today I got a new (for me) version of this - from a SGT in the...
My Predictions About Government 2.0...For the Next...
Under no pressure from anyone, I’ve forced this obligatory “end of year predictions” post upon myself. People always ask me where I think Government 2.0 is going anyway, I may as well get some writing mileage out of it, right? So, here are some non-exhaustive, somewhat creative, and entirely debatable trends and ideas that I foresee taking shape in the next three years or so. Why the next three...
Wait - When Did the Microsoft Brand Get Cool...
According to The Motley Fool — In a stunning victory, a Zeta Interactive report conducted for Brandweek concludes that Microsoft is the most buzz-worthy brand of the year. Really? That Microsoft? This year? Believe it. (Google had the top honors last year.) Read the full story here. Posted via email from Mark’s Cheeky Posterous | Comment »
Big vs. Small Federal Agency Government 2.0
It’s almost commonplace to hear things like, Federal agencies are getting better with Government 2.0, transparency, and communicating with the public. But most of the examples of this that I see and hear are from big agencies. You know, agencies like these: DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY DEPARTMENT OF...
Photo: Government Transparency At Work
Senior government officials leave their mobile devices outside the Oval Office with name-ridden notes. (This kind of thing is typical for sensitive government meetings/facilities.) Photo credit: White House. Posted via email from Mark’s Cheeky Posterous | Comment »
Seth Godin Releases a Free e-Book
Seth Godin, the well-regarded and original business blogger and author, has a new e-book out. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/files/what-matters-now-1.pdf It’s a compilation of brief, bold thoughts from a diverse array of thought leaders, each one based around a word or theme. And, it’s great. I suggest that you download it, read it, and share it. Posted via email from...
Why Do I Write?
I write a lot. Not as much as some, but way more than most. If you’re reading this, you probably already know that. But why? Why do I write stuff? I was thinking about this on a cross-country flight, and took some notes on a US Airways napkin with a red marker. Thought I’d type it up for you. (1) To get fame and fortune. Obviously. My blog on Posterous is simply raking in the dough....
Why Isn't Government Data Fun?
Have you heard of GraphJam? It’s a great site with a simple user interface that lets people make bar graphs, Venn diagrams, and more. The applications are mostly funny - making fun of song lyrics, vacation spots that you want to go to vs. those of your spouse, and so forth. Pop culture. But what I’m wondering is: Why isn’t government data this fun to play with? Data.gov and...
Microsoft, IBM, and Jive On Top of the Gartner...
From destinationCRM.com (Lauren McKay) - The market for social software is expansive with hundreds of vendors with myriad functionalities. In order to make sense of the heterogeneous landscape, Gartner Research has narrowed its focus for this fall’s Social Software Magic Quadrant to include only those proficient at social tools for the workplace. Analysts…write that social software...
State Department Blocks Weblink to O'Reilly's Gov...
From time to time I send emails to people I know at the State Department. Lately, I couldn’t figure out why they were getting sent back to me. Multiple people over there, multiple email addresses I have, multiple times and days. Well, I finally bothered to look at the error message. Here it is: Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently: XxxxxxXX@state.gov Technical details...
The Future Networked Non-Elite City #sn09 #gov20
San Francisco, CA - At the Supernova 2009 conference, Adam Greenfield of Nokia gave a talk about the future networked city. More humans now live in cities than ever before. But the cities withing which new technologies are being developed and tested (San Francisco, New York, London…) are different from developing urban environments where most of the people are - Rio, Lagos, new emerging...
