cnewmark

Sassy

Sassy is Phoebe's surviving hummingbird baby, check out the Phoebe-cam for more.

Yes, I enjoy this a little too much, but indulge me.

Using gaming to engage people in gov't?

Well, fun works, and maybe Dustin Haisler from Manor Labs has the right idea.

He speculates about two ways that might build on existing approaches to get people involved in
Does gaming have a place in government?

Let’s say we built an online game that was as engaging as [Zynga’s FarmVille game], but incorporated real governmental concepts in the process. Which concepts are important to start with?

• Taxation: Have the gamer adjust taxes but also have it tied to public opinion (similar to Sim City, but less complex).
• Cost of Service: Have responding to police calls, water line breaks, etc., demonstrate a cost of service for government.

Or alternatively:

Building on [the Foursquare] model, each agency could allow citizens to “check-in” at various city spots (Library, Fire Station, etc.) and learn more about their community in a fun and engaging format. This could also help open up the door for their participating in other crowdsourced programs like SeeClickFix.

Spring in Cole Valley Heights #1

Right in back, and yes, the gf's got a much better eye than me.

Click for larger.

Survey of US Gov't web sites show increasingly happy public

Hey, looks like some serious survey was work done looking at how people feel about Federal sites, comparing that with commercial sites. Looks like all the ongoing work is getting noticed.

Here's a pretty good summary from NextGov.

Citizen satisfaction with federal Web sites increased significantly in 2009, indicating that efforts by the Obama administration to increase transparency in government are getting noticed.

For the last quarter of 2009, more than 250,000 citizens surveyed gave federal Web sites a satisfaction rating of 75.2 out of 100 points, according to a report released by ForeSeeResults, a market research firm that issues quarterly reports on public opinion about federal Web sites in conjunction with the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Survey respondents also awarded federal Web sites a satisfaction rating of 75.2 for the third quarter of 2009.

"Normally private sites perform better, because they're less limited by budgets and federal policies," Freed said. For example, the federal government places restrictions on cookies, or the code stored on a computer that allows Web sites to remember visitors. "But the results show that satisfaction with a lot of the top performing sites exceeded what we see in private sector -- even with Amazon and Google -- which is pretty phenomenal," he added.

A view of Hogwart's, I mean, Trinity College Dublin

This is a dining hall, long rows of long tables.

At the podium (not too visible), Voldemort reads something in Latin to open and close dinner.

Rate of job loss, Bush v Obama (fact checked)

UPDATE: just got factchecked, report and raw data

(Courtesy of howardweaver)

 

Jeremy Zawodny re craigslist tech on Scott Hanselman show

Hey, Jeremy Zawodny gives a really good talk regarding our tech on Scott Hanselman's podcast, really explains much of it and how we do tech.

You might reflect that currently all our tech people are smarter than I am, which is part of why I stopped coding ten years ago.

I reflect that he discusses performance issues that I heard about in class... over thirty five years ago. I suspect many of our tech people were toddlers then, or nonexistent.

More real support for veterans

There are a lot of small improvements happening to support the troops after they come home; not reported significantly, since no drama.

Check out the basics from the Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America:

President Obama signed the "Veterans' Emergency Care Fairness Act" into law on Thursday. The Department of Veterans Affairs can now reimburse veterans enrolled in VA health care for the remaining cost of emergency treatments if the veteran's outside insurance only covers part of the cost. Previously, the VA only reimbursed veterans or paid outside hospitals if the veteran had no outside health insurance.

More from the Catholic Veterans of the USA:

“For veterans with limited insurance, a trip to the emergency room should not result in financial ruin,” said Chairman Akaka, who introduced the bill in the Senate last year. “With this new law, VA will be positioned to help veterans who are enrolled in VA care whose insurance does not cover the full cost of emergency treatment.”

The Veterans’ Emergency Care Fairness Act, signed into law by President Obama last night, will enable the Department of Veterans Affairs to reimburse veterans enrolled in VA health care for the remaining cost of emergency treatment if the veteran has outside insurance that only covers part of the cost. Previously, VA could reimburse veterans or pay outside hospitals directly only if a veteran has no outside health insurance.

Disclaimer: I'm working with both the Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America and the Department of Veterans Affairs, for even more improvements for vets.

A night at Hogwart's, I mean, Trinity College Dublin

Okay, I got an early flight with no wifi, so... here's what I was doing last night.

Special thanks to Tall Harry, Hermione, and Valdemort.

A view of Trinity

Yes, I'm in Ireland.

Talking here last night, tonight.

"If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh. Otherwise, they'll kill you." -- Oscar Wilde

Texting for baby

Well, the deal is that Washington gets innovative to help out expecting moms, by getting out useful info via the text4baby campaign.

Sending info to cell phones in small chunks makes a lot of sense, since that can get the attention of people who receive too much media, and who are too busy in general:

Under the new service, mothers-to-be who text "BABY" to 511411 will receive weekly text messages, timed to their due date or their baby's birth date. The messages, which have been vetted by government and nonprofit health experts, deal with nutrition, immunization and birth defect prevention, among other topics. The messages will continue through the baby's first birthday.

Sounds like another modest effort with actual results, just what we need.

The Warrior Gateway Portal for veterans launches

Hey, the deal is that there are a lot of people helping out vets, particularly wounded ones. The big need is for a portal to all these efforts, basically "one-stop shopping."

The result is the Warrior Gateway Portal, jointly supported by people in the NGO sector and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

So far, the portal includes the Warrior Gateway Directory and Warrior Gateway Careers.

Future plans include:

•      Warrior Gateway Communities
•      Warrior Gateway Knowledge Base
•      Warrior Gateway Calendar
•      Warrior Gateway Business Intelligence & Reporting

This looks really good

Disclaimer: I'm on the board of the Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America, a participant.

Sunlight Foundation disclosure rules for gov't accountability

It's time to get influence peddlers, particularly politicians and lobbyists, to tell us what's the deal with money in politics, so we can hold elected officials accountable.

The Sunlight Foundation  released seven guidelines to get serious about this, they're leaders in gov't accountability and transparency.

Check out their ideas for helping us keep the politicians honest, by helping us figure out who's paying for what:

• Require corporations and unions to report independent political expenditures to the FEC electronically
• Labor Unions should also report to Department of Labor, Corporations to the Securities and Exchange Commission
• Strengthen lobbying disclosure laws to create real-time online scrutiny of lobbying contacts and meetings
• Make corporations and unions state in advertising that they bought the ad and that they approve of the ad’s message
• Monthly instead of quarterly filing of campaign finance disclosures to the FEC
• Give the Justice Department, FEC and SEC the teeth they need to prosecute anyone who breaks or disregards the rules
• All information should be online, searchable, sortable, downloadable and machine-readable

Right now, the influence peddlers have lots of loopholes to work with, this closes a bunch.

(Disclaimer: I’m on the board of Sunlight, because of this leadership.)

Citizen idea platforms for serious grassroots democracy

Hey, a lot of people are experimenting with innovation/discussion platforms for people to suggest ideas for making gov't work better.

The White House Open Government Initiative is a really big deal along these lines, much bigger than people know.

We're also seeing remarkable innovations across the country, like in Manor, Texas.

There's a guy leading remarkable stuff there, Dustin Haisler, who takes a good look at some of the software for such purposes:

Specific-Task Motivated Idea Platforms

These platforms (like Ideascale, Uservoice, etc.) are great a gathering ideas for a specific purpose. For instance, many online voting challenges have adopted these platforms to gather votes for a set period of time. After a user expends their vote or votes they are no longer motivated to return to the platform aside from seeing what ideas are on top.

Structured-Idea Collection Platforms

This type of platform (like Spigit) collects and manages ideas on a board scale within multiple departments of an agency. Unlike the Specific-Task Motivated Platforms, users are free to submit ideas at any time within multiple departments. Since users are not motivated by specific-tasks, they must be motivated by a game-mechanics (ranking & rewarding of actions). In this type of platform, ideas are driven by the participants through an idea funnel.

A view of New York

 

Okay, here's Phoebe feeding Sassy

Phoebe lost Stormy several days ago, but Sassy seems okay.

(I seem to care about this more than I should.)

Check out the Phoebe cam.

It's real: casting for craigslist tv thing

A few more details are here.

From back home

I'm traveling, and the gf sent me this, from in front of the house.

Spring is early in Cole Valley Heights.

"Flat is the new black"

That's really "flat (growth) is the new black", when it comes to publishing, particularly magazines.

Thanks to RB at a board meeting for a publication I believe in.

Georgia state customer service reps talk for themselves

The deal here is that state gov't has given them real power to do their jobs, and they're standing up and doing it.

You can check out some of their stories on the Georgia state customer service site, with more details and success here.

This kind of thing is much bigger than one might think at first, it's about reinventing gov't from the bottom up.

Innovation working for better gov't in Manor TX

Hey, the folks at Manor TX are serious about listening to people and making things run better.

Here are five ideas that have been implemented so far: 

1.	Auto Debit Billing
2.	employment opportunities
3.	RSS Feeds of New construction, maintenance & repair work
4.	Post Recycling and Waste Services schedules online
5.	Google Docs for Material Requisitions

The deal is that all across the US, people are using tech to listen to citizens, and to get the everyday stuff done.

For more on how this works, check out a video by Dustin Haisler, their CIO.

What's gone right in Washington

Anil Dash, who's a lot smarter than me, blogs about stuff like the relative importance of the iPad versus the State of the Union address. Regarding the latter, he has a pretty impressive list regarding things getting better, like:

• The last U.S. Marines are leaving Iraq.
• Credit card companies can no longer charge interest on fees, and can't retroactively raise your interest rate on existing balances.
• We know who visits the White House, and who they're affiliated with.
• We responded, imperfectly but with heart and sincere effort, to the disaster in Haiti. Just as we wish we had after Katrina. Leadership matters most in emergencies.
• Our current President readily admits when he's made mistakes, respects the validity of arguments that he disagrees with, and has members of the opposing party in his cabinet.
• The Department of Homeland Security now allocates its security spending according to threats, not by spending the same amount of money on Montana as it does on New York.
• My 401k is up 30% since the current President took office

I've been talking to a lot of rank and file people, here's a little I'd add:

• This Administration is telling us where the money went, instead of hiding that.
• They've encourage gov't workers to fix they way they work, instead of telling workers that what they do doesn't matter.
• They're trying to root out corruption, rather than the opposite.
• Back pay for stop-lossed veterans; serious about medical and educational benefits, which is to say they actually support the troops, rather than the opposite.

That works for me, as a libertarian pragmatist.

Gov't software development a lot cheaper?

Currently, government pays a lot of money for software that's frequently late and might not do the job.

However, Internet style technology might offer a path to getting it done more effectively, cheaply, and on time.

Sunlight Foundation sponsored the development of a Federal contracts database, to show where that money goes. That cost around $300,000, though the gov't had allocated $12,000,000.

Now, California has allocated $50,000,000 for a unemployment check-processing system, and Vivek Wadhwa, a successful VC, has proposed that Silicon Valley teams develop their own bids. Two have come in at the $5,000,000 level.

Around the country, I also see AppsForDemocracy efforts and Hackathons which are delivering really good software for near zero costs.

When I was young, I did software development, and now I see the new generations of tools and methodologies, and this seems real credible to me.

Ongoing story, let's see what happens...

Pooling money to help people via Kiva and Donorschoose

 In some ways, the Internet allows us to do what we could also do, but a lot better.

For example, we could always pool money together to help someone out.

Now, we can do it in a way that spans the country, or the world.

For example, via Kiva.org, I have a collection of loans made to small business people, mostly in the West Bank of Palestine. All the money's being paid back, and will be loaned again.

With DonorsChoose.org, I've helped fund a number of classroom projects, like one in South Carolina.

The deal is that we can all help out in ways that work.

CPR for New Yorkers prompted by volunteer

A while ago, Laura van Straaten saw a Good Samaritan giving CPR to a stranger on the streets of NYC last winter and made it her 2009 New Year’s resolution to learn CPR herself.  She's an under-employed web journalist and TV producer. Pretty soon, her plan grew in scope: create a city-wide initiative where anyone can  “sign up and show up” to learn CPR conveniently, free and fast.  

This month, after more than a year of her efforts, the City of New York launched FDNY’s CPR To Go Program  where fire department EMTs offer free, hour-long classes to the public at gyms nestled in the neighborhoods where people live and work throughout all five boroughs of New York City. 

Check out more on the NY Times.

"Participation and Collaboration – Let’s Make It Work"

Hey, Candi Harrison is a retired Federal web worker, she knows how things can get better, and can now speak her mind.

Check out Participation and Collaboration – Let’s Make It Work

Let’s learn from the mistakes a bunch of us made back in the 90’s when we put up online “discussion” rooms and held online “town halls.” If you want the pay-off - if you want good ideas and positive outcomes - you have to invest the resources and plan strategically.

One more tip. Advocates and lobbyists will be all over opportunities for public participation and collaboration. But will average citizens come to the table…citizens across the political spectrum, across generations, across the country? You need to prime the pump. Create some quick success.

I’d love to see the federal government, as a whole, start with a handful of topics for public discussion. Throw the best resources at the efforts. Establish models for public participation and collaboration, before the agencies start doing this willy-nilly. Pick issues that don’t need legislation and can be resolved in less than 6 months. Pick issues that have broad public interest, don’t require extensive research or prior knowledge, and won’t be especially contentious. Pick problems that have a good shot at being solved.

Okay, too kind to me...

Hey, Adrian Weckler has way too nice a story on my work in The Sunday Post from Dublin.

I appreciate it, just want to note that I'm not much of an advisor to anyone in Washington, mostly talking to a bunch of folks who want to provide much better customer service, particularly for veterans.

Also, the release of government data and related applications, that's really a lot of others, particularly the folks at Sunlight Foundation, like Ellen Miller and Clay Johnson.

I guess my gig these days is to find the get the word out about people doing important work. As an engineer, I'm naturally a thing-doer, but my value nowadays seems to be that of a talker-abouter. Life's surreal, and getting more so.

A next big step for grassroots democracy

We need a government that listens to us, and online discussion boards make that doable, at least for people that can get online. (We'll need other solutions for everyone else.)

Problem with conventional discussion boards is that it's hard to find the good stuff, and it's also very easy for a bad guy to disrupt the discussion, maybe to fake a consensus. We're hoping that can be solved with discussion boards which allow people to vote up the good stuff. That works if you have a lot of people getting involved.

With the new Federal Open Government Initiative, people have been experimenting with such a discussion board, IdeaScale, which might facilitate tens of millions of people working together. Now, government agencies will start to implement it broadly.

The big challenge... getting actual results from the government based on citizen feedback.

 

DonorsChoose for kids in South Carolina

I got a challenge going on DonorsChoose, focusing on a low-income school in South Carolina, just got another project done.

Remember, dollars are the easy part, underpaid teachers are doing the heavy lifting:

"I teach in a five year old kindergarten classroom. Most of our students come from low income families that do not have the funds for any extras, which unfortunately to many, means school supplies. Ninety three percent of our students receive free or reduced price lunches. Paper, scissors, glue, a... " MORE

"I teach in a five year old kindergarten classroom. Most of our students come from low income families that do not have the funds for any extras, which unfortunately to many, means school supplies. Ninety three percent of our students receive free or reduced price lunches. Paper, scissors, glue, and crayons are not one of their parents' highest priorities.

We have had MANY budget cuts over the last few months. We were told last week that all funds have been frozen and we will not be receiving any money for our consumables that we need to use every day."

A tree falls in the forrest...

A tree falls in the forrest;
I hear it;
Do I exist?

New SF area digital magazine from KALW

The folks at KALW, a local NPR station, is launching a local digital magazine which will complement their radio work.

Looks pretty good, so talk a look, help out by spreading the word, and maybe contribute.

As they say: Let your voice be heard by telling us your story, reporting on your community or by joining our street team.

Warrior Gateway coming soon; an intro

The Warrior Gateway will be one-stop shopping for the troops, real support, not just talk:

The Warrior Gateway Project is a unique multi-faceted effort designed to help members of the military community improve their quality of life and successfully reintegrate into their communities by connecting them to a network of private and not-for-profit programs. At the same time, this will help these service providers improve the quality, reliability and effectiveness of their programs.

It'll beta launch in days.

Here's an intro. This should really help out.

MEET - tech education for future Israeli and Palestinian leaders

MEET is an innovative educational nonprofit aimed at educating and empowering tomorrow's most promising Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Working together with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MEET's unique educational programs uses technology and business learning to develop a professional network between its excelling students while empowering them - individually and as a group - to create positive change within their own communities. 

Check out the video which explains this better.

Help us recruit the new MEET class 2010: meet.mit.edu/donate 

facebook: on FaceBook  or homepage: meet.mit.edu 

Local guy needs help getting water filtration systems to Haiti

Hey, the people there need clean water, but it's really hard getting the help they need.

Yobie Benjamin has water filtration systems ready to go, but needs a way to get 'em to Haiti.

Check out his blog, maybe you can help? Thanks!

Get real time Congress info

Hey, if you want the same info that high-priced lobbyists get, I recommend the Real Time Congress phone app from the Sunlight Foundation. Sunlight focuses on ways to show you how our government really works. (Not always pleasant seeing how the sausage is made.)

The deal is that these guys use information which is normally tough to get:

This app puts the actions, meetings and documents that make up the legislative process right at your fingertips. Whether you're a journalist, Hill staffer, blogger or just an interested citizen, this app will keep you up to date on what's happening in Congress right now. Another innovative app from the non-partisan, non-profit Sunlight Labs. Also check out our Android app for Congress!

Disclaimer: I'm on the board of Sunlight.

wehaveweneed.org -- getting help for Haiti and elsewhere?

The folks at crisiscommons.org and Crisis Camp are doing remarkable work, and the latest is wehaveweneed.org.

If people in a crisis area, like Haiti, need something, and you have it, it's a way to connect, really impressive work. It's also a good way people are using the Internet for mutual benefit.

The first Cherry Blossoms of Spring (Winter?)

Phoebe feeds babies

Experimenting with the craig-birdcam again

(Yes, I need to do it better, and this won't run all the time. /craig)

Federal IT projects always seem to be ineffective, expensive, and slowly done. On the other hand, projects using new software development tools and approaches seem to get the job done fast and cheap.

Part of the approach is to separate code and data, and to do the software using private/public partnerships, maybe informal ones like AppsForDemocracy and Hackathons.

For example, the Coburn-Obama bill mandated that the OMB build a database of government grants and contracts. Sunlight Foundation funded a nonprofit, OMB Watch, to build a similiar database, took 'em eight months and $320,000.

The Coburn-Obama bill allocated $12 million for it.

Turns out OMB purchased the OMB Watch software, which is the basis for USASpending.gov.

What do we learn from this?

Mother and chick resting comfortably, check out the Phoebe-cam.

Okay, I was at the thing last week, focusing on improving customer service, since that's what I do for a living.

My basic take was What gov't can learn from private industry.

Candi Harrison, a retired Federal web manager, offers a view from the inside.

Jesse Lee has a great summary, in the detail I'm not good at.

For me, the big deal is that everyone understands the need to focus on a culture of genuine customer service, not just talking about it, but really doing it. However, in any large group that kind of change is really difficult, for reasons no one really gets.

That applies to all large groups, private industry as well as gov't.

I feel that the cultural beachhead to make this happen is the internal "innovation initiative", where the rank and file of an organization get together, online, and work on what makes sense to fix things. People can vote up the good stuff. In a sense, this is a suggestion box, tied to a serious force multiplier.

What's needed is total commitment from management, including Deputy Secretaries, Secretaries, and this Barack guy. That is, employees figure out what needs to happen, from the bottom up, and then management supports it. Looks like it's starting to work at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

What I think I saw at the Forum is serious support for that.

Also, I think I volunteered for a new innovation initiative at the meeting, another Department.

More to come ...

"Dr. King once said that the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice. It bends towards justice, but here is the thing: it does not bend on its own. It bends because each of us in our own ways put our hand on that arc and we bend it in the direction of justice...."

(Paraphrased by a guy)

Earlier use of tech, to similar ends, include:

Martin Luther (printing press, paper, Church store-and-forward network)

Paul of Tarsus (epistles, paper, underground store-and-forward network)

Hey, really cool stuff is happening across the US, where technology people worked together to people useful tech for the people of Haiti.

Check out the story on serve.gov.

UPDATE: CNN now has the story.

Over two hundred volunteers are getting together to build useful systems to help out, working with the Sunlight Foundation and CrisisCamp.

“In the hours after the earthquake in Haiti, two primary observations within the tech community became clear," said Katie Stanton from the Department of State. "First, there are many well-intentioned projects in development by people all over the world - this information and these applications need to be consolidated so we can share it with those on the ground. The second is there is no central location for a need and have list –essentially a Craigslist for Haiti.”

This is a work in progress, a really good example of people working together, over the Net, to help others out.

Disclaimer: I'm on the board of Sunlight.

Hey, lots of IT people are working together to help out where computer skills are needed.

Check out the 2010 MLK Day Technology Challenge:

We are calling on educators and web professionals to join our new effort – the 2010 MLK Day Technology Challenge. The purpose is simple: to connect schools and non-profits that have technology needs, including skills training and mentorship, with web professionals, developers, graphic designers and new media professionals who are willing to volunteer their skills for the common good.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "Life's most persistent and urgent question is: what are you doing for others?” We ask that you answer his call in 2010 by participating in the MLK Technology Challenge.

Some of these projects can be completed on King Day – others might take longer. That’s perfectly okay. The heart and soul of this initiative is to start a dialogue around collaboration – so let’s use the MLK Day of Service as an opportunity to kick off this conversation with schools and nonprofits to let them know you want to help.

Note that the serve.gov site uses a widget from AllForGood.org, which is the "craigslist for service" that I've talked about. Check out an AllForGood search in my neighborhood.

The Move Your Money campaign is a really big deal.

The idea is simple: regular Americans can do their part to shift power from Wall Street to Main Street by moving their money from the Big Six banks and into a smaller, local, community bank or credit union that is more likely to treat them like people.

The big banks do over 97 percent of the risky derivatives business, and which took trillions in taxpayer money, only to return to bad behavior.

The added upside: the money is more likely to be reinvested in local communities rather than taken as profit.

Yesterday at the White House Forum on Modernizing Gov't, we heard about the social contract GetSatisfaction suggests between companies and customers.

Lots to contemplate, like:

Be human. Use a conversational voice...

Cultivate a dialog with customers...

You can also check out the pact wiki.

What are real lessons that Washington can learn from private industry? Here're a few observations, based on nineteen years of corporate life, followed by fourteen with a successful Internet company I founded. Most of those years were doing customer service, which is how I make a living now.

First, getting to the point, here's the gist, followed by brief explanation.

-- Put your customers first, for real, not just advertising and lip service.
-- Your rank-and-file employees already know how to run things much better; give them the technology to do so, then follow through, with serious commitment from the highest levels.
-- Track customer service issues using a problem "ticketing" system.
-- innovation rarely comes from big organizations; consider small skunkworks.
-- Mistakes will be made, and some efforts will failure. Accept that as normal.

Hey, that's the gist of everything here; you can stop reading unless you want backup info.

Overall, this is "business process re-engineering", or BPR. Talking about it was big in the late eighties, but management follow through, not so much.

Prior to joining IBM, I read what its founder, Tom Watson, had to say. That included something to the effect that if you put customers first, and honestly followed through with good customer service, you'd succeed. In the eighties I was with IBM when the company lost its way and lost lots of business. However, under good leadership, IBM found its way again and is now successful.

Late eighties, I was trained in process re-engineering, but far as I could tell, little or none was done. However, I remembered, and in the first years of my own venture, I had to practice it. Whenever some process started taking too much of my time, I simplified it, wrote some software to help me with it, and that really worked.

The gist of this is to figure out how you're really doing things, and find ways to do it better. In many cases, you find that you're doing things which used to make sense, but no longer do. Often you find shortcuts for situations that are very common.

However, in any large organization, the simple reality is that the people doing the real work know what's going on, and how to do better. In most situations, workers feel no one is listening, and/or no one in management will do anything.

The culture and attitude of the Internet changes all that. The deal is that people see that the Net is about working together for mutual benefit. We see that simple software can be used as a platform where we can work together in a very visible way.

The deal is that once an idea is proposed, other people see it and can improve upon it. This creates a surge of expectation that management will take a look and do something about it, if only because the discussion is so visible. The management alternative, to ignore all that feedback, is to progressively lose all moral legitimacy, and to fail. You need support from management to make this work, the boss needs to champion this approach and make it so.

Remember also that managment needs to visit rank-and-file people, talk to them directly, without local showboating or other filtering.

Turns out government workers have been quietly taking this approach for a few years, with little attention from the press; it's not dramatic enough to make the news.

For the most mundane of needs, local government has built 311 programs, which help get a pothole fixed or the garbage pick ed up. They're an emerging success in cities including New York and San Francisco.

This reflects what effective companies do, they using problem ticketing systems, where customers or employees can describe problems. That way, they can get problems fixed, tracking progress. In a sense, 311 systems are pretty much ticketing systems, simple, effective, if taken seriously.

City governments are going beyond that, advancing the DC city "apps for democracy" model, a kind of private/public partnership where city workers work with citizens to get you the kind of data you need to get through the day. For example, in SF I use a phone app to see when the next bus or subway is coming.

On the state level, a lot of exemplary customer service is being provided by Utah.gov, Virtual Alabama, and Georgia. The state of Georgia is doing remarkable work, changing their culture of customer service. The deal is that you can get what you need to get done, in the way that works for you, in person, on the phone or via the Net.

This way of doing things has gotten a lot of Federal workers excited, in large part via the Federal Web Managers Council. I'm most impressed by the Department of Veterans Affairs Innovation Initiative, which basically unleashes customer service people throughout the VA. People were asked for suggestions to better serve their customers, veterans. VA workers came through, and now management's working on making suggestions into reality.

(If you've noticed I'm heavily committed to this and related efforts, here's the deal.  If a guy is willing to take a bullet for me, I need to stand up. Far as I'm concerned, supporting the troops should be more than mere words.)

Finally, from Silicon Valley, two observations:

• There's something about large organizations that make it really hard for them to innovate. Try using small "skunkworks" of committed workers, and given them all the creative freedom possible.
• It's okay to make mistakes, and okay to fail, even expected. You learn from your mistake and try again. (I hear in government it's the opposite.)

You might reflect that a lot of this is everyday common sense, and you'd be right. Problem is that not much of it happens, since it involves management taking their rank-and-file seriously, and supporting them.

This requires a big culture change in government at all levels. It requires lots more flexibility from their lawyers and from Congress. It also requires that the press give people a break, and focus on the successful rebuilding of government, from the bottom up and from the inside.

It's inevitable now; Internet tools bring people together, and it's working.

Hey, Candi Harrison was a Federal web manager, and says some of the smartest stuff around regarding serious web site support, applicable to private industry as well as government.

check out Customer Service Standards Worth Living Up To:

When citizens want to find government information and services online, they should be able to:

1. Easily find relevant, accurate, and up-to-date information;
2. Understand information the first time they read it;
3. Complete common tasks efficiently;
4. Get the same answer whether they use the web, phone, email, live chat, read a brochure, or visit in-person;
5. Provide feedback and ideas and hear what the government will do with them;
6. Access critical information if they have a disability or aren’t proficient in English.

Those 6 standards show a real commitment to, and respect for, the citizen's point of view.

NY Times has new figure and update.

I got this from the State Department. They're doing some genuinely innovative work using tech to connect Americans to people everywhere, calling it "21st century statement", and it's for real.

More on their blog, Dipnote: A Disaster in Haiti and How You Can Help

From friends doing overseas work:

Haiti needs our help. Give via phone - text "HAITI" to "90999" to give $10 directly to Red Cross for disaster relief.

I've just done it.

A fast, cost-saving way for Federal software development?

Federal IT projects always seem to be ineffective, expensive, and slowly done. On the other hand, projects using new software development tools and approaches seem to get the job done fast and cheap.

Part of the approach is to separate code and data, and to do the software using private/public partnerships, maybe informal ones like AppsForDemocracy and Hackathons.

For example, the Coburn-Obama bill mandated that the OMB build a database of government grants and contracts. Sunlight Foundation funded a nonprofit, OMB Watch, to build a similiar database, took 'em eight months and $320,000.

The Coburn-Obama bill allocated $12 million for it.

Turns out OMB purchased the OMB Watch software, which is the basis for USASpending.gov.

What do we learn from this?

Phoebe first baby hatched!

Mother and chick resting comfortably, check out the Phoebe-cam.

One observation from the White House Forum on Modernizing Gov't

Okay, I was at the thing last week, focusing on improving customer service, since that's what I do for a living.

My basic take was What gov't can learn from private industry.

Candi Harrison, a retired Federal web manager, offers a view from the inside.

Jesse Lee has a great summary, in the detail I'm not good at.

For me, the big deal is that everyone understands the need to focus on a culture of genuine customer service, not just talking about it, but really doing it. However, in any large group that kind of change is really difficult, for reasons no one really gets.

That applies to all large groups, private industry as well as gov't.

I feel that the cultural beachhead to make this happen is the internal "innovation initiative", where the rank and file of an organization get together, online, and work on what makes sense to fix things. People can vote up the good stuff. In a sense, this is a suggestion box, tied to a serious force multiplier.

What's needed is total commitment from management, including Deputy Secretaries, Secretaries, and this Barack guy. That is, employees figure out what needs to happen, from the bottom up, and then management supports it. Looks like it's starting to work at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

What I think I saw at the Forum is serious support for that.

Also, I think I volunteered for a new innovation initiative at the meeting, another Department.

More to come ...

Martin Luther King re social networking via technology

"Dr. King once said that the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice. It bends towards justice, but here is the thing: it does not bend on its own. It bends because each of us in our own ways put our hand on that arc and we bend it in the direction of justice...."

(Paraphrased by a guy)

Earlier use of tech, to similar ends, include:

Martin Luther (printing press, paper, Church store-and-forward network)

Paul of Tarsus (epistles, paper, underground store-and-forward network)

Volunteers do tech to help out Haiti

Hey, really cool stuff is happening across the US, where technology people worked together to people useful tech for the people of Haiti.

Check out the story on serve.gov.

UPDATE: CNN now has the story.

Over two hundred volunteers are getting together to build useful systems to help out, working with the Sunlight Foundation and CrisisCamp.

“In the hours after the earthquake in Haiti, two primary observations within the tech community became clear," said Katie Stanton from the Department of State. "First, there are many well-intentioned projects in development by people all over the world - this information and these applications need to be consolidated so we can share it with those on the ground. The second is there is no central location for a need and have list –essentially a Craigslist for Haiti.”

This is a work in progress, a really good example of people working together, over the Net, to help others out.

Disclaimer: I'm on the board of Sunlight.

Help with the MLK day Technology Challenge

Hey, lots of IT people are working together to help out where computer skills are needed.

Check out the 2010 MLK Day Technology Challenge:

We are calling on educators and web professionals to join our new effort – the 2010 MLK Day Technology Challenge. The purpose is simple: to connect schools and non-profits that have technology needs, including skills training and mentorship, with web professionals, developers, graphic designers and new media professionals who are willing to volunteer their skills for the common good.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "Life's most persistent and urgent question is: what are you doing for others?” We ask that you answer his call in 2010 by participating in the MLK Technology Challenge.

Some of these projects can be completed on King Day – others might take longer. That’s perfectly okay. The heart and soul of this initiative is to start a dialogue around collaboration – so let’s use the MLK Day of Service as an opportunity to kick off this conversation with schools and nonprofits to let them know you want to help.

Note that the serve.gov site uses a widget from AllForGood.org, which is the "craigslist for service" that I've talked about. Check out an AllForGood search in my neighborhood.

Move Your Money

The Move Your Money campaign is a really big deal.

The idea is simple: regular Americans can do their part to shift power from Wall Street to Main Street by moving their money from the Big Six banks and into a smaller, local, community bank or credit union that is more likely to treat them like people.

The big banks do over 97 percent of the risky derivatives business, and which took trillions in taxpayer money, only to return to bad behavior.

The added upside: the money is more likely to be reinvested in local communities rather than taken as profit.

Contemplating the GetSatisfaction company/customer pact

Yesterday at the White House Forum on Modernizing Gov't, we heard about the social contract GetSatisfaction suggests between companies and customers.

Lots to contemplate, like:

Be human. Use a conversational voice...

Cultivate a dialog with customers...

You can also check out the pact wiki.

What gov't can learn from private industry

What are real lessons that Washington can learn from private industry? Here're a few observations, based on nineteen years of corporate life, followed by fourteen with a successful Internet company I founded. Most of those years were doing customer service, which is how I make a living now.

First, getting to the point, here's the gist, followed by brief explanation.

-- Put your customers first, for real, not just advertising and lip service.
-- Your rank-and-file employees already know how to run things much better; give them the technology to do so, then follow through, with serious commitment from the highest levels.
-- Track customer service issues using a problem "ticketing" system.
-- innovation rarely comes from big organizations; consider small skunkworks.
-- Mistakes will be made, and some efforts will failure. Accept that as normal.

Hey, that's the gist of everything here; you can stop reading unless you want backup info.

Overall, this is "business process re-engineering", or BPR. Talking about it was big in the late eighties, but management follow through, not so much.

Prior to joining IBM, I read what its founder, Tom Watson, had to say. That included something to the effect that if you put customers first, and honestly followed through with good customer service, you'd succeed. In the eighties I was with IBM when the company lost its way and lost lots of business. However, under good leadership, IBM found its way again and is now successful.

Late eighties, I was trained in process re-engineering, but far as I could tell, little or none was done. However, I remembered, and in the first years of my own venture, I had to practice it. Whenever some process started taking too much of my time, I simplified it, wrote some software to help me with it, and that really worked.

The gist of this is to figure out how you're really doing things, and find ways to do it better. In many cases, you find that you're doing things which used to make sense, but no longer do. Often you find shortcuts for situations that are very common.

However, in any large organization, the simple reality is that the people doing the real work know what's going on, and how to do better. In most situations, workers feel no one is listening, and/or no one in management will do anything.

The culture and attitude of the Internet changes all that. The deal is that people see that the Net is about working together for mutual benefit. We see that simple software can be used as a platform where we can work together in a very visible way.

The deal is that once an idea is proposed, other people see it and can improve upon it. This creates a surge of expectation that management will take a look and do something about it, if only because the discussion is so visible. The management alternative, to ignore all that feedback, is to progressively lose all moral legitimacy, and to fail. You need support from management to make this work, the boss needs to champion this approach and make it so.

Remember also that managment needs to visit rank-and-file people, talk to them directly, without local showboating or other filtering.

Turns out government workers have been quietly taking this approach for a few years, with little attention from the press; it's not dramatic enough to make the news.

For the most mundane of needs, local government has built 311 programs, which help get a pothole fixed or the garbage pick ed up. They're an emerging success in cities including New York and San Francisco.

This reflects what effective companies do, they using problem ticketing systems, where customers or employees can describe problems. That way, they can get problems fixed, tracking progress. In a sense, 311 systems are pretty much ticketing systems, simple, effective, if taken seriously.

City governments are going beyond that, advancing the DC city "apps for democracy" model, a kind of private/public partnership where city workers work with citizens to get you the kind of data you need to get through the day. For example, in SF I use a phone app to see when the next bus or subway is coming.

On the state level, a lot of exemplary customer service is being provided by Utah.gov, Virtual Alabama, and Georgia. The state of Georgia is doing remarkable work, changing their culture of customer service. The deal is that you can get what you need to get done, in the way that works for you, in person, on the phone or via the Net.

This way of doing things has gotten a lot of Federal workers excited, in large part via the Federal Web Managers Council. I'm most impressed by the Department of Veterans Affairs Innovation Initiative, which basically unleashes customer service people throughout the VA. People were asked for suggestions to better serve their customers, veterans. VA workers came through, and now management's working on making suggestions into reality.

(If you've noticed I'm heavily committed to this and related efforts, here's the deal.  If a guy is willing to take a bullet for me, I need to stand up. Far as I'm concerned, supporting the troops should be more than mere words.)

Finally, from Silicon Valley, two observations:

• There's something about large organizations that make it really hard for them to innovate. Try using small "skunkworks" of committed workers, and given them all the creative freedom possible.
• It's okay to make mistakes, and okay to fail, even expected. You learn from your mistake and try again. (I hear in government it's the opposite.)

You might reflect that a lot of this is everyday common sense, and you'd be right. Problem is that not much of it happens, since it involves management taking their rank-and-file seriously, and supporting them.

This requires a big culture change in government at all levels. It requires lots more flexibility from their lawyers and from Congress. It also requires that the press give people a break, and focus on the successful rebuilding of government, from the bottom up and from the inside.

It's inevitable now; Internet tools bring people together, and it's working.

"Customer Service Standards Worth Living Up To" for gov't and industry

Hey, Candi Harrison was a Federal web manager, and says some of the smartest stuff around regarding serious web site support, applicable to private industry as well as government.

check out Customer Service Standards Worth Living Up To:

When citizens want to find government information and services online, they should be able to:

1. Easily find relevant, accurate, and up-to-date information;
2. Understand information the first time they read it;
3. Complete common tasks efficiently;
4. Get the same answer whether they use the web, phone, email, live chat, read a brochure, or visit in-person;
5. Provide feedback and ideas and hear what the government will do with them;
6. Access critical information if they have a disability or aren’t proficient in English.

Those 6 standards show a real commitment to, and respect for, the citizen's point of view.

UPDATED: ($1.2 million so far) Help Haiti quake survivors via texting

NY Times has new figure and update.

I got this from the State Department. They're doing some genuinely innovative work using tech to connect Americans to people everywhere, calling it "21st century statement", and it's for real.

More on their blog, Dipnote: A Disaster in Haiti and How You Can Help

From friends doing overseas work:

Haiti needs our help. Give via phone - text "HAITI" to "90999" to give $10 directly to Red Cross for disaster relief.

I've just done it.