Digital Government
Telework Town Hall
<a href="http://twitter.com/wiredworkplace">Wired Workplace</a> has been trying to follow the <a href="http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23TeleworkTHM">Twitter updates</a> from Thursday's Telework Exchange town hall meeting, at which Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry and U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra were scheduled to speak, but surprisingly, there haven't been many tweets. Luckily, Alyssa Rosenberg at <em><a href="http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/2009/09/talking_telework_with_opm_dire.php">Government Executive</a></em> and Ed O'Keefe at <em><a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2009/09/berry_teleworking_sales_pitch.html">The Washington Post</a></em> have some details from the meeting.
Digital Government
Intellipedia Backers Receive Gov 'Oscar'
Two federal IT employees were honored on Wednesday evening for their efforts to promote information sharing across the intelligence community through the development and implementation of Intellipedia, a Wikipedia-like clearinghouse of intelligence experience.
Digital Government
Panel Passes Cyber Workforce Reform
The House Science and Technology's Research and Science Education Subcommittee passed <a href="http://science.house.gov/publications/hearings_markups_details.aspx?newsid=2602">legislation</a> on Wednesday that would strengthen the federal cybersecurity research and development portfolio by improving training for the IT workforce and facilitating better partnerships between the private sector and government. The bill would require federal agencies to create a roadmap detailing its role and the level of funding required to fulfill research objectives, and would require the National Science Foundation to support research on the social and behavioral aspects of cybersecurity.
Digital Government
Tech Industry Jobs Drop 2 Percent
While the U.S. high-tech industry shed 115,000 jobs between January and June 2009, a 1.9 percent decline, it still faired better than the overall private sector, according to a <a href="http://www.techamerica.org/Docs/fileManager.cfm?f=techamerica_cs_midyear_employment2009.pdf">report</a> released on Wednesday by the TechAmerica Foundation.
Digital Government
Students and Digital Diplomacy
The State Department has launched a new program that leverages the Internet and social media to conduct diplomatic missions. The program, called Virtual Student Foreign Service, is part of State's efforts to use technology and a commitment to service among young people to facilitate new forms of diplomatic engagement, according to the agency's <a href="http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/entries/virtual_student_foreign_service1/">Dipnote blog</a>.
Digital Government
Newmark Praises Federal IT Workers
Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.org, has a great <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-newmark/here-comes-gov-20----and_b_290766.html">piece</a> at The Huffington Post on how social media and Web 2.0 tools have changed the work dynamics of many federal employees, thus resulting in better levels of public service. "The challenge will be too many good ideas," he writes, asserting the need to break down the barriers to Gov 2.0 within agencies and get the word out on innovative Gov 2.0 projects government workers are putting in place.
Digital Government
OPM Kicks Off Annual Charity Drive
The Office of Personnel Management has kicked off the 2009 Combined Federal Campaign, the world's largest workplace giving campaign. OPM Director John Berry on Friday sent a <a href="http://www.chcoc.gov/Transmittals/TransmittalDetails.aspx?TransmittalId=2505">letter</a> to the Chief Human Capital Officers Council, stressing the importance of supporting the CFC as a means to show the American people who federal workers really are. "For over three decades, federal workers have been denigrated and maligned," Berry wrote. "These attacks have hurt recruitment, they've hurt retention, and ultimately, they impair our ability to serve the American people."
Digital Government
Generation V
There's an interesting <a href="https://www.collaborationjam.com/minijam2/jam/index.do?jamId=1746">conversation</a> going on at <a href="http://wiredworkplace.nextgov.com/2009/09/the_future_of_work.php">IBM's Smart Work Jam</a> about the concept of age being just a number when it comes to social networking and virtual worlds. "I've led groups of zealous, older managers into Second Life sessions, where a number of younger managers were less interested, and managers of all ages have opted into the online community that I launched for them," one commenter states.
Digital Government
CIO Council for Social Media Training
The Chief Information Officers Council has released a new <a href="http://www.cio.gov/Library/documents_details.cfm?id=Guidelines%20for%20Secure%20Use%20of%20Social%20Media%20by%20Federal%20Departments%20and%20Agencies,%20v1.0&structure=Information%20Technology&category=Best%20Practices">report</a> that provides guidelines and recommendations for federal agencies looking to adopt a safe and secure social media strategy. In addition to advising that agencies develop a social media policy and risk management program and assess potential threats to federal employees, infrastructure and information, the report emphasizes the importance of providing annual security awareness training to federal employees.
Digital Government
DHS Launches Web-Based HR Tool
The Homeland Security Department has launched a new IT platform that simplifies and accelerates its recruiting and hiring activities. The agency touts the tool, called TalentLink, as a means to help subcomponent agencies reduce their time to hire, improve the quality of candidate referrals and better manage and onboard new staff. The tool also uses electronic routing and approvals, automates the rating and ranking process and standardizes vacancy announcements using plain language.
Digital Government
The Future of Work
The IBM Center for the Business of Government this week is hosting on its Web site a <a href="https://www.collaborationjam.com/">Collaboration Jam</a>, which brings together business leaders, technologists and visionaries to discuss the future of work. Participants can weigh in on seven forward-looking discussion topics, including collaborative business process management, the future of teamwork, healthcare, the generational divide, and work in the year 2020. While participation in the online event is restricted, I thought I'd share some of the top buzzwords that IBM has compiled using a text-mining tool:
Digital Government
Tech Touted in Clearance Reform
The Office of Personnel Management has increased the efficiency in which the government completes security clearances, completing 90 percent of background investigations in an average of 37 days, the agency's director told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs federal workforce subcommittee on Tuesday. In 2005, the average time needed to obtain a Top Secret security clearance was in excess of one year, Berry said, while today it is only 72 days.
Digital Government
IT Leadership Awards
Consulting firm (ISC)2 on Tuesday announced the final nominees for its sixth annual Government Information Security Leadership Awards. The awards honor individuals who have significantly enhanced the information security workforce by demonstrating a leadership role in any information security workforce improvement initiative, program or project on either a government-wide or agency-specific basis. The program recognizes IT workers from each of the following categories:
Digital Government
Managing Your Online Reputation
Nearly half of U.S. human resources professionals are using social networks to research job candidates at least occasionally, according to a new <a href="http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007268">survey</a> by Harris Interactive and CareerBuilder.com. The survey found that HR professionals were most likely to use search engines such as Yahoo! or Google to research candidates online (41 percent), followed by Facebook (29 percent) and LinkedIn (26 percent).
Digital Government
Top Tools for Collaboration
Computerworld <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9137915/Forrester_Desktops_rule_smartphones_don_t">highlight</a>s a recent <a href="http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,55268,00.html#heading3">report</a> by Forester Research that examined how American workers make use of computers, smart phones and key productivity and collaboration tools at work.
Digital Government
OPM Proposes Benefit Changes
The Office of Personnel Management on Monday released proposed regulations that would expand the definition of "family member" for purposes of determining leave and long-term care benefits. The regulations, published in the Federal Register, would <a href="http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-22030.pdf">modify definition</a>s of "family member" and "immediate relative" for determining use of sick leave, funeral leave, voluntary leave transfer, voluntary leave bank and emergency leave transfer.
Digital Government
OPM Spotlights CIO's Role
Chris Dorobek <a href="http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=43261&dcn=todaysnews">reports</a> on FederalNewsRadio.com on a memo from Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry that gives the incoming OPM Chief Information Officer greater visibility and authority within the agency. The move comes as OPM looks to finalize its 2010 strategic plan, which is <a href="http://wiredworkplace.nextgov.com/2009/07/opm_plan_goes_public.php?oref=search">currently open for public comment</a>.
Digital Government
Retirement Roundup
Alex Parker's <a href="http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?filepath=/dailyfed/0909/091009pb.htm">Pay & Benefits Watch column</a> highlights several pieces of legislation affecting federal employees that Congress left unresolved at the end of July. Meanwhile, Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., on Wednesday sent a letter to House conferees participating in negotiations regarding the fiscal 2010 Defense Authorization bill (<a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:h.r.02647:">H.R. 2647</a>), urging them to retain the federal employee provisions included in the House-passed version of the bill.
Digital Government
Plugging the Generation Gap
<em>Psychology Today</em> has some <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-success/200909/why-are-you-not-me-the-generational-gap-in-the-workplace">useful advice</a> about what employers and managers should know and do to address generational differences in the workplace, especially as the economy recovers. Because of the impact of the recession, the article states, a large portion of Generation Y entering the workforce combined with the refusal of Baby Boomers to take retirement has dramatically shifted the combination of the workforce.
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