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Washington Post
Inducement Prizes, Contests, and Challenge Awards
Wednesday, January 5th, 2011 - 10:41
Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - 09:36
Why? Because prizes are effective. Under the right circumstances, they can be more effective than traditional investments in research and development.
Lowery says: “After falling out of favor for decades, such high-publicity, fat-reward contest came into vogue again in the aughts in the wake of the 1996 Ansari X Prize for advances in commercial spaceflight” which Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne won in 2004.
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2253 recommendations
Global Austerity and Budget Updates
Friday, December 10th, 2010 - 16:28
Monday, December 13, 2010 - 11:21
We’ve talked about the age of austerity, and the kind of tough decisions ahead of us if we’re going to address the mounting debt while improving the performance of the government. In this week’s round up, I also wanted to share a few noteworthy articles about the same efforts to rein in spending for some countries in the European Union.
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1511 recommendations
It's Hard to Be Cool
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010 - 10:54
Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - 10:51
As the mid-term elections near, the debate over the size of government seems to be a hot button issue. Interestingly, the debate seems to have taken an unexpected turn. Two recent polls show a significant decrease in voters’ confidence in federal employees. According to a Politico-George Washington University-Battleground poll, confidence slipped from 75 percent in July 2009 to 66 percent in September 2010.
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851 recommendations
Regulatory Partnerships: Good or Bad? (Part 1)
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010 - 13:55
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 - 13:53
Three recent IBM Center reports present a different perspective, showing the value of regulatory partnerships. These reports offer lessons learned on how to create and effectively maintain regulatory partnerships so they don’t result in the failures highlighted in a penetrating Washington Post article “
2 comments
John,
There is an overlooked obstacle to improving compliance with regulations on safety, environment, drugs, and other issues. It is that, while the regulators are experts on their subject matter, too few have any experience on the public's side of the regulations (the receiving end). This lack of understanding of the business world, especially small business, leads them to write rules that the regulated do not understand. Similarly, with regards to benefit programs, the rules may be too difficult for potential beneficiaries to grasp. It brings to mind the Biblical injunction against putting a stumbling block before the blind. -- Ed Stern
JKamensky
Hi Ed - You're right! And what's timely is that the Senate passed the Plain Writing Act earlier this week. The House has already passed similar legislation. Maybe the two bills will be reconciled after Congress returns from the mid-term elections since support for this is bipartisan.
Asking citizens to voluntarily comply means they have to understand what they are to comply with!
John Kamensky
851 recommendations
Leadership Matters
Friday, January 15th, 2010 - 16:30
1 comments
Christian Brustlein
I appreciate such initiatives, to connect technology and governments in an attempt to face and eventually overcome the management challenges coming down the road.
923 recommendations
Debt Commission in the FY 2011 Budget?
Monday, January 4th, 2010 - 22:16
Late in December 2009, the Senate increased the federal debt limit to a record $12.4 trillion – boosting chances for the establishment of a bipartisan commission to look for ways to force Congress to make painful spending cuts and tax increases. The Washington Post reports that even though such commissions have had a mixed record in the past, 35 senators from both parties support creating a commission to for
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602 recommendations
Cutting Contractors
Monday, December 21st, 2009 - 21:53
OMB released a report today, “Acquisition and Contracting Improvement Plans and Pilots: Saving Money and Improving Government,” which follows up on its July 2009 directive that agencies trim 7 percent – about $40 billion -- from their contracting budgets over the next two years by improving their buying processes.
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1034 recommendations
Searching for a new Comptroller General
Monday, December 14th, 2009 - 21:16
According to the “Head Count” in today’s Washington Post, President Obama has filled 293 (56.9 percent) of his 515 Senate-confirmed positions. Curiously, one position the Washington Post does not track is the Comptroller General of the United States.
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778 recommendations
New OMB Program Evaluation Guidance
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 - 15:25
The Office of Management and Budget released new guidelines to agencies to increase their emphasis on conducting program evaluations. According to the Washington Post’s Ed O’Keefe in his article, “OMB Wants More Data on Government’s Performance,” OMB’s Jeff Zients told him: “We’re working to create a system that’s actually used by senior decision-makers.”
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1386 recommendations
Falling Behind on Appointments
Thursday, September 24th, 2009 - 19:31
According to the Washington Post’s Al Kamen, “President Obama's personnel operation, which got off to a record-breaking start early this year in filling top administration jobs, has stalled a bit in recent months. In fact, it's well behind the pace set by the Bush administration in 2001 for the top 500 or so administration jobs -- and time is quickly running out to close the gap.”
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802 recommendations