Group items tagged

Watson, the computer that has recently been competing on Jeopardy, could eventually hold a position in Government. Technology like the such that is used in Watson could eventually help government municipalities with garnering and analyzing data and information and regurgitating back to people who need it. For instance, a person looking to gain a building license could tell the computer what it is planning on building, and instead of having to sift through possibly thousands of pages of information, the computer could simply return a checklist to the person.

This site shows government technology solutions for local and state governments. I was particularly drawn in by the article of about Watson, the Jeopardy game show computer contestant, and how this type of technology could be beneficial to government programs.

This article outlines 3 initiatives for open gov.from president government (transparency,collaboration,participation) but also takes an extensive look at the use of government websites overall

Government CIOs say that the iPad is making them more productive and efficient, and also has potential to change how technology is delivered to government employees and the citizens they serve. date e-published:  Nov. 16, 2010

This article is on how the public should be able to see government meetings and have access to government records. Technology is helping this happen.

"How American-Made Tech Helped Middle Eastern Governments Censor the Internet" A new Harvard University study details how American and Canadian companies provided Internet filtering and monitoring software to the Iranian government, Mubarak's Egypt and other repressive states. It's still going on.

The Apple iPad, one of apple's hottest sellers, is seeing frequent use by those in the government sector. With the seemingly endless amount of apps available for use with the iPad, many help government workers to become more efficient. The apps that are seeing the most use include twitter, quick office, evernote and flipboard. Twitter is helpful to disperse quick messages to others in the work place, and obviously has social networking benefits as well. Quick Office is seeing a lot of use as a microsoft office productivity tool. Evernote allows the user to take notes, record sound bytes, add pictures and video, and other helpful pieces of information into one "note" that is easily dispersed to others in one piece, together. Flipboard is presented almost as a "personal magazine", where feeds from social networking sites and other sites the user selects appear directly on the iPad's interface.

This article covers a major issue in net neutrality, an argument that will ultimately come down to the courts deciding whether the government can legitimately intervene in private business. The appeal from Verizon that challenges the recent adoption of net neutrality by the FCC was certainly expected. Either private businesses will win their appeal for less government regulation or our government will really begin to regulate service providers.

This article discusses why government is moving away from providing IT directly to its employees in exchange for identifying the proper services to empower employees. The government realizes that owning the equipment personally isn't paying off for them. This may be more true for the government than other sectors. The same changeover seems to be occurring in the nonprofit sector.

Although this article is a a couple years old I think it raises many good points in regards to the public sectors use of technology compared to that in the Business world. I think the author was correct in his assumptions that inefficiencies in the technology are in large part due to the lack of competition in the government. Perhaps, if the government were to do like the article suggests, and base their e-government procedures off of a business model than things may run a bit more easily.

This article discusses the changes the government will be making this year in order to stick with budget plans put in place. It also discusses the barriers of government technologies as well as what needs to be done to create more efficient and effective government technologies.

Technology news outside the U.S.

Facebook revised its terms and conditions regarding state and local governements. The revised conditions will allow for broader use of facebook throughout the government. Many individual agencies have created their own facebook pages and the new conditions have allowed for state and local governments to be more confident and assured in their use of facebook.

In an attempt to improve health care and reduce long-term expenses, the U.S. government is in the process of digitalizing patient medical records. There are arguments on both sides of the aisle with obviously complications for smaller physician practices. Even though this new system is working for the Mayo Clinic and other large health organizations, I'm skeptical that smaller non-profits will have the resources and correct strategies to make this transition with limited help from the government.

Key security issues still need to be addressed as IT is integrated into the nation's electricity infrastructure, according to a recent report released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). date: article e-published on January 17, 2011 by the News Staff of Government Technology.

Government officials have now started using facebook and twitter accounts. It helps people feel more connected and allows them to communicate outside the typical 8-4:30pm, M-F. An issue that arises is it can be an exhausting job for anyone, because it's 24/7. Once the newness of the accounts wear off, they might not be updated as much.

Article about government review of potentially costly It projects and there chance for success.

Article on government IT.

After seeing the tragedy that has hit Japan, I found this story to be useful as a great example of how tech can really affect people's lives. Google has provided a system where you can search the name of a person in Japan and find out about their status in the country after the earthquake. This tool is so important for government to use during a national disaster because it allows families, no matter where they are across the globe, to better find out what has happened to their loved ones after such a tragedy. Governments or non profits such as the American Red Cross can use this technology in all types of different relief effort circumstances when a number of people somewhere in the world have been the victim of such a disaster.

Intelligent Decisions Inc. is a great technology company that helps out the government.

President Barack Obama, the CEOs of Dell Inc. and IBM Corp came up with an agenda for the federal government that will end up saving one trillion dollars by 2020. Some of the ways they could save billions of dollars are by reducing energy use, consolidate IT infrastructure, streamline government supply chains, and by monetizing government assets. The administration is going to work on coporate tax structure and free trade. Obama said he will support this as long as the deficit is neutral.