technology
« Previous EntriesNew Weight Watchers formula: data in action
Monday, January 2nd, 2012The current issue of Wired has a great feature on the value of data that’s particularly timely as TV is flooded with ads for weight loss programs in the wake of holiday over-indulgence: how Weight Watchers dared to tamper with the success of its Points system.
It substituted Points Plus, which factored in some of the […]
My FCW op-ed harping again on empowering public in disasters
Sunday, July 10th, 2011Federal Computer Week has published an op-ed by me in which I once again get on DHS’s case for not making the public full partners in disaster and terrorism preparation and response because of the situational awareness that the combination of mobile devices (especially real-time smartphone video) and social media can present.
Yes, it’s nice that […]
Hmm. Could Iceland be ideal test for “Democratizing Data” concepts?
Sunday, July 10th, 2011I just got back from a delightful 17-day European vacation (marred only by the theft of my brand-new iPad from a hypothetically “locked” compartment on the overnight Paris-Venice train, while we were sleeping in it [how creepy is that?]. According to the Venice cops, this happens EVERY night: so why don’t they crack down on […]
Networked homeland security as model for piracy issue
Monday, April 13th, 2009Unaccustomed as I’ve become to blogging, I thought this was important enough to do a post…
Watching the coverage of the Maersk Alabama piracy incident, it seemed to me that conventional responses are ineffective because of the extreme asymmetrical aspect of the situation and because conventional treaty-based mutual defense approaches aren’t relevant on the high seas.
I […]
When it’s over, bet Vivek Kundra will be seen as good gov. hero!
Monday, March 16th, 2009As I said in my last post, I almost never blog any more.
However, I feel compelled to break my silence to let you know about the Vivek Kundra I know better than most — and trust implicitly!
As you may be aware, President Obama appointed him as the first U.S. CIO less than 2 weeks ago. […]
Why this blog is moribund, and why I believe what I’m doing instead is vital to the future
Saturday, February 21st, 2009Permit me to re-introduce myself. I used to write this blog.In fact, some of you may remember the days when I’d try to write 3-4 thoughtful posts a day. I like to think the result was pretty informative.But that was then, and this is now. Two things have happened in the six months that mean […]
FEMA once again blew it in Texas. Try Web 2.0-based process..
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008AP reports that there’s still a 30-mile long “scar of debris” along the Texas coast that “..stands as a festering testament to what state and local officials say is FEMA’s sluggish response to the 2008 hurricane season.”
According to state and local officials, it’s FEMA red tape that’s holding things up.
That reminds me of an […]
Spy makes it easy for authorities to monitor social media in disasters
Sunday, November 30th, 2008Spy is yet another app in the ever-expanding ecosystem spawned by Twitter (and to think that critics such as I used to pooh-pooh 140-character messages as of little importance… mea culpa, mea maxima culpa), and it makes it possible for authorities in crises such as the Mumbai attacks to monitor social media including Twitter, FriendFeed, […]
US officials must monitor, learn from use of Web 2.0 in Mumbai
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008Once again, the first news of the Mumbai attacks came not through the media, but through Twitter. India is extremely sophisticated in use of mobile devices, probably more so than is the case in the US, and many Indians are active users of Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and other mobile social networks. It’s imperative that […]
Sorry to leak the news, but big winner in Apps for Democracy contest is..
Thursday, November 13th, 2008… us — all of us.
If you haven’t been following it, the District of Columbia’s Apps for Democracy competition was created by the Office of the Chief Technology Officer to solicit open source apps to capitalize on the ever-growing range of structured data feeds that DC issues through its Citywide Data Warehouse, many of them […]
