technology

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Networked homeland security as model for piracy issue

Monday, April 13th, 2009

Unaccustomed 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, 2009

As 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, 2009

Permit 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, 2008

AP 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, 2008

Spy 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, 2008

Once 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 […]

VITAL: IF BIN LADEN PLANS “THE BIG ONE” YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON THIS!

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

Get your attention with that subtle headline?
Apologies in advance for “shouting.” It’s just because OUR LIVES MAY DEPEND ON WHAT I’M ABOUT TO SAY. Also apologies in advance for the snippy tone of some of this: I’m just fed up with official stupidity and myopia about the issues that I’ve devoted my life to for […]

What I said about transparency on Federal News Radio

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

In case you weren’t able to tune in, this is what I said yesterday on Federal News Radio about transparency and the potential benefits to the Obama Administration.
IMHO, the critical thing is to not view transparency as an add-on program that people might fear would increase costs at a time of record deficits, but as […]

Please sign petition to require next bill be posted for 72 hours

Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

If you believe that transparency is a critical component in rebuilding public confidence in government, and that there’s at least a glimmer of a chance that you or I might actually have valuable insights to craft a better economic recovery act, I urge you to sign the Sunlight Foundation’s online petition. It tells Congress:
“Seven […]

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