New Technology to help with Transparency 

Application of New Information Technology to the Transparency Objective
of the Open Government Directive

While the Open Government Directive offers an unprecedented challenge to Federal Agencies, information technology is now available to assist Agencies in achieving the Transparency objective of the Directive in a rapid, cost-effective manner. Throughout the Directive, the need to proactively provide easy to use, effective, and comprehensive, yet controlled access to Agency information is emphasized. Various references from the Directive emphasizing this theme include:

• 1.b. To the extent practicable and subject to valid restrictions, agencies should publish information on-line in an open format that can be retrieved, downloaded, indexed, and searched by commonly used web search applications. An open format is one that is platform independent, machine readable, and
made available to the public without restrictions that would impede the re-use of that information.
• 1.c. To the extent practical and subject to valid restrictions, agencies should proactively use modern technology to disseminate useful information, rather than waiting for specific requests under FOIA.
• 1.e.ii. In cases where the agency provides public information maintained in electronic format, a plan for timely publication of the underlying data. This underlying data should be in an open format and as granular as possible, consistent with statutory responsibilities and subject to valid privacy,
confidentiality, security, or other restrictions. Your agency should also identify key audiences for its information and their needs, and endeavor to publish high-value information for each of those audiences in the most accessible forms and formats.
• 3.a.i. A strategic action plan for transparency that ... (3) identifies high value information not yet available and establishes a reasonable time-line for publication online in open formats ...

Communicating the nature of the extraordinary impact upon the Transparency challenge offered by the new technology is best achieved with presentation of the problem, the opportunity, and the solution...

The Problem
For decades the information technology industry has refined our ability to house and retrieve information that is stored on computers in a clearly formatted manner that is generally referred to as structured data. Structured data has ample context associated with its format to allow the computer to present, manipulate, and retrieve it in virtually any manner we have
imagined. We even have tools that permit us to retrieve our structured data in ways not preimagined nor pre-defined, but in an ad hoc manner.

Although the amount of structured information housed within our computer systems continues to increase, it is proportionately decreasing as a subset of the total universe of computer housed information. Certainly there are advantages to housing this ever increasing volume of unstructured information. However, information, like memory, is only of value if it can be
retrieved when needed. Historically, the only way we have been able to retrieve unstructured data is by directly associating it with structured metadata that is created solely for the purpose of more easily locating unstructured data objects. The cost of producing this metadata is high
and it is not a comprehensive solution to the problem of finding our unstructured data. Thus we are left with a situation that allows us to properly manage and expose only a relatively small amount of the information we have collected on our computer systems, as we are not
able to manage unstructured information as handily as we would like.

The Opportunity
Recent advances in separate areas of information technology are enabling an extraordinary convergence of technological innovation that is of significant relevance to the Transparency challenge of the Open Government Directive. Automated text recognition within images and within speech has significantly improved in its ability to discern language from otherwise unstructured media, from standard sheets of paper, to voice recordings, and to multimedia, in general. Meanwhile the explosion of the internet has brought with it the ability to crawl, index, and search through enormous volumes of search-able text.

Unfortunately, not all text is inherently search-able. For text to be search-able on a computer, it must be encoded in a form that is discernible by the computer, such as ASCII, EBCDIC, etc. However, much of our burgeoning information is stored in bit-mapped formats that can be rendered as imagetext and readable to humans, but alas, is not understandable as text to a
computer, and thus is not search-able. As with an iceberg, we can clearly see the tip of the enterprise's universe of information in the form of structured data. But, as the largest volume of the iceberg residing below the water
line is not clearly visible, so too, is our transparency unstructured data limited. Thanks to the advances in search engine technology that can be applied to any search-able data, i.e. encoded text, we are able to readily peer below the water line and have transparency to a large portion of the information iceberg.

However, there is still a very large portion of the iceberg that is not transparent. Enormous volumes of information are buried in computer files such as images, sound, and video. While the information in these files is render-able to a sighted or non-hearing impaired human, we cannot readily apply our new tools such as search and analytic engines to this vast
information resource. With the convergence of advances in automated recognition and text based tools, the potential exists to tap into vast reservoirs of knowledge and make use of the entire information iceberg. If only we had the remaining pieces to bring to bear these incredible
technologies to our unstructured data repositories.

The Solution
Applying these convergent technologies to our Transparency challenge still requires certain incremental advances...

• Automatic recognition of key words needs to be just a little better to get that last percentage of recognition,
• Automated recognition is extremely computer processor intensive, and thus cannot be done in real time. In fact, its application to large volumes is a challenge in scalability.
• The quantum leap in available information that is theoretically possible is incredibly powerful and for that reason must be done in the context of important privacy and security considerations,
• For universal applicability, open standards and formats are required.
Using our decades of experience managing unstructured data and some recent patent pending innovations we, at SYSCOM, Inc., have developed a complete solution to addressing all of the above issues. SYSCOM's Imagetext Business Intelligence Gateway (IBIG) can produce comprehensive Transparency to all of the information within the “information iceberg”, in a manner that is secure, open, and scalable.

SYSCOM's IBIG solution directly addresses the President's Open Government Directive by using modern technology to expose and disseminate useful information to the general public and other federal agencies. As the demand for more government transparency grows SYSCOM's IBIG solution can lead the way. Please consider the use of IBIG to support your Open Government Initiative.

Poll the leadership if this initiative made a difference  

Poll the leadership if this idea scale initiative made a difference to thier view of open government consultations? Were any of those previously against or bored or forced into this discussion won over, or hear a valuable suggestion or important information? Any converts to the cause? Are there more or less on board or is it status quo ante?

Respect for the public service matters 

Keep working on Administrative & Civil Service Reform because there is a link between Perceived Corruption and Low Public Respect. Because respect for the public service matters.
Low public respect for the public service is more than the response of disappointed consumers to an inadequate level of service. Government is more than a service provider; and finding the right balance between skepticism and confidence in government will always be difficult. Certainly, though, very low confidence and widespread cynicism about the performance of government can have pernicious consequences, undermining democratic institutions and reducing the attractiveness of the public service as a career to those with talent. Survey evidence has shown some troubling signs that public cynicism about the public service is increasing. However, the picture is distinctly nuanced.
The public in many countries appears to be expressing more disillusionment with the performance of politicians than of the permanent civil service. Research in the USA on trust in government has highlighted that public confidence in government and the image of the public sector are inextricably linked (Kamarck 1998). Clearly, the public's negative view of political wrongdoing has a spill-over effect on the reputation of public servants.
Survey data indicate that citizens oftentimes have more confidence in public servants than in politicians. Still, there is only modest comfort in this finding. Citizens tend to rate the ethical standards of both public servants and politicians less highly than other professions. In Canada, for example, 87% of citizens have a high trust in nurses, compared to 46% for business leaders, 30% for federal public servants, and 13% for politicians (Ekos Research Associates, "Rethinking Government," March 1999). The same survey found 83% of Canadians rank the ethical standards of NGO volunteers as high, compared to 65% for small business people, 42% for public servants, and 17% for politicians.
The incentives for media to emphasize critiques in their reporting of government, rather than POLICITCAL PERSONALITIES and the problem of scale whereby relatively small government payment errors can be presented as huge dollar amounts both fuel public cynicism, reinforcing a genuine sense of a performance deficit in government. Yet, the failure to identify specific services when surveying public opinion can also produce survey results that suggest an unrealistically low evaluation of government service quality. Some recent research in Canada undertaken by the Canadian Centre for Management Development has shown that Canadians rate the quality of many government services as high or higher than private sector services. Citizens understand that government has a more difficult role than the private sector, balancing efficiency with the public interest. Nevertheless, Canadians expect the quality of government services to be as high or higher than that of private sector services. Indeed, 95% of Canadians believe that, compared to the private sector, government should provide higher (42%) or about the same (53%) level of service.
Public concern about corruption
A common definition of corruption is "the abuse of public office for private gain." Clearly, corruption (both political and bureaucratic) can have a devastating social and economic impact. The recent World Bank report "Anticorruption in Transition: Confronting the Challenge of State Capture" has usefully distinguished between state capture and administrative corruption. "State capture" refers to the actions of individuals, groups or firms both in the public and private sectors to influence the formation of laws, regulations, decrees and other government policies to their own advantage as a result of the illegal transfer or concentration of private benefits to public officials." By contrast, "administrative corruption" refers to the intentional imposition of distortions in the prescribed implementation of existing laws, rules and regulations to provide advantages to either state or non-state actors as a result of the illegal transfer or concentration of private gains to public officials."
In absence of hard data (in virtually all countries) on the connection between perceived corruption and low public respect for public servants, proxy measures can be helpful. Among these measures, as noted above, are citizens' views on service quality, their trust in public servants, and their perception of public servants' contributions to the well-being of society. While country-specific data of this kind are useful for diagnosing the reasons for low public respect for public servants, cross-national data also help to illuminate the diagnosis in individual states. For example, the 1990 World Values Surveys showed that 56 percent of Americans had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the public service compared to 50 percent in France, 49 percent in Canada, 47 percent in Britain, 30 percent in Japan, and 27 percent in Italy. Other measures of public and business concern about state capture and administrative corruption can be found in investor risk ratings and in the World Business Environment Survey.
Improving perceptions of the public service
There is abundant anecdotal evidence that the public’s respect for government is eroded by political and bureaucratic corruption. Available evidence and common sense suggest that reducing official corruption can enhance respect for government. Canadian research concludes that citizens’ assessments of service quality are determined primarily by five factors: timeliness, knowledge and competence of staff, courtesy/comfort, fair treatment, and outcome. The Institute of Public Administration of Canada has developed these ideas through dialogue with public officials and community groups into a set of practical proposals for rebuilding trust in the public service. Initiatives to enhance public respect for public service are likely to enhance public servants’ respect for themselves, and are thus likely to improve their morale and performance.
Governments around the world have adopted new organizational forms and new management approaches, partly in the belief that improved performance in policymaking and service delivery will enhance the public's perception of government. The ability of the public service to perform at a level sufficient to enhance its public image depends significantly on the quality of its human resource management, especially in the areas of recruitment and retention, reward and recognition, and employee empowerment. The public's trust in public servants is likely to be higher if the public service is perceived to be non-partisan and professional rather than politicized.
Politicians often criticize publicly the performance of public servants; yet a high level of trust between politicians and public servants is essential to better public service performance through innovative and risk-taking behavior.
The public service faces a huge public relations challenge. Research indicates that most citizens are happy with their individual contacts with public servants, but that many of these citizens still have a negative view of the "bureaucracy" as a whole. Ways must be found to dispel the myths about the public service and to promote its successes. In particular, politicians, business people and the media must take the lead in developing collaborative arrangements that will help to restore and enhance public respect for the public service. These partnerships can also be invaluable to attract and keep high-quality employees, improve rewards and recognition for public servants (including proper compensation), encourage greater acceptance of innovation and responsible risk-taking, enhance politicians' appreciation for public employees, and help the media to understand the nature and challenges of public service.
Recommended websites:
• European Group of Public Administration - Working group II: Quality and Productivity in the Public Sector
• Internet Center for Corruption Research
• Partnership for Trust in Government (U.S.A.)
• SIGMA/Transparency International Anti-Corruption Directory
• Transparency International Documents and Publications
• The Transparency International Source Book
• The World Bank Group. Voices of the Poor
• Website of the research project: "Citizen directed government: quality and trust in government"
Recommended readings: (general)
• Didier, Jean-Pierre. "Reaffirming Ethics and Professionalism in the French Public Service." International Review of Administrative Sciences 64, pp. 565-581.
• Quah, Jon S. T. 1997. "Singapore's Experience in Curbing Corruption." In Arnold J. Heidenheimer, et. al., eds., New Political Corruption: A Handbook. 4th ed. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers.
• Hellman, Joel S., Geraint Jones, Daniel Kaufmann, and Mark Schankerman. 2000. "Measuring Governance, Corruption, and State Capture: How Firms and Bureaucrats Shape the Business Environment in Transition Economies." World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 2312. World Bank, Washington, D.C.
• Hellman, Joel S., Geraint Jones, and Daniel Kaufmann. 2000. "Seize the State, Seize the Day: State Capture, Corruption and Influence in Transition." World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 2444. World Bank, Washington, D.C.
• Klitgaard, Robert. "Cleaning Up and Invigorating the Civil Service." Public Administration and Development 17(5): 487-509.
• Kernaghan, Kenneth and John Langford. 1990. The Responsible Public Servant. Halifax: Institute for Research on Public Policy and Toronto: Institute of Public Administration of Canada.
• Mason, Gillian. 2000. Just and Honest Government - International Experience. Toronto: CAPAM.
• Mbaku, John Mukum. 2000. Bureaucratic and Political Corruption in Africa: The Public Choice Perspective. Krieger Publishing.
• Mbaku, John Mukum. 1998. "Corruption and the Crisis of Institutional Reforms in Africa." African Studies 47.
• OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). 1998. "Improving Ethical Conduct in the Public Service." Paris: OECD/PUMA.
• OECD/PUMA. 1997. "Managing Government Ethics." PUMA Policy Brief. OECD, Paris.
• OECD/PUMA. 1998. "Principles for Managing Ethics in the Public Service: OECD Recommendation." PUMA Policy Brief No. 4. OECD, Paris.
• Rijckeghem, Caroline van. 1997. "Corruption and the Rate of Temptation: Do Low Wages in the Civil Service Cause Corruption?" IMF Working Paper WP/97/73. Research Dept., IMF, Washington, D.C.
• Roberts, Robert. 1991. "The Public Integrity Quagmire." In Carolyn Ban and Norma M. Riccucci eds., Public Personnel Management: Current Concerns - Future Challenges. New York, Longman.
• Tulchin, Joseph S., and Ralsh H. Espach, eds. 2000. Combating Corruption in Latin America. Princeton: Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson Center.
Recommended readings: (public respect)
• Haque, Shamsul. forthcoming (March 2001). "Pride and Performance in the Public Service: Three Asian Cases." International Review of Administrative Sciences 67(1).
• Kamarck, Elaine C. 1998. "Why People Don't Trust Government and What It Means to Public Relations Professionals", speech presented October 19, 1998 in Boston at the International Conference of the Public Relations Society of America (Public Affairs & Government Section)
• Kernaghan, Kenneth. 2000. "Rediscovering Public Service: Recognizing the Value of an Essential Institution." Toronto: Institute of Public Administration of Canada.
• Jenei, Gyorgy, and Gabor Zupko. forthcoming (March 2001). "Public Performance in a New Democratic State: The Hungarian Case." International Review of Administrative Sciences 67(1).
• Olowu, Dele. forthcoming (March 2001). "Pride and Performance of African Public Services: An Analysis of Institutional Breakdown and Rebuilding Efforts in Nigeria and Uganda." International Review of Administrative Sciences 67(1).
• Western Australia, Office of the Auditor General "Public Confidence in the Public Sector."
Recommended readings: (corruption and development)
• Elliott, Kimberly Ann, ed. 1997. Coruption and the Global Economy. Institute for International Economics.
• Gray, Cheryl W. and Daniel Kaufmann. 1998. "Corruption and Development." In New Perspectives on Combating Corruption. Washington, D.C.: World Bank; Berlin: Transparency International.
• Hope, Kempe R., and Bornwell C. Chikulo, eds. 1999. Corruption and Development in Africa: Lessons from Country Case Studies. St. Martin's Press.
• Mauro, Paolo. 1996. "The Effects of Corruption on Growth, Investment, and Government Expenditure." IMF Working Paper WP/96/98. Policy Development and Review Dept., IMF, Washington, D.C.
• Tanzi, Vito. 1995. "Corruption, Governmental Activities, and Markets." Finance and Development 32 (December): 24-26.
• Robinson, Mark, ed. 1998. Corruption and Development. Frank Cass and Co.

Incivility in the workplace: Taking on Workplace Bullying  

Incivility in the workplace: Taking on Workplace Bullying to Improve Efficiency
Innovation: It is clear that psychological aggression is both common in workplaces and harmful to individuals and organizations. An emerging line of research examines organizational responses to allegations of bullying and mobbing. As a result, some researchers now identify processes for detecting, correcting, and preventing bullying and mobbing. Strategies to improve the quality of working life such as surveillance, policy development, training, coaching, and the development of selection, performance management, and reward systems that set standards for collaborative and supportive behavior at work are all necessary to move organizations, including DOL toward eliminating tolerance of bullying and mobbing. Interpersonal mistreatment in the workplace has been examined as a growing problem. The incidence, targets, instigators, and impact of incivility (e.g., disrespect, condescension, degradation) have been examined. Data were collected from 1,180 public-sector employees, 71% of whom reported some experience of workplace incivility in the previous 5 years. As many as one third of the most powerful individuals within the organization instigated these uncivil acts. Both genders experienced similarly negative effects on job satisfaction, job withdrawal, and career salience. Uncivil workplace experiences were also associated with greater psychological distress. The Department of Labor can improve efficiency by improving this situation by training managers on the issue and making them accountable for thier own behavior and those they manage.

A PERFECT STORM FOR TELEWORK ADOPTION  

A PERFECT STORM FOR TELEWORK ADOPTION
Innovation: New legislative leadership – the Telework Improvements Act of 2008, requires the head of each executive agency to establish Telework policies, make Teleworking available to any employee who might be eligible, and appoint a Telework Managing Officer. Executive branch agencies are required to establish policies for employees to participate in Telework programs to the maximum extent possible without diminishing employees’ performance. This act pushes the envelope by directing agencies to elevate the roles of those who lead Telework initiatives. DEEOIC at DOL is uniquely positioned to contribute to this effort with its Hearing Officers. Telework is now at the front and center in every agency – and should lead to greater awareness and more frequent and successful Telework programs. HR 4106 is very similar to S.1000, a 2007 Senate initiative that also deals with Telework. Consider the five major drivers: 1. The rampant rise of fuel and energy costs, which, in 2008, have become burdensome to governmental agencies and their employees no less than they have to the corporate and consumer sectors. 2. Human capital issues, such as the need to exhibit new flexibility around work/life balance in order to retain an aging workforce by making career extension attractive and to attract new workers (vs. alternative opportunities in the private sector). Connected to this is increased mobility, which results from changing technology and tools that enable knowledge workers to work whenever and wherever they need to. 3. Continuity of Operations planning and Pandemic Influenza planning are now on the radar screens of many agencies. At least 42% of federal agencies had fully integrated Telework into emergency planning as of the end of 2007. 4. New legislative leadership. 5. Heightened awareness of global warming and the need to understand one’s carbon footprint, based on new scientific data on the impact of carbon emissions. Some argue that the biggest barriers to Telework have to do with office coverage; others obstacles include: change management, organizational culture, and management resistance. One additional frequently cited barrier to Telework adoption is IT security. Fortunately, a number of new – or newly converged – technologies that come under the umbrella term unified communications (UC) are now available. Also telecommuting can be done partially, it is not an all or nothing initiative. Thus, it is time for Telework to be mainstreamed in the federal government into a fully accepted and acceptable practice. Mangers who have resisted it should be measured on their ability to overcome their resistance and implement it successfully. Unions are on board as well. To implement Telework requires a core set of technologies, including high-speed Internet access and secure access to an applications suite that includes e-mail and team workspaces, Instant Messaging (IM) and Voice over IP (VoIP) or business line phone (preferably integrated with the organization’s PBX), and web / desktop video conferencing. Telework can transform a governmental agency, helping it meet its organizational mission, become more nimble and responsive to its constituencies, save taxpayer dollars, achieve greater productivity, provide greater work/life balance for employees, and achieve greater employee retention. The United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) is considered by some to be the poster child for Telework in the Federal government and could be a model for DEEOIC and its hearing officers. This 9,000 employee agency within the Department of Commerce is responsible for processing patent and trademark applications. Approximately 53% of positions at the USPTO are eligible for Telework and approximately 85% of those eligible indeed are teleworking. In fact, over 1,000 patent examiners work from home 4 days per week, The USPTO’s Patent Hoteling program will enable USPTO to hire 7,200 new patent examiners over the next six years. At the same time, 85% of the agency’s trademark examining attorneys also Telework. The agency gets the benefit of a viable plan for COOP in the event of pandemics of other disasters. USPTO can add over 1,000 examiners a year without securing additional real estate or parking facilities. PTO also has an organizational culture with an emphasis on pilots and on training. Pilots allow the agency to generate the metrics necessary to understand what is working and what is not, and compare between programs. Performance management is crucial, with clearly defined performance guidelines for 80 hour bi-weekly periods. Training – both non-IT and IT-based – can consist of a few days to up to two weeks. This would work for DOL too. Teleworking employees could be required to come into the office from once a week to once a month, depending on what works. At the NSF, the union contributed to the viable telecommuting program. Some middle managers sometimes question the value of Telework because their particular workplace culture, personal experience with technology or management philosophy that they must manage by physical observation instead of work results. Telework requires a slightly different set of management techniques, and attitudes. The tools and best practices exist to make it a manageable, effective practice. The benefits of Telework can be found at the agency level, at the employee level, and at the community level. Specific agency and employee benefits, which overall contribute to increased productivity, lower costs, and higher employee satisfaction, include: Begins the process (if a new program) of preparing for H.R. 4106 and other likely pending legislation. Ability to optimize individual schedules outside of the traditional 8-hour workday to accommodate distributed workforces (off-hour meetings, 24/7 coverage, etc). Acceptance of management by objectives, not by time clock. Transformation into a 24 x 7 culture, leading to improved agility and enhanced continuity of operations. Improved responsiveness by working issues after traditional business hours and improving communications between staff. Less downtime due to inclement weather, traffic congestion / road construction, and sick days. Elimination of commuting time and reduction in wear-and-tear travel. Permitting employees to set their own schedules so they can optimize their work/life balance by managing priorities, becoming more productive. One human resource consultant estimates that employers on average lose $789 in payroll per employee per year because of emergency time off. That means employers with as few as 20 employees lose nearly $16,000 per year, while large employers with more than 2,000 workers suffer losses in excess of $1.5 million. And those figures don't take into account the cost of lost productivity or the overtime pay needed to pay others to pick up the slack.10 Federal agencies are no less vulnerable to the expenses induced by emergency employee time off than are private sector employers. Telework is not a siloed initiative, but in fact one that touches many functional areas across an organization. Costs are reduced; resources are made available more quickly; decisions are made more rapidly; services to the public are delivered more quickly; employees are enthusiastic, responsive, and energized. Policy will vary from agency to agency. One of the benefits of the various technologies available to enable Telework is that they can be customized to address divergent needs based on agency, management, and worker needs. The traditional definition of Telework emphasized its potential for travel and transportation savings: any form of substitution of information technologies (such as telecommunications and/or computers) for normal work-related travel. This definition has evolved forward to include benefits that go far beyond traditional travel and transportation savings: the substitution of information technologies for normal work-related travel and its use to bridge the gap between distributed workers, their work, and each other. Considering the myriad branches, functions, and purposes of government – and its impact on all walks of life – Telework is only now beginning to work its way more deeply into governmental agencies. At the United States federal level, more than 110,000 employees out of 1.8 million workers (6.12%) officially teleworked in 2006, according to the United States Office of Personnel Management.1 The Department of Defense was the leader in total numbers, followed by NASA, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Treasury, and Agriculture. DOL is ready to take the initiative.

Government IT Cost Optimization: What Works Best 

Government IT Cost Optimization: What Works Best
Innovation: This overview provides government executives with a view of what initiatives they could pursue, and at what cost and risk, as part of their cost optimization programs. Survey results highlight that consolidation and virtualization of hardware infrastructure have generated cash savings of between 10% and 15% for those organizations that have already implemented them. However, the implementations encountered significant organizational resistance and, on average, took more than 12 months. Agencies should not focus on initiatives that require less organizational change, such as deferring replacement cycles and hiring internally, more cost optimization is found in contract consolidation, virtualization of hardware, IT process improvements and productivity tools, such as videoconferencing, which produces more long-term rewards. Cost optimization initiatives available to CIOs: IT cost optimization initiatives include those that are easier to deploy, but risk bearing fruit only in the very short term, such as deferring replacement cycles, which defers the cash outflow to subsequent fiscal years. Federal government departments should continue to focus more heavily on long-term measures; for example, by consolidating contracts. IT procurement initiatives: Governments that want to pursue these initiatives should look at national government agencies; for example, the General Service Administration in the U.S., that have been charged for a few years with setting up consolidated contract vehicles aimed at capturing bigger discounts. Governments should avoid the pitfalls of those arrangements, such as overly aggressive price discount targets and little attention paid to after-sale delivery and maintenance services. IT cost-saving initiatives: Virtualization was one of the preferred IT cost-saving initiatives in the past 12 months at all levels of government. No federal government agency has implemented open-source desktop software. This could be explained by more-widespread use of framework contracts with global software vendors at the national level; for example, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security recently converted more than 487,000 Microsoft licenses into one, covering software and maintenance, resulting in a cost savings of $87.5 million over six years. A large percentage of both federal and state governments plan to pursue IT process improvement in the next 12 months; agencies that want to pursue these programs should consider the current level of skills of their workforce and the training investment that will be required Joint IT and business cost-saving initiatives: Federal government was the early implementers of technology tools, such as videoconferencing, teleworking and employee self-service, that can reduce the cost of conducting business by increasing people productivity. Initiatives that enable innovation and business restructuring: Federal government plan to invest in standard administrative applications, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP). Those initiatives are particularly challenging when implemented enterprisewide across multiple departments and complemented by centralized back-office service provisioning. Lessons could be learned from early experiences in the state of Delaware (and the commonwealth of Massachusetts in the U.S.

Telework: the other fuel, the extra bonus 

Telework: the other fuel, the extra bonus
Innovation: Agencies are struggling to inculcate cultures of performance. Telework might not solve all the federal government's workforce ills, but it's providing relatively cheap and easy relief for agencies struggling to make themselves more resilient and performance-oriented. There’s no denying that increased attention to the environment and spiking gas prices have cast telework in a new light. The numbers are startling. In June, the nonprofit Telework Ex-change called telework "the other fuel." Telework could be an elegantly simple way to ease the pressure of commuting costs, but it also is sparking conversations about how managers do their jobs and how agencies measure employees' success. Telework advocates in agencies, industry and Congress agree that having employees work off-site requires managers to play a much more active role in monitoring their employees' accomplishments and requires agencies to develop strong performance measurements for them. Telework could provide a kinder, gentler way of introducing rigorous performance standards than the pay-for-performance programs. By emphasizing managing for results and coming up with well-known and agreed-upon standards for performance, which you need to do for telework, you introduce a culture of results-based management and performance standards. The administration has too often approached this performance-based approach in a kind of heavy-handed, quota-driven way. You have to approach it differently. You have to create a supportive culture inside an organization that invites people to focus more on certain performance standards. Middle management would not spend their time administering people being a few minutes late die to metro or commuter traffic, but would be doing their own higher level projects. For hearing officers who telecommute, it is sensible to hold their hearings by telephone. The quality and quantity of their work is easily measured. To telecommute, their productivity must be greater than it would be if they were in the office. Both know that if their productivity or the quality of their work diminishes, they'll be required to return, and they are required to return every fifth week to work in the office. A lot of the success or failure of telecommuting depends upon the quality of those allowed to telecommute. For our program, DEEOIC, there is always the argument that “we are not digitized” when in fact, we are partially digitized. NIOSH, our partner, has many of the necessary records for our work on an encrypted compact disk, this privacy and security concerns are also covered. We can write the NIOSH related decisions from a laptop at home and email them in. "Effective performance management is the same whether or not an employee teleworks," says Daniel A. Green, deputy associate director of the Office of Personnel Management. "Managers should measure employee performance by results, not physical presence." That's easier at some agencies than others. Danette Campbell, who coordinates what is widely considered a model telework program at the Patent and Trademark Office, describes the agency as "a production shop." Because trademark examiners and patent attorneys must process a set number of applications and file reports, it's easy to quantify -- and to evaluate -- their performance even when they aren't in the office, Campbell says. The Transportation Department now uses agreements between employees and managers to lay out specific expectations, including when employees will sign on to the network, how often managers expect to be able reach them, and what employees are supposed to produce during a day of telework. Managers often have telework performance objectives to meet too: senior executives at Transportation and the General Services Administration now are evaluated on how well they've advanced telework among their employees. Setting up the infrastructure to make large-scale telecommuting possible, whether by making paper processes digital or by making sure networks have the capacity to handle hundreds of remote users, is forcing the federal government to get up to speed on information technology security and cutting-edge technology. Federal agencies have a great opportunity to be the No. 1 appealing organization to work for, to show how diverse they are and how they can compete with the private sector. "We expect to see improved retention rates and be viewed more favorably as an employer of choice," says William Kelly, telework czar at GSA. "The literature suggests that individuals with flexible work schedules look more favorably on their employers. . . . [Telework] is the civilized way to work in the 21st century." Indeed, telework already is seen as so desirable that at one agency, labor and management brokered an unusual agreement to get a telework program off the ground. At the National Science Foundation, American Federation of Government Employees Local 3403 agreed to give up its members' rights to file grievances if they were prohibited from telework. The telework program has been successful because the union has been so involved in implementing it.

Videoconferencing - Cost Justification E-Gov Hearings 

: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Division of Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation (DEEOIC) assists workers and their families apply for benefits under the EEOICPA. Oral hearings are scheduled by FAB and are conducted at a location near the claimant. Videoconferencing is a cost-effective way to conduct the hearing instead of traveling to a location near the claimant. Anything that is normally done in a hearing, can be done over videoconferencing. Videoconferencing has numerous applications such as staff meetings, distance learning, training classes, and public hearings (for BOTA, which does public outreach for DEEOIC). All of these applications are different in nature, but all have the same result when properly conducted over videoconferencing. Perhaps the most under-appreciated benefits are soft benefits, those that are difficult and sometimes impossible to quantify with precision. Government decisions require insight and approval from many different sources. Electronic meeting tools enable dispersed teams to collaborate easily, solving problems and speeding coordination – ultimately delivering faster time-to-consensus. As a viable alternative to business travel, videoconferencing can reduce employee stress and enhance their quality of life. Travel avoidance also allows the employee to steer clear of the security-related delays associated with air travel today. The most obvious hard benefit from conferencing and collaboration solutions is travel reduction, eliminating costs associated with airfare, hotels, meals, taxis and car service, etc. Hence, realizing travel cost savings has been the traditional way to justify videoconferencing. Beyond the obvious elimination of direct expenses, reducing travel eliminates many hours of downtime and days away from the office. When factoring the real costs associated with a 1½ day trip to attend a 1½ hour meeting, you can appreciate how today’s audio-video-web conferencing solutions can save costs and the return on investment is clear. For a hard cost savings calculation, consider only the potential savings realized by converting a percentage of travel meetings into video meetings. As a part of this calculation, factor in both direct travel expenses (flights, car service, hotel, meals, etc.) and the cost of employee time. For this example let’s calculate the cost savings that a 250 person agency with 10 offices could realize by converting 40% of their travel meetings to videoconferencing. For convenience, we’ve used a previously developed Polycom ROI Calculation Tool (contact your Polycom reseller for access to this FREE tool) to generate the resulting data for this example. The basic cost assumptions for this example are that a round trip flight costs $450, hotel costs $100 per night, the average meeting has 4 traveling participants, each earnings $80k salary per year and take an average of 3 domestic trips per month. To support these video meetings, the agency must purchase $100K of videoconferencing equipment and pay $40K per year in system management fees. Entering this information into the Polycom ROI Calculator reveals that the total cost of the videoconferencing equipment for the 10 sites, including maintenance, depreciation, and management costs, is $88,333 per year for three years. Based on the above assumptions, this agency will save an average of $1,384 for each meeting traveler converted to videoconferencing. As a result, if 10 participating users convert 40% of their travel meetings to video, the agency will save a total of approximately $110,000 in year one From an ROI perspective, the agency will enjoy an ROI of 226% on their estimated yearly total cost of ownership (TCO) of $88,333. In fact, the breakeven occurs at less than 9 months. The ROI is greater if one considers using the equipment for distance learning, trainings, outreach, and regional meetings. Take a number of hearing trips, with their round-trip air fare cost, per diem cost, hotel and the number of trips it would take to pay, for example, for a Polycom View Station 128 at $2,800.—one half the cost of a hearing trip on average. Note that these results change dramatically as the usage level and meeting conversion rates change. The agency in the above example would save approximately 30 workdays and 14 business trips per year per employee. The government can save money by running their videoconferencing over an IP network instead of an ISDN network. For example, in the Ninth Circuit, the courts lease the DSL or T-1 lines and the long distance service is covered by the court’s FTS contract. Once the equipment is installed, there are minimal per-use expenses associated with videoconferencing. Other benefits include increased reduction in carbon footprint, reduce overhead and operating costs, and allow for more frequent visual meetings with distanced staff, and. Videoconferencing can also promote a more timely hearing of cases. If we have few cases in an area we tend to save them up until there are enough to justify traveling. When you have to fly the staff to location just for one case, it’s expensive and time consuming. So we try to wait until there are enough cases in that location that we can combine them. But what that means is that a case might get old while we’re waiting for enough other cases to justify our travel. With the videoconferencing option, we can save the trip, and the case can be heard sooner. The most frequently mentioned disadvantages were technical difficulties (dropped or bad connections) and the decreased level of personal interactions during videoconferencing. All claimants in one study regardless of experience, indicated that they were not left with incomplete information or unanswered questions after a videoconferenced oral argument.

Transparency and Accountablility 

Regarding Fraud in DOL funded programs:

While the internet has resulted in more transparency of performance statistics there still exists an appalling lack of accountability upon the part of those entrusted with administrating various programs. Case in point; Job Corps contractors. Please research your own OIG audits and other documentation of financial and performance statistics reporting fraud within Job Corps.

At this point, fraudulent contractors are charged "damages" and continue on as usual. There is no real accountability as they are more interested in earning bonus incentives, a practice which did not exist yrs ago. By inflating their statistics, they inflate their bonuses. The performance measurement system is convoluted and obfuscates the real effectiveness of the program. Perhaps the new Job Corps director, who, by the way, has first-hand knowledge of Job Corps performance and planning, will finally report honest statistics and do away with incentives to contractors or fight to get rid of contractors all together.

How can the government increase accountability and transparency in Job Corps?

1) Get rid of contractors. The program doesn't need contractors to run effectively. They are more interested in making money than educating and training the population they are supposed to serve. Privitizing and incentivizing this program has lead to abuse.
2)Pump the money paid to contractors into the program instead: buy decent computers and learning materials, staff the centers with qualified staff who know how to deliver good education and training programs and pay them a decent wage, treat the population with respect by providing a decent environment with enough activities to keep them out of trouble - get real about what goes on at these centers. Some of the physical facilities are in such deplorable condition, it is shameful.
3) Be honest about the actual overall performance of this program. Any psychometrician who knows how the performance statistics of this program are computed will report that those statistics are invalid and the taxpaying public is being grossly mislead. Work with Battelle and Mathematica consultants to report the whole picture.
4) Publish OIG Audits in a timely manner. Taking over a year to conduct and publish an audit that most people are not even aware of, is an injustice to the citizens who pay for this program.
5) Consider moving this program from DOL to the Department of Education.

Field Nurse Services in OWCP Cases 

Agency Injury Comp Specialists (ICS) should have more flexibility in having CE assign Field Nurse(FN). Because claim costs are charged back to agencies and because ICS often has valid impression of whether claim will ultimately be accepted, valuable FN services should not be withheld pending adjudication process. Early FN involvement lends injured workers an in-network resource to help authorize and coordinate appropriate treatment referrals. FNs also made sure treating MD properly considers light duty and keeps RTW goal at forefront. Version of CA-16 could be used for ICS to obligate agency to pay regardless of ultimate accept/denial decision.

Influence age discrimination in the UN competitive examination 

The UN invites member states, of which the US is, to participate in an examination process for the following careers: Administration, Economics, Finance, Information Technology, Public Information, Security, Social Affairs and Statistics.

But...

“Applicants should hold at least a first-level university degree relevant to the discipline in which they would like to take the examination. Furthermore, applicants should not be more than 32 years old on 31 December 2009 (should be born on 1 January 1977 or after). Fluency in either English or French is required. (NCRE Eligibility for P2 Exam)”

Although the DOL had no direct influence I have to think they can have some influence even if it is in just making a recommendation via the President. A simple letter would be very nice enforcing that in international organizations for which the US tax dollars support that we, the US, do not support age discrimination in hiring practices such as this one.

We in the US and many of the other UN member states know that age has nothing to do with abilities in particular when the job has to do with mental ability and not physical agility. Many have more then one career in their life or have to pay their own way through university. We with 'life experience' are being eliminated yet internally the UN speaks of 'transferrable skills.'

There is a miss believe that if you are older you should be applying for higher postings. Well, not if you just switched careers. Not if you are for instance a Vet who saved up enough to put him/herself through university. Not if you are the single mother who had to educate herself and take care of the kids.

This is an archaic practice that we, as the US being a permanent member, of the counsel could certainly influence.

I've written letters to the UN Permanent Mission to the UN with no response.

I 'think' that this practice is one that the UN Secretary General can change without any member state ratification.

WEB REFERENCE: http://www.un.org/Depts/OHRM/examin/ncrepage.htm

Appreciative Inquiry for Building Open Gov Support 

While the DOL community has the technical tools to address challenges, experience shows that technical solutions alone are often insufficient. Difficulties arise when attempts are made to apply what are often excellent technical solutions. Human beings — either acting alone or in groups small and large — are not always amenable, and they cannot be ignored. In the real world, actions will not succeed, and they will certainly not be sustained, without the correct alignment of citizens, stakeholders, and voice.
The importance of public opinion for the quality of governance, and the critical role of a democratic public sphere in the architecture of good governance cannot be gainsaid. How will DOL secure political will for open government with its middle managers and the public, what are the best methods for reaching out to political leaders, policy makers, and legislators? Will DOL use network analysis and present a reform space model that focuses on the
intersection among three key factors: acceptance, authority, and ability? Will DOL explore the distinction between public and political will and the interaction between the two? What will be the deliberative processes used to reach out to stakeholders and engage them in change?
Will DOL address the challenge of middle managers by exploring the insights of
organizational communication? It is important to gain the support of middle management, the most resistant to change, for any reform, the “appreciative inquiry” approach (cites below) demonstrates how to successfully cultivate and engage middle management in the reform process.
The challenge of building broad coalitions of influentials in favor of change, can be met by analyzing differences among dialogue, debate, and negotiation, then consider examples of successful consensus-based and stakeholder-driven approach to building coalitions around efforts and approaches to building pro-change multisectoral coalitions to overcome powerful vested interests.
Appreciative Inquiry is the cooperative search for the best in people, their organizations, and the world around them. It involves systematic discover of what gives a system ‘life’ when it is most effective and capable in economic, ecological, and human terms. AI involves the art and practice of asking questions that strengthen a system’s capacity to heighten positive potential. It mobilizes inquiry through crafting an “unconditional positive question’ often involving hundreds or sometimes thousands of people.”
Cooperrider, D.L. & Whitney, D., “Appreciative Inquiry: A positive revolution in change.” In P. Holman & T. Devane (eds.), The Change Handbook, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., pages 245-263.
“The traditional approach to change is to look for the problem, do a diagnosis, and find a solution. The primary focus is on what is wrong or broken; since we look for problems, we find them. By paying attention to problems, we emphasize and amplify them. …Appreciative Inquiry suggests that we look for what works in an organization. The tangible result of the inquiry process is a series of statements that describe where the organization wants to be, based on the high moments of where they have been. Because the statements are grounded in real experience and history, people know how to repeat their success.”
Hammond, Sue. The Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry. Thin Book Publishing Company, 1998, pages 6-7.
“Appreciative Inquiry focuses us on the positive aspects of our lives and leverages them to correct the negative. It’s the opposite of ‘problem-solving.”
White, T.H. Working in Interesting Times: Employee morale and business success in the information age. Vital Speeches of the Day, May 15, 1996, Vol XLII, No. 15.
“Appreciative Inquiry [is] a theory and practice for approaching change from a holistic framework. Based on the belief that human systems are made and imagined by those who live and work within them, AI leads systems to move toward the generative and creative images that reside in their most positive core – their values, visions, achievements, and best practices.” “AI is both a world view and a practical process. In theory, AI is a perspective, a set of principles and beliefs about how human systems function, a departure from the past metaphor of human systems as machines. Appreciative Inquiry has an attendant set of core processes, practices, and even ‘models’ that have emerged. In practice, AI can be used to co-create the transformative processes and practices appropriate to the culture of a particular organization.” “Grounded in the theory of ‘social constructionism,’ AI recognizes that human systems are constructions of the imagination and are, therefore, capable of change at the speed of imagination. Once organization members shift their perspective, they can begin to invent their most desired future.”
Watkins, J.M. & Bernard J. Mohr. Appreciative Inquiry: Change at the Speed of Imagination, Jossey-Bass, 2001, pages xxxi - xxxii
“[Appreciative Inquiry] deliberately seeks to discover people’s exceptionality – their unique gifts, strengths, and qualities. It actively searches and recognizes people for their specialties – their essential contributions and achievements. And it is based on principles of equality of voice – everyone is asked to speak about their vision of the true, the good, and the possible. Appreciative Inquiry builds momentum and success because it believes in people. It really is an invitation to a positive revolution. Its goal is to discover in all human beings the exceptional and the essential. Its goal is to create organizations that are in full voice!”
Lessons from the Field: Applying Appreciative Inquiry, Thin Book Publishing, 2001, page 12.
“Appreciative Inquiry is a form of organizational study that selectively seeks to highlight what are referred to as “life-giving forces” (LGF’s) of the organization’s existence. These are “ – the unique structure and processes of (an) organization that makes its very existence possible. LGF’s may be ideas, beliefs, or values around which the organizing activity takes place.”

Srivastva, S., et al. Wonder and Affirmation, (undated from Lessons of the Field: Applying Appreciative Inquiry, page 42.)
“AI is an exciting way to embrace organizational change. Its assumption is simple: Every organization has something that works right – things that give it life when it is most alive, effective, successful, and connected in healthy ways to its stakeholders and communities. AI begins by identifying what is positive and connecting to it in ways that heighten energy and vision for change.” “…AI recognizes that every organization is an open system that depends on its human capital to bring its vision and purpose to life.” “… The outcome of an AI initiative is a long-term positive change in the organization.” “… AI is important because it works to bring the whole organization together to build upon its positive core. AI encourages people to work together to promote a better understanding of the human system, the heartbeat of the organization.”

Cooperrider, David L; Whitney, Diana; and Stavros, Jacqueline M., Appreciative Inquiry Handbook: The First in a Series of AI Workbooks for Leaders of Change, Lakeshore Communications, 2003, Pages XVII – XIX
AI involves, in a central way, the art and practice of asking questions that strengthen a system’s capacity to apprehend, anticipate, and heighten positive potential. It centrally involves the mobilization of inquiry through the crafting of the “unconditional positive question, often involving hundreds or sometimes thousands of people. …AI deliberately, in everything it does, seeks to work from accounts of the “positive change core” – and it assumes that every living system has many untapped and rich and inspiring accounts of the positive. Link the energy of this core directly to any change agenda and changes never thought possible are suddenly and democratically mobilized.” …As people are brought together to listen carefully to the innovations and moments of organizational “life,” sometimes in storytelling modes and sometimes in interpretive and analytic modes, a convergence zone is created where the future begins to be discerned in the form of visible patterns interwoven into the texture of the actual. …Images of the future emerge out of grounded examples from an organization’s positive past. … [This convergence zone facilitates] the collective repatterning of human systems.”

Cooperrider, David L, et. Al, Appreciative Inquiry: Rethinking Human Organization Toward a Positive Theory of Change, Stipes Publishing, 2000.
“Appreciative Inquiry is a form of action research that attempts to create new theories/ideas/images that aide in the developmental change of a system (Cooperrider & Srivastva, 1987.) The key data collection innovation of appreciative inquiry is the collection of people’s stories of something at its best…. These stories are collectively discussed in order to create new, generative ideas or images that aid in the developmental change of the collectivity discussing them.”

Bushe, Gervase, “Five Theories of Change Embedded in Appreciative Inquiry,” presented at the 18th Annual World Congress of Organization Development, 1998.
“AI is intentional inquiry and directed conversation and story-telling that leads to a place of possibility. Possibility is fresh, new, and sacred. The story is the genesis of all that is human. Societies are stories, as are companies, schools, cities, families and individuals. There are bricks and mortar and flesh and bones, but all of it comes from a story. Even the flesh and bones of one person comes from a story of two people uniting to form another. I can think of a many moments where groups reached a profound spot with Ai and touched a sense of freedom. Usually one person would say something like, "From what we heard in these stories, we could_..." and there follows a collective deep breath and then silence as people consider the new "we could". Possibility sits in the room as a space of silence and then thought fills the space. Where does the thought that enters at that time, which has a feeling of vitality and newness, come from? It does not come from the person who spoke because that person would not have developed that thought without the conversations that led to synapses firing in a certain way. The thought is not merely a product of the collective because an individual must form the thought. The thought comes out of relationship, conversation, and newly created images. This "thing called Ai" is one of the finest ways to experience the power of language and to hone our skills with words, ideas, and stories. There are times when the possibility is so stunning the group has to sit in silence if just for a couple ticks before saying, "well, yes, maybe, why not, let's do it." There must be a gap that arises in the field of the known to entertain the unbridled possibility of novelty. There is a break in the routine story and supporting conversations so something new can creep in. This is the opening where novelty can arise. With no gap, we only have the billiard ball predictability of continuity. The openness to new ideas is not coerced. People don't have to force each other to listen to other's ideas and possibilities: minds are opened because the nature of the stories are so compelling and energetic.”

Steinbach, John. Contribution to the AI Listserve, July 2005

The Transparency Revolution Reaches DOL OWCP 

This web site is exciting. Seeing people from my program submit suggestions is encouraging, to note the philosophical shift from disclosure to access. I hope procedures and service standards will be set up for tracking and responding to the siggestions here, and employees and citizens will be encouraged to play a role in raising awareness of the new policy, encouraging the use of the new procedures, and monitoring implementation.
Is Open Government perfect in every respect and will it please everyone? Of course not. Implementation of ideas submitted will be challenging and not everything that needs to be in place is in place. Consider what Warren Bennis, Daniel Goleman and James O'Toole, the authors of Transparency, call the 'culture of candor':
"When we speak of transparency and creating a culture of candor, we are really talking about the free flow of information within an organization and between the organization and its many stakeholders, including the public...An organization's capacity to compete, solve problems, innovate, meet challenges, and achieve goals -- its intelligence, if you will -- varies to the degree that information flow remains healthy. That is particularly true when the information in question consists of crucial but hard-to-take facts, the information that leaders may bristle at hearing -- and that subordinates too often,understandably, play down, disguise, or ignore."
A fascinating period is about to commence. It will come with arguments aplenty, noisy, painful moments and lessons. But it will also come with greater openness, accountability, data availability and quality.

Mention the Memorandum of Transparency and Open Government 

From the perspective of good governance, the Obama administration’s efforts at transparency and participation—to make government open to public scrutiny through (easy) access to government information and to engage the public in designing and improving government initiatives— is a prayer answered. The President’s first executive action after taking office was the signing of the Memorandum of Transparency and Open Government. This memorandum signaled his commitment to open government based on three core values in the Memorandum and on the administration’s website:

Transparency. Government should provide citizens with information about what their government is doing so that government can be held accountable.
Participation. Government should actively solicit expertise from outside Washington so that it makes policies with the benefit of the best information.
Collaboration. Government officials should work together with one another and with citizens as part of doing their job of solving national problems.
Since then, the administration launched in May 2009 the Open Government Initiative—an unprecedented outreach effort that lasted three months, during which the government conducted consultations and solicited feedback from thousands of Americans on the design of the Open Government policy. Once the ideas were collected, the government vetted and evaluated them. The culmination of these efforts was the Open Government Directive, which the White House issued along with the Open Government Progress Report to the American People. DOL should also issue an Open Government Progress Report to show they are looking at this web site.
The Open Government Directive is targeted at all federal departments and agencies, and contains specific instructions and guidelines for them to open their operations to the public, including timelines within which to do so. The directive outlines four main steps for creating a more open government: 1) Publish government information online; 2) Improve the quality of government information; 3) Create and institutionalize a culture of open government; and 4) Create an enabling policy framework for open government. Similarly to Attorney General Eric Holder’s issuance of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) guidelines in March 2009 that instruct a presumption of openness when administering the FOIA, the Open Government Directive also spells out that “with respect to information, the presumption shall be in favor of openness.”
It is going to be fascinating to watch this process unfold, to see what impact it has on the quality of governance, and to see what other governments can learn from this example--both the successes as well as the failures or retreats. I thank my Director for forwarding the email to invite us to participate in this initiative.

Microformats like hResume for employment sites 

see Http://microformats.org for more information.

A standard would make it much easier for job seekers to enter information once and spend more time finding jobs rather than filling out extremely long forms.

Place public documents online and citable to a paragraph level 

WHAT

Urge governments to publish granular permalinks for all documents on their websites.


WHY

* Enable citizens to reliably cite government websites on their personal blogs, on public sites like Wikipedia, or elsewhere.
* Provide unique identifiers that enable aggregation of citations.
* Make the civic discourse surrounding government websites more discoverable.


HOW

* An easy-to-deploy archival server that can take page snapshots
o Hosts all permalinks
o Could be hosted by the agency or a third party
o Uses a software version-control tool as the primary database
o Allows other parties to replicate the data
o Likely an easy install of a Linux server distribution with the archival tools included
* Quick and easy integration solution
o Include Javascript on each page that ensures the archival server takes snapshots as each page changes
o The Javascript also walks through the HTML DOM to add permalinks to each paragraph
o The "easy integration" method works with even static HTML
* Long-term integration solution
o Option one
+ CMS pushes changes directly to the archival server
+ CMS integrates the archival server's permalinks directly into HTML
+ Most streamlined option
o Option two
+ A proxy server (base on Squid/Varnish?) that pushes changed content to the archival server
+ The proxy server modifies the content passing through it to add permalinks to the HTML
+ Works with any CMS and even static HTML
o More accessible
o No Javascript required
o Broadly applicable integration model (text filtering/formatting plugin) that works with even basic blog and CMS tools
* Mark up documents using paragraph/sectional anchor tags to create nice anchors that go directly to the correct paragraph
* Permalinks are human-readable URLs with timestamps, document ID, and an an anchor to the section/paragraph
o Example: Http://archive.house.gov/HR1586IH/20030318233035#S1b1Bii
o The example would point to section 1, subsection b, chapter 1, paragraph B, clause ii in SB 1234 on May 2, 2009 at 8:26:16 am UTC

WHEN

* We are fund-raising to both hire programmers to write the tools and to have codeathons where programmers donate their time to write Open Source tools they believe in.
* We are recruiting different levels of government implementation one agency at a time. Your support on http://citability.org will illustrate the demand.
* We are asking various proprietary software vendors to implement this standard in their software products.


WHERE

* Http://citability.org - sign up and show your support
* http://citability.pbworks.com - to help promote or to feedback on the internal standards we are suggesting. We are talking various implementations in different software to backups and server failover settings.

Issues and Options for Improving Engagement with Idea Scale 

Issues and Options for Improving Engagement Between DOL and the Public

Will you publish a study to assess this initiative and DOL’s recent relations with civil society organizations (CSOs), the public, and this web site and public efforts to facilitate a strategic discussion among DOL senior management, the public, employees, and stakeholders on key issues and proposed actions for strengthening these relations and managing associated risks in the future? It would be interesting to see a study which analyzes DOL’s experience over the past few years of engaging in operations and in policy dialogue at the local, national, and transnational levels. I hope that civic engagement is now an integral piece of DOL’s overall strategy. Engaging in this manner contributes to DOL goals in a number of ways, including: promoting public consensus and local ownership for reforms and for national strategies by creating knowledge-sharing networks, building common ground for understanding, encouraging public-private cooperation, and sometimes even diffusing tensions; giving voice to the concerns of primary and secondary stakeholders, particularly marginalized populations, and helps ensure that their views are factored into policy and program decisions; strengthening and leveraging impact of programs by providing local knowledge, identifying potential risks, targeting assistance, and expanding reach, particularly at the community level; bringing innovative ideas and solutions to challenges;providing professional expertise and increasing capacity for effective service delivery, and improving public transparency and accountability of activities, and thus contributing to the enabling environment for good governance.
Are funding mechanisms are available to support these different categories of DOL engagement to meet the current demands for engagement? Is there reliable data to evaluate and track the effectiveness and benefits of DOL’s engagement with civil society here? Are the monitoring system measures only intended, not actual involvement? Considering the high demands on DOL staff, and disincentives such as ambiguous guidance and poor systems for monitoring and evaluating participation, will this fuel the tendency among task managers to “tick the box” that they have involved the public in decision making via this website and other online public discussion rather than take proactive steps to ensure engagement that is viewed as satisfactory by all stakeholders? The lack of an effective, outcome-based, monitoring and evaluation system carries both operational and reputational risks for the Idea Factory. It is also an obstacle to leveraging greater public involvement in efforts to improve government responsiveness and accountability.
The ad-hoc institutional approach to idea factory type consultations has emerged as a major source of skepticism, the quality of these consultations remains highly uneven. Consultation guidelines and training exist but are not mandatory; are staff left to design consultations as they see fit, with insufficient experience, time or resources or managerial support to do them effectively? Is it contracted out? Too often consultation is treated merely as a “validation” exercise rather than as an opportunity to learn and help shape recommendations before they are finalized. In other cases, feedback may not be provided on inputs received, leaving those public participants with little appetite to invest time in future dialogue with DOL because they do
not see how their inputs are utilized. Poorly managed consultations can pose a significant obstacle to constructive relations with civil society, and an operational and reputational risk management challenge for DOL. Disclosure and transparency are also major issues. The comments posted here clearly view greater and more timely disclosure as a key step toward operationalizing the transparency framework, so that interested groups have the background they need to engage in dialogue with their government representatives.
In summary a persistent gap exists between expectations, policy, and practice, with respect to transparency initiatives and efforts to engage which hampers DOL ’s ability to strengthen relations with its constituencies and win their trust. A number of proposals to close this gap have been identified right here at this consultation.
Issue 1: DOL overall operational policy and business procedures framework governing engagement with CSOs does not provide adequate guidance to staff on why, whom, and how DOL should engage. This has resulted in wide variations in practice and dissatisfaction in terms of the quality of engagement and outcomes.
Issue 2: The gap between DOL messages and corresponding expectations, policies and practices is real,and poses a number of constraints to effective engagement. A number of steps can be taken to help close this gap.
Issue 3: Significant changes have occurred over the last several years, which warrant adjustments in the ways the DOL management engages with its employees and its constituents institutionally.
Issue 4: The organizational arrangements in DOL for managing civil society relations, and the possible risks and opportunities of these relations, call for greater coherence, coordination, and accountability.
Action 1: Create and institutionalize new mechanisms for DOL-Civic engagement to help promote mutual understanding and cooperation. Strengthen the transparency, openness, and responsiveness of DOL in its relations to identify areas for possible joint action on issues of common interest, launch this process with senior management using DOL committed time and resources are critical factors in their success. Some which have been tested are: earlier and more structured process of consultation around DOL issues; a series of
thematic videoconference dialogues involving leading public advocates and “policy workshops” during which lead DOL managers on a given issue engage in-depth with counterpart experts or opinion leaders from civil society to examine the implications of specific policies and explore possible common ground. Thematic Forums have shown to be another useful platform to channel dialogue, learning, and recommendations for action on a given topic--aim is to support a series of virtual and face-to face dialogues organized by participating organizations.
Action 2: Establish DOL -wide focal point for consultations and
framework for consultation management. The goal is a more systematic, institutional approach to consultations based on best practice, moving beyond the optional guidelines that now exist. The focal point also can help lighten the load on teams undertaking consultations, and ensure better quality consultations, by providing guidance on design of the consultation process, targeting key stakeholder groups, assessing possible risks, training on how to conduct effective consultations, and establishing more systematic processes for feedback. Key deliverables would include preparing a guidance note for staff, and improving and expanding use of existing tools such as a Consultations Sourcebook and a Stakeholder Consultation training course. In addition to promoting best practices, the focal point also can strengthen institutional knowledge management and ensure that inputs and outcomes are shared with relevant departments.
Action 3: Pilot a new DOL-wide monitoring and evaluation system for civic engagement to measure outcomes using both qualitative and quantitative indicators, enabling DOL to track progress on civic engagement and improve accountability. This will be linked with the results agenda, and integrated with regular reporting systems so that it does not add significantly to the burdens placed on task teams. Outcomes and trends will be reported annually to senior management.
Action 4: Conduct a review of DOL funds dedicated to civil society
engagement in operations and in policy dialogue, and explore possible rerealignment or restructuring to match resources to strategic demands for engagement. Does an institutional system of accounting for these activities across the various funding windows exist? Some funding mechanisms that staff and managers have advocated as important outreach tools, are insufficient to meet growing demand, while selected unit or project budgets for consultations may be quite extensive. This review will assess whether a new funding window may be needed to enhance civil society participation, whether existing windows should be combined, or perhaps whether all DOL -financed projects should include an explicit participation and communications budget.
Action 5: Review DOL’s procurement framework for changes that would facilitate collaboration. Is there a lack of flexibility in the procurement framework? A review in light of best practice experience will hopefully result in a procurement framework which is more suited to on-the-ground realities and facilitates involvement.
Action 6: Institute a more structured, ongoing learning program for DOL staff on the changing role, nature, and perspectives of civil society, and on how to engage with the public more effectively. In addition, more aggressive promotion of, and stronger incentives for, joint training and staff exchanges among civil society and DOL can also help build mutual understanding and more constructive relations.

Moderators of the web site should introduce themselves 

Moderators of the web site should introduce themselves. Also they should collect emails and invite people to do issue related discussions. Something like this: We would like to invite you to participate in this new on-line discussion on the topic if XYZ.Hopefully you will take a moment to join us and share with others your thoughts and experiences. Please feel free to share this invitation with friends and colleagues who might also be interested. We look forward to your participation! This online discussion is moderated by and then you can identify a DOL leader and/or a public opinion leader and/or an academic and or no one. State that the discussion will run and identify a timeline,and perhaps provide that it is supported by identified background readings.

Office of Workers' Compensation Programs / Black Lung 

The UMWA has long advocated on behalf of coal miners afflicted by pneumoconiosis (black lung disease.) To better improve the public's access to information about black lung disease, and the process by which the DOL administers the federal black lung program and processes claims, we recommend the following steps, some of which may have already been implemented in response to the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) report entitled “Black Lung Benefits Program: Administrative and Structural Changes Could Improve Miners’ Ability to Pursue Claims”, GAO-10-7:

1. The GAO report recommends that the Department “obtain information on how long it takes to resolve claims by developing a mechanism to track cases through the entire adjudication process and develop associated performance measures.” The Department has indicated this can be accomplished using its "Automated Support Package." The UMWA supports collection and publication of this data on the Department's internet site. Making public information about the time it takes for a black lung claim to go through the entire claims adjudication process and any subsequent appeals will provide a more complete understanding to the public both of the length of time and reasons for delay as claims work their way through the system. It would also be useful to make public information reflecting whether the appellant at each stage of the process is a claimant (usually a coal miner) or defendant (usually a coal company.) The public will also benefit from access to data reflecting the number and/or percentage of claimants and defendants who are represented by counsel.

2. The Department maintains a list of physicians certified to evaluate the respiratory condition of black lung claimants. In response to the GAO Report, the Department plans to expand its Microsoft Access database to track the performance of examining physicians. Non-private information contained in this database should be made public on the Department's internet portal so that miners afflicted by black lung can research the performance history of physicians prior to making an appointment for an examination. The Department should also publish information that can assist claimants and doctors to accurately and thoroughly complete claimants' medical evaluation reports. These reports provide claimants with the best initial medical analysis of the degree and cause of their disabilities and, if used correctly, can provide reliable and legally sufficient medical evidence that will enable claimants with meritorious claims to satisfy eligibility criteria throughout the appeals process.

Thank you for your consideration of these suggestions.

Arthur Traynor
UMWA Staff Attorney

FECA -  

1. Change the formate of letters sent by DOL-OWCP so the claim number isn't on top. Claim number could be put far right or under the DOI. When I punch 2-hole for filing, it takes half of the claim number out which makes it unreadable.

2. On PR or PN cases when the OWCP-5c just states "Totally disabled" and nothing else, should require DETAILED physical ability. FCE should be done when there is a lack of medical except when the IW gets his yearly and then it's from the IW's family doctor and the all too common, "Totally disabled".

3. Want DOL to respond to an agency's request for better medical. Our district is wonderful and they work really hard with the agency in case management, but I have one case that is in another district and it has been impossible to get a FCE even after written request. They, OWCP, REFUSE to get a 2nd opinion or FCE done because they received medical from the IW. Of course, the medical (OWCP-5c) states "totally disabled" with "0" under# of hours able to work. My issue is it has been the same for a number of years filled out by the same doctor without medical evidence to back up the findings. An agency is unable to try and accommodate with the vague OWCP-5c. In some districts, need better partnership between the agency and OWCP inorder to coordinate RTW matters. After all, OWCP is not a retirement plan and getting an IW, especially a young one, back to work is good for everyone.

OSHA Inspection Data 

The OSHA public web site limits establishment searches to 5 years at a time and requires separate searches for open and closed cases. This should be changed to allow longer time periods and open and closed cases to searched at the same time. Look at the number of searches OSHA is requiring the public to conduct to run an employer history.

https://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/establishment.html

What does users tracking mean? 

Users Tracking (1)
appeared on one of my posts when I went to revise it. What does this mean?

Communications timely or ever 

Have DOL Staff listed on various DOL initiatives, grants or the like return e-mails & phone calls from states inquiring for more information. If they are listed, shouldn't they get back to you. I have called & e-mailed several listed DOL Staff & have never received any responses. I have even gone up the chain of command to REGION V & still no responses. How does one get information if not from the staff listed as responsible?

DOL Seeks to Define "Green Jobs" for Regulatory Purposes 

DOL Seeks to Define "Green Jobs" for Regulatory Purposes

The Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is soliciting comments on its proposed definitions of environmentally friendly “green jobs” in advance of its first collection of data on those jobs. A notice of proposed rulemaking was the Federal Register.

According to the BLS, the notice sets out a definition of green jobs the agency proposes to use, as well as a list of industries in which such jobs may be found. Those industries are classified according to the existing North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).

The definition provides a broad definition for "green jobs": economic activities that help protect or restore the environment or conserve natural resources.

how do i unsubscibe to this service 

most other sites have an easy link at the bottom "UNSUBSCRIBE"