Sat.Jun 24, 2023 - Fri.Jun 30, 2023

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Faceless Bureaucrats? I Think Not

GovLoop

The idea of a faceless government bureaucrat seems like a permanent fixture in the American imagination. And yet it’s so wrong. I’ve been covering the government beat for 30 years, writing about the technologies, programs and policies that serve as the cogs and gears of government. Along the way, I’ve learned one important lesson: What makes government work, in fact, are the so-called faceless bureaucrats.

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Inside The Fight To Kick Out Rochester’s Power Company

Next City

In New York’s third-largest city, locals are sick of skyrocketing bills and dirty fuel sources. They’re fighting against long odds for the public to own the grid.

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Unleashing developer productivity with generative AI

McKinsey Public & Social Sector Insights

A McKinsey study shows that software developers can complete coding tasks up to twice as fast with generative AI. Four actions can maximize productivity and minimize risks.

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How Transportation Can Drive Economic Mobility

NLC (National League of Cities)

As local leaders look to increase the economic mobility of their residents and reduce poverty in their communities, a key emerging area to address is transportation.

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Holiday Safety Tips for Municipal Operations

The holiday season brings joy and celebration, but it also introduces unique challenges for municipal operations. From ensuring safe snow removal and managing icy sidewalks to organizing festive events and addressing increased community needs, municipalities play a critical role in keeping residents safe and operations running smoothly. This eBook provides actionable safety tips to help your team navigate the holiday season effectively, protect staff and citizens, and ensure compliance with safe

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How small cells are empowering local governments to build smarter cities

Open Access Government - Technology News

Ian Newbury, Business Development Director at BT Wholesale, describes how small cells can support greener and more sustainable technology infrastructure and facilitate a better digital future for everyone Speak to anyone working in the sector today, and it is clear that promoting digital inclusion and achieving a decarbonised future are among the key aims of most local authorities.

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The Upstate Town That Took Back Its Power

Next City

Massena residents fought the local utility to bring their electric grid under public control. Forty years later, they say it’s still paying off.

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What Is Artificial Intelligence, and How Will It Benefit Agencies?

FedTech Magazine

Recent discussions around ChatGPT, and generative artificial intelligence more broadly, are improving federal officials’ understanding that AI isn’t simply programmed analytics running queries against databases. AI encompasses machines programmed to simulate human intelligence and learn. This includes machine learning (ML), deep learning and neural networks requiring vast computing power and many iterations.

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How to Secure Legacy Systems

GovLoop

Challenge: An Expanding Attack Surface Cloud environments and the introduction of automation and Internet of Things (IoT) devices have greatly expanded the attack surface. “There are a lot of points of entry now,” said Raghurama Pantula, Director of Information Security for Karsun Solutions, a modernization company that applies innovative approaches to help achieve agency missions.

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Thinking About Trust

zencity

At the ICMA Local Government Reimagined Conference in Long Beach, California, Zencity hosted a roundtable discussion with several attendees to discuss the concept of trust between local government and its community. As a result of the conversation, I have been reconciling several thoughts centered around trust; specifically, as a local government manager, do you build, earn or empower trust?

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Beyond belt-tightening: How marketing can drive resiliency during uncertain times

McKinsey Public & Social Sector Insights

During tough times, marketing is often the first to be trimmed, but that’s a shortsighted approach. Instead, companies can invest in marketing as a key to long-term growth.

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How Breckenridge, CO Ensures Tax & Licensing Compliance

Breckenridge’s short-term rental boom—over 4,200 licenses —put intense pressure on the town’s small staff and manual processes. Facing compliance and efficiency challenges, the town teamed up with GovOS to automate its STR licensing. The new system: Cut admin time Reduced errors Improved the experience for property owners and town staff Discover the full impact of automation on Breckenridge’s STR management—download the case study.

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NICE Framework Defines the Specifics of Federal Cybersecurity Jobs

FedTech Magazine

During the final round of the annual President’s Cup Cybersecurity Competition in December 2022, competing teams had to find their way out of virtual escape rooms by solving various cyber challenges. In one, they received USB fobs with keys that unlocked hidden files. “There were clues there to look in your system’s memory, and then get a four-digit PIN code to get out of the first room,” explains Rob Karas, assessments branch chief for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which

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Microsoft Teams Premium in GCC Webinar July 19 10:00 AM PST |1 PM EST

Microsoft Public Sector

The Microsoft Teams Product Group is excited to introduce Teams Premium for Government Community Cloud (GCC). On Wednesday, July 19 th 10:00 AM PST |1 PM EST , Teams engineers will walk you through the details of the new Teams Premium SKU. We'll share details about which Teams Premium features (Intelligent Meetings, Protected Meetings, Personalized Meetings) are now generally available for our GCC Customers and when we plan to launch additional features (Advanced Virtual Meetings, Advanced Webin

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Today’s Student Engagement Challenges and How City Leaders Can Help

NLC (National League of Cities)

During the pandemic, as schools nationwide grappled with the challenges of remote learning, social isolation, and disrupted routines, many students fell through the cracks and became disengaged from school. Today, with pandemic-related school closures and virtual learning largely in the past, many anticipated a quick return to “normalcy” in schools.

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The agricultural transition: Building a sustainable future

McKinsey Public & Social Sector Insights

Sustainable farming is necessary for decarbonization. But to get the world to net zero, the agriculture sector must take action along the entire value chain.

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Empower Digital Government: Strategic Workbook for Modern Transformation

Digital transformation is reshaping government interactions, bringing agencies closer to the communities they serve. However, while many have adopted new digital tools, few have implemented comprehensive strategies to maximize their benefits. Our Strategic Workbook for Modern Government offers a step-by-step guide to developing a sustainable digital strategy.

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Federal Agencies Can Leverage Software Bills of Materials for Stronger Risk Management

FedTech Magazine

Modern software development is incredibly complex for federal technology managers, with products typically built from many different components from a variety of global software supply chain sources. The intricacy of this development process will only increase as more advanced software is continually released for ever more powerful enterprise systems and demanding new use cases.

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Cybrary: Closing the cybersecurity skills gap with affordable tools and training

Google Public Sector

We face a concerning shortage of cybersecurity professionals. Worldwide, an estimated 3.4 million more cybersecurity experts are needed, with more than 700,000 required in the U.S. alone. The skills gap is even more alarming given the more than 41% increase in the number of cybercrime victims between 2021 and 2022. Cybrary is working to address these challenges.

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Build a true partnership with a grant writer

Professional Grant Writer

Grant writing is a collaboration between your consultant and your whole staff. To build a true partnership with a grant writer, put communication. The post Build a true partnership with a grant writer appeared first on Professional Grant Writer.

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Race in the UK workplace: The intersectional experience

McKinsey Public & Social Sector Insights

Despite meaningful progress, achieving workplace equity has proved challenging. Addressing intersectional communities—such as Black, Bangladeshi, and Pakistani women—could yield far-reaching benefits.

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7 Signs Your Local Government ERP Is Holding You Back: A Guide for Small Municipalities

Local governments and municipalities serving populations under 200,000 face distinctive challenges in delivering efficient and effective services to their communities. To overcome these challenges, many rely on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems tailored to their specific needs. Not all ERP systems are created equal, and some may hinder progress rather than support it.

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Deepfakes — These Are Really Good

Disaster Zone blog

Can you tell what is real and what isn't?

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How Cities Use the Arts to Promote Youth and Community Development

NLC (National League of Cities)

Arts education can be a powerful tool for youth and community development. By using art as a vehicle, cities have been able to encourage social connection, incorporate youth voices into community-wide conversations, and help young people develop their identities.

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US agencies buy vast quantities of personal information on the open market

GCN

The government faces legal restrictions on how much personal information it can gather on citizens, but the law is largely silent on agencies purchasing the data from commercial brokers.

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The Committed Innovator: The power of design

McKinsey Public & Social Sector Insights

PepsiCo chief design officer Mauro Porcini describes how humanity and authenticity drive innovation, and the ‘unicorn’ superpowers vital to leading from the heart.

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Overcoming Operational Challenges in Parks & Recreation

Speaker: Noratek

Maintaining parks and recreation facilities efficiently is no easy task, especially when faced with scheduling issues, aging infrastructure, and inconsistent inspections. Join us for this insightful webinar where we explore the most common challenges departments like yours are facing and how digital tools like CityReporter can help you streamline operations, ensure safety, and make better use of your resources.

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Disaster Zone Podcast: ‘Diversity in Emergency Management’

Disaster Zone blog

It is up to us to improve the composition of our workforce.

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Want To Boost Your Library Marketing Creativity? Here Are 10 Ways To Reduce Stress so You Can Do Your Best Work

Super Library Marketing

Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library For my birthday, my 23-year-old daughter gave me a gratitude journal. She told me about her own practice of writing in her journal first thing in the morning and right before bed. She gives herself space to list what she’s grateful for and sets her mindset for the day. In fact, she’s got a whole routine for morning and night that’s incredibly healthy.

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Community Schools: Fostering Innovation and Transformation

Homeroom

By: David Greenberg & Dr. Linh Dang The challenges we face in today’s education landscape rarely have simple policy solutions. The youth mental health crisis, insufficient community and family engagement, and lack of access to early childhood learning are only a handful of the complex issues that require innovative strategies that extend beyond the school Continue Reading The post Community Schools: Fostering Innovation and Transformation appeared first on ED.gov Blog.

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Investing in middle managers pays off—literally

McKinsey Public & Social Sector Insights

New research shows that having more top-performing middle managers leads to much better financial outcomes. Here are five actions that can set managers and their organizations up for success.

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Boost Revenue With Simple Short-Term Rental Registration and Tax Collections

Government agencies that rely on tax revenue to fund critical services and infrastructure are finding it more urgent than ever to bridge the gap between under-reported tax revenue and taxpayers’ understanding of the processes. This is especially true as things like short-term rentals (STRs) have grown in popularity and become new sources of income for residents.

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Strengthen your security and optimize your resources with Microsoft 365 Government

Microsoft Public Sector

As citizens of local municipalities, cities, and states we rely on local government agencies every day to ensure we have critical services such as water, sewers, transportation, schools, health service, and emergency services. And in an increasingly digital world government agencies are delivering faster, more effective services for citizens including California Child Support Services and Nevada Department of Transportation.

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Housing For: LGBTQIA+

NLC (National League of Cities)

Note: The terms LGBT, LGBTQ, LGBTQ+, LGBTQIA+, and QT2BIPOC are used in this blog. While not interchangeable, these terms are all used in this blog and derived from their respective original sources to uphold the accuracy of the data and programs being presented.

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Researchers demo geotargeted wildfire alerts sent to vehicles

GCN

The Department of Homeland Security is testing how remote sensors and public warning systems can deliver timely, actionable wildfire alerts to the public.

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The McKinsey Crossword: Generative AI | No. 134

McKinsey Public & Social Sector Insights

Sharpen your problem-solving skills the McKinsey way, with our weekly crossword. Each puzzle is created with the McKinsey audience in mind, and includes a subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) business theme for you to find. Answers that are directionally correct may not cut it if you’re looking for a quick win.

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ASPA TIMES Magazine: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

PA TIMES Magazine is a publication of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), a not-for-profit corporation. This edition focused on diversity, equity and inclusion in public administration, including guest columns, insights for the field and interviews with city government DEI officers about their work at the local level.