Research Round-up.
Mobile Bridges the Digital Divide (06/05/2012) Three technological advances are giving rise to an Internet-based platform that is enabling business to reach an increasingly large segment of the world’s population. The advances include:
- Inexpensive and smart mobile devices;
- Cloud computing, which is enabling the economical distribution of sophisticated services and apps to all those devices, and
- Broadband wireless networks linking it all together.
Philly’s Text Messaging Pilot (06/05/2012) When you can’t get to a public meeting to tell officials what you think, send them a text. Philadelphia city officials are encouraging citizens to share thoughts, ideas and feedback about planning initiatives on a project that runs for the next month. The tech solution was developed by fellows at Code for America.
Reorganizing Management Functions - Get smart about consolidation and infrastructure management functions (05/2012). A report by the Government Accountability Office provides a checklist of questions for managers. Key questions to consider include:
- What are the goals of the consolidation?
- What opportunities will be addressed through the consolidation and what problems will be solved?
- What problems, if any, will be created?
- Are sufficiently reliable data available to support a business-case analysis or cost-benefit analysis?
Older Adults and Internet Use (06/07/2012) For the first time, half of adults age 65 and older are online using internet or email. For most online seniors, internet use is a daily fixture in their lives.
UK Social Media Guidelines (05/2012) The UK Cabinet Office recently announced the publication of guidance for civil servants on the use of social media as well as guidance for Departments to overcome the technical barriers to civil servants accessing the internet and social media channels.
5 comments
Kay Hopkins says:
June 21, 2012 at 4:41 pm (UTC -5 )
I love the idea that individuals will be able to share there ideas and thoughts with high ranking officials. I am very surprised to see that half of senior citizens are live on the internet. Even if it is simple use of the internet like checking the news online, the fact that they are surfing the web is surprising to me.
Lisa Nelson says:
June 22, 2012 at 12:40 pm (UTC -5 )
I am posting some interesting info on seniors today from a Forrester study that says 60% of seniors are online. Look for it.
Yousaf says:
June 21, 2012 at 7:12 am (UTC -5 )
Thanks for the link for the UK guidelines, very useful for us Brits :)
Yousaf,
Elevatelocal
Lisa Nelson says:
June 22, 2012 at 12:40 pm (UTC -5 )
Got your IM and replied. Hope you got it as I had some issues on Twitter yesterday.
Sports Fan says:
June 12, 2012 at 8:20 pm (UTC -5 )
I’m not sure that Philly’s approach is that great. I imagine that I would be a lot easier for a politician to ignore a text that they don’t what to address than to ignore someone standing in front of them. That said I fully agree that technology will make things easier over time. I think we’re still at a stage where people are trying different things to come up with the best solutions.