Social Security in the BRIC Countries

Submitted by on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 14:35

Social security is a well-established part of the societal landscape in traditional westernized countries. There are a variety of approaches, and there are substantial differences between the operation of social security under the predominantly insurance-based (or Bismarckian) systems and the social assistance (Beveridge) systems. But both were developed and matured in the context of the industrialization of societies and both reflect the need to provide social protection in mass-scale workforces.

A Manager’s Guide to Evaluating Citizen Participation

Submitted by on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 10:19

The Obama administration’s Open Government Initiative is now three years old. But is it making a difference?  Dr. Nabatchi’s report is a practical guide for program managers who want to assess whether their efforts to increase citizen participation in their programs are making a difference. She lays out evaluation steps for both the implementation and management of citizen participation initiatives, as well as how to assess the impact of a particular citizen participation initiative.

A Leader’s Guide to Transformation

Submitted by on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 09:39

The publication of this report is particularly timely. The summer of 2011 was dominated by negotiations between Congress and the president concerning the deficit of the United States and the need to dramatically reduce federal spending in the decade ahead. There is little doubt that agencies across government will need to cut costs while maintaining, if not improving, the performance of their operations.

From Data to Decisions: The Power of Analytics

Submitted by on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 13:28

Batting average isn’t the best way to determine the effectiveness of a hitter. The Oakland Athletics learned that while doing statistical analyses of players and trying to build a winning team during their 2002 season. “They took everything that happened on the baseball field and sliced it and diced it to its most elemental parts,” Michael Lewis, author of the book, “Moneyball,” said in a radio interview.  The A’s surprised just about everyone with their new-found success on the field, besting teams that had millions more to spend on recruiting top players.

A Best Practices Guide for Mitigating Risk in the Use of Social Media

Submitted by on Mon, 11/07/2011 - 11:04

Read the report.

Social media continue to grow across the globe, and the United States federal government is no exception. The administration and Congress actively and increasingly use social media to communicate, to take information in, and to collaborate across boundaries. Yet the benefits of increased involvement through social media also raise new risks to the security of agency information.

Fall/Winter 2011 Edition

Submitted by on Tue, 11/01/2011 - 17:11

Reverse Auctioning: Saving Money and Increasing Transparency

Submitted by on Mon, 10/17/2011 - 13:35

Simply put, reverse auctions are auctions that enable sellers to “bid down” prices for their goods and services. The use of reverse auctions has substantially increased since Wyld’s initial report in 2000, albeit at a slower pace than anticipated in the earlier study. This new report contains original research on the potential of reverse auctions as a government cost-saving tool that also saves time and increases transparency.

A Guide to Data-Driven Performance Reviews

Submitted by on Mon, 09/26/2011 - 12:05

 The law says that these reviews must:

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