03/28/08 12:20 pm ET
As a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, I feel I am entitled to take a gentle poke at the group now and then, and goodness knows, I have. Sometimes it has seemed to me more like a cigar-smoke-filled gentleman's club home to endless arguments about the "M" in OMB than a leader in public service innovation. But lo and behold, along comes NAPA's new Collaboration Project to blow a hole in my misconceptions.
NAPA officially kicked off the project in February, but it was born at a dinner table. NAPA president Jenna Dorn had just pushed back after a pleasant meal with old friend Kip Hawley, Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, when Hawley said he had one word for her, ala "The Graduate." "Wiki," he said, and Dorn was off. "He's always been cutting edge," says Dorn. "I read everything I could about it."
TSA has been running a wiki for employee input since last April, and getting plenty of participation. Hawley spoke about the wiki, named Idea Factory, at the Collaboration Project kickoff. You can hear him on NAPA's site. As he says, there are 6,000 people on the wiki at any one time out of a workforce of 43,000. Among other things, TSA used the Idea Factory to let Transportation Security Officers comment on their new uniform. Incidentally, Hawley unveiled it via Webcast in July. And, though the IdeaFactory isn't open for citizen input, TSA is running a pretty cool blog that is: "Evolution of Security."
The fired-up Dorn set NAPA staffers alight, too, especially Frank DiGiammarino and Lena Trudeau, vice president and director of strategic initiatives at NAPA respectively. They, in turn, tracked down the book, Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (Portfolio 2006), and author Don Tapscott. He heads New Paradigm, an international think tank in Toronto, where a key research line happens to be "Government 2.0: Wikinomics, Government & Democracy," a multimillion-dollar global research project aimed at harnessing new models of collaboration to transform the public sector.
All this collaboration begat more, and now NAPA and New Paradigms are partners and sponsors of a secure Collaborative Project wiki platform operated by New Paradigm. Dorn says project members will "meet" there to, well, collaborate. NAPA also has its own wiki, where staffers and fellow can review and comment on interviews, draft reports and other projects. "It has a lot of applicability to the kinds of research projects NAPA has been asked to do: gathering data, analyzing and giving people news," Dorn adds.
Her manifesto of sorts, "Rebooting the Public Square," ran in Federal Computer Week in December. NAPA is convening federal agencies to participate in the project--three or four have signed up already--and NAPA staffers and fellows will support them. Federal Computer Week also has a nice compilation of coverage about the project and other collaboration efforts. And I continue to blog about all manner of collaboration online at The Agile Mind. Drop by for more.
COMMENTS
While I enjoy the Idea Factory, and use it often, it isn't technically a wiki. It's more of a modified web board. I do use work specific wikis, but the Idea Factory isn't one of them.
J-Dub 04/02/08 08:15 am ET
It would be nice if we had the IT security solutions in place to be able to use new technology such as this in agencies where much of our interaction is with citizens/customers. (Without the red tape and barriers and having to outsource a host site.)
GHarris 04/01/08 06:58 am ET
Licensee inservice inspection will analyze the second category. A final decision concerning the DSIs and options comprises the degree of risk reduction. By conducting a reassessment of activities in order to redefine the basic nature of the work of the agency and the means by which that work is accomplished, the regulatory framework offers options to focus on the agency. A set of specific examples of activities undertaken by the agency to proactively improve the regulatory framework initiates the licensing standard review plan. By verification that licensees comply with applicable rules, requirements, and the terms of their license, establishing rigorous objective criteria to support staff decisionmaking has occurred as part of the agency's ongoing plan to be more aggressively proactive about its regulatory framework. After the first two months of this effort, the regulatory framework for the licensee business areas would be selected for the first category. Based on actions since 1975, a priority objective as an alternative to the fundamental commitment to regulatory excellence and effectiveness in implementing the agency's health and safety mission includes the prediction of future requirements and challenges.
Wikid Witch of the West 03/31/08 01:58 pm ET