The U.S. Postal Service's Web-based program to collect employee ideas on customer service, productivity and revenue generation lacks transparency, leaving submissions in limbo, according to the USPS inspector general.

In a report released Tuesday, the IG found that employee feedback took more than two years to evaluate, rather than the seven-day turnaround outlined in the program's guidelines.

Our survey of employees who submitted ideas revealed that untimely evaluations, insufficient management commitment and communication, and insufficient program transparency were perceived as inhibitors to the program's success. Program management indicated that system limitations such as electronic reminders and employee separations contributed to the backlog in open statuses.

The seven-day promise may have been a bit ambitious, but the IG report found that NASA and the Defense Department have similar programs and complete idea evaluations in 20 to 45 days, much faster than the two-year process for eIDEAS.

An obstacle I encounter regularly in this job is locating contact information for specific individuals in the federal government. Unless I've met someone directly or been given their e-mail and phone number by a colleague, it takes a good amount of time to track them down. I regularly have to ask, "Do you know the e-mail standard at [agency name]?"

Because each agency seems to use a different convention, I'm always wondering: Is it firstname.lastname@agency.gov? Is the agency abbreviated -- like "@dhs.gov" -- or written out in full (@state.gov)? Initials, periods, underscores, the list goes on.

Linda Cureton, NASA's chief information officer, blogs about how and why she established the e-mail standard at the Justice Department:

My biggest mistake was establishing the e-mail convention while at Department of Justice. It was firstname.middleinitial.lastname@usdoj.gov. I liked that because it was easy to manage the directory and avoid name collisions. Well that made it very difficult for someone to guess an e-mail address unless you know the receiver's middle initial. So, it was easy for me to administer, but difficult for people to use. It still exists today -- what I established in the late 90s.

So why not have one standard for all federal agencies so no one has to guess? I suppose it's a good way of keeping contact information private, but it sure makes it hard for colleagues and others to stay in touch.

Information technology budgets may be going down in the next few years, and chief information officers will be asked to do more with less. However, strained resources could promote innovation and efficiency, according to state IT professionals.

A recent survey from industry association TechAmerica, consulting firm Grant Thornton and the National Association of State Chief Information Officers found that limited funding could mean more innovative IT solutions for state governments. Respondents, including 40 state and territory CIOs, said they expect to employ more creative strategies and emerging technologies in the next few fiscal years to balance budget cuts.

For example, CIOs reported renegotiating contracts, improving procurement processes and sharing applications across agencies to save money. They also are exploring areas like cloud computing, social media and green technology, though some of these projects are slower to catch on. While more than half of all federal agencies are actively working on shifting to the cloud, just 20 percent of state CIOs are doing so.

Results show that nearly two-thirds of state agencies use social media like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, but only a quarter have statewide policies for these tools. And 10 percent of those surveyed said that their states ban social media altogether.

I attended a House Oversight subcommitee hearing yesterday afternoon. As usual, I brought along my laptop, as taking notes and checking email are more easily accomplished using a full keyboard rather than pen and paper and my tiny iPhone screen.

However, as I plugged in my computer in preparation for opening statements to begin, a committee staffer rushed over and informed me that laptops aren't allowed in the hearing room.

Aside from the fact that I'd never heard that rule before when covering this committee (and particularly not for press), the subject of the hearing left me even more confused over the "no laptop" policy. The topic?

Social media and the use of Web 2.0 in federal agencies.

Plus, I'd like to note that everything I can do on my computer I also can do with a smart phone, even if it's a bit more difficult.

Do individual federal employees really have an impact on Twitter?

Steve Lunceford over at GovTwit, a database of government Twitter users at the federal, state and local levels, wrote on Monday about the popularity of individual Twitter accounts across government. Sure, the agency-level handles are popular and have plenty of followers, and it's easy to get lost as an individual employee. But in filtering out the names of individual feds, Lunceford found that a couple of major players rose to the top.

@BarackObama and @JohnMcCain fill the first two slots in the Top 10, and @clairemc and @jimdemint represent the Senate's social media contingent. Interesting, the only two agencies on the list are the State Department, represented by Jared Cohen (@JaredCohen) of the Office of Policy Planning and Alec Ross (@AlecJRoss), senior advisor for innovation; and NASA, with three astronauts (@astro_mike, @astro_jose and @astro_127). Both agencies have a strong presence in the social media sphere, so perhaps these feds have a leg up on other feds when it comes to attracting an audience?