Survey Says… Government Websites are Terrible
FoxNews.com had a front-page article this week about a study showing that, despite the president’s dedication to openness and transparency in government and his campaign’s landmark use of the Internet, there is a drop in satisfaction among those who use federal government websites in search of information, and that the private sector far exceeds the government in terms of user satisfaction. The article mentions that “navigating a government Web site can be exasperating,” particularly for people who are used to [...]
What Did YOU Do for World IP Day?
Whew… Big week last week for events about IP. Sunday was World Intellectual Property Day (did you sign on to the Statement of Principles yet?). Monday and Tuesday brought the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s transatlantic collaboration event where representatives from governments and various industries discussed their efforts to fight counterfeiting and piracy, and an assortment of campaigns around the world to communicate the value of IP. One topic of discussion was how to deal with digital natives and a generation [...]
Federal CIO Vivek Kundra a Huge Draw (even on a Sat. Morning)
Vivek Kundra spoke to a 150+ crowd at a Northern Virginia Technology Counsel event on Saturday morning in Tysons Corner. He has his speech crafted pretty well at this point, but did have an interesting response to a question on open standards from someone who said he was affiliated with the W3C--and a more predictable response to a question about cloud computing. One questioner asked about Kundra's commitment to open standards as a way to increase government accountability and transparency. [...]
Stimulus Package for American Innovation and Entrepreneurship
We recently put together a list of policy recommendations for the incoming administration that relate to helping small and medium sized technology businesses, and we're looking for your feedback! Are these the right things to concentrate on? Did we leave something out? Read the recommendations below and then send your suggestions to [email protected]. Stimulus Package for American Innovation and Entrepreneurship Throughout American history, investments in research and development during economic downturns have provided the fuel for economic recoveries that followed. During the Great Depression, Du Pont's [...]
Realizing the Real Value in Interoperability
I attended the HIMSS (Health Information Management Systems Society) conference in Chicago earlier this month, along with upwards of 20,000 other people. Most of them are involved in the sales and procurement process, representing thousands of vendor companies and the health systems, hospitals, clinics, governments, etc., that use their products and services.I’d never been to HIMSS before and it’s overwhelming. There are hundreds of exhibitors, some of whom have exhibits broken down into two, three, or four “theaters” for their [...]
First quarter VC investment at lowest level since 1997
BusinessWeek reveals that, according to the latest Money Tree report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association (based on Thomson-Reuters data), “[v]enture capital investments dropped to the lowest level since 1997 in the first quarter, with just $3 billion invested. […] That’s down 61% in venture dollars invested from the first quarter of 2008, and a 47% decline from the amount invested in the fourth quarter of 2008, which itself was much lower than the rest of 2008. This [...]