Category Archives: Government

April 21, 2006 · 4:06 am

Information, and access to it, Fundamentals for 21st Century Economic Development

That's what Bernanke says – (original source is today's WSJ — subscription required)

"Good data support community growth and development by helping to identify previously unrecognized market opportunities," Mr. Bernanke said. "Free markets can be a powerful source of economic development, but markets work less effectively when information about potential opportunities is absent or costly for private actors to obtain."

The WSJ is kind enough to provide the link to Mr. Bernanke's remarks found at the Federal Reserve site. 

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Filed under Economies, Government, Government Information, Uncategorized

April 18, 2006 · 9:19 am

Public Branding – A waste of people’s money?

BusinessWeek posts a column by Edwin Colyer discussing the differences between public and private branding, and why so many (as in almost every) public branding efforts fall flat.

 So can investments in branding programs be justified, or is the public sector merely following a marketing fad? Indeed, is branding even appropriate for public services?

Georgia is "re-branding" itself — dumping the slogon and logo that has followed state marketing efforts for almost 30 years.  $5 million is budgeted to "impress" the new brand — $5 million in a year to compete against the some 4,000 messages a day that we each personally receive…

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Filed under Government, Uncategorized

March 28, 2006 · 5:10 am

21st Century Imperatives

Some sage words from Wlawdawsky-Berger (Always On) on why innovation is critical:

Consequently, a business or institution of any kind—whether in government, healthcare, academia or any other area of human endeavor—needs to think about innovation as a principle, a pervasive set of behaviors and skills that underlies every aspect of its operations, its strategy and its relationships. In historically dynamic times like these—the inflection points of really big shifts from one era to another—simply innovating aspects of an organization in one or two areas will not be sufficient. The winners—not just of the current competitive battles, but those who aspire to shape the future of commerce and society—need to reimagine and reinvent a lot more than products, services or even processes. They need to rethink basic business models, management systems, organizational relationships and broader policies.

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Filed under Government, Innovation, Uncategorized

March 15, 2006 · 5:45 am

Transparency and Sausage Making

Another in a continuing series of questions on governing 

What if you could see every detail, every move of the law making process for any particular topic you care to follow?  Would such transparency improve the procees, increase your disgust for government, or make no difference whatsoever?

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Filed under Government, Uncategorized