May 15, 2008

Letter: Public can participate in history by preserving it

As a closet Historian, I read the article "Founding Fathers go digital" with great interest.  However, the expected timeline for completing the digitization of our Founding Fathers' works is discouraging.  According to the article,Kathleen Williams of [the National Archives and Records Administration] states, "Historians normally prefer to wait until documents have been fully transcribed, annotated and reviewed before making them public." The sidebar suggests that the last of these documents will not be ready until the year 2043!

It appears that those in charge of this effort at NARA are not up on their history. I recommend Ms. Williams take a lesson from the book "The Professor and the Madman", which gives an excellent and interesting account of how the Oxford English Dictionary came to be. After the OED writers realized that they could never write as fast as a living (moving) language, they turned to to the public for help in completing the dictionary. In effect, the OED was the first (paper-based) wiki, written in the 19th century. If our Founding Fathers' papers are truly property of the citizens of the United States, it may be a far easier effort if NARA were to apply Web 2.0 technology to solve this problem. Why not scan the documents and post them in a wiki site for all to see and transpose?

While a final review by expert scholars will bring value to determining a most accurate interpretation of John Adams' handwriting, the collective efforts of the American public will certainly push this project forward much faster, and certainly cheaper, than the timeline expressed in this article. Please, leverage the tools of the 21st century instead of harboring the information for decades.

Richard Tucker
Ashburn, Va.

What do you think? Paste a comment in the box below (registration required), or send your comment to letters@fcw.com (subject line: Blog comment) and we'll post it.

Comments (0)

May 15, 2008

Letter: Government blogs are a good first step

Regarding "Government enters the blogosphere": Great overview of what's happening with blogs and [the] federal government. You've touched on many pertinent aspects of using blogs. We had a panel on Web 2.0 at the recent FOSE conference but really did not have enough time, etc. to do more than touch on use of Web 2.0 applications. But I did post a PowerPoint on Slideshare.net. Just do a quick search on "FOSE" and the presentation should pop up. Web 2.0 applications present so many more possibilities than "just" blogging. But starting with blogging is a good first "toe in the water" to test what's possible.

John Thompson,
Buffalo, NY

What do you think? Paste a comment in the box below (registration required), or send your comment to letters@fcw.com (subject line: Blog comment) and we'll post it.

Comments (0)

May 15, 2008

Letter: Recruit employees with a quicker hiring process

Regarding "Feds need to tap aging boomer workforce" : The interesting aspect of this article is the significant disconnect between those making the revelation and the fact that the federal [human resources] hiring system is causing the problem, not the aging workforce. It is true of any organization that the intellectual knowledge within each organization is at risk without a proper mentoring program, however, most professional organizations understand this and ensure they built it into their strategic plans. The federal government, however, still fosters an antiquated and stovepiped hiring process that is truly disconnected from the actual positions at risk today.

If the goal is to hire and retain the cutting edge personnel seeking federal employment, then perhaps streamlining the hiring process to less than 30 days versus six-nine months would be a start. An educated and eager person desiring to be productive is not the type willing to remain inactive for that length of time for the possibility of a government job at a salary far less than that available in the civilian workforce.

Todd K. Rissinger,
San Diego

What do you think? Paste a comment in the box below (registration required), or send your comment to letters@fcw.com (subject line: Blog comment) and we'll post it.

Comments (0)

May 14, 2008

Letter: Doan was misunderstood

Regarding "Fox: Doan picked a good fight": Thank you Mr Fox. Too few understand what Doan was trying to do. I am also hopeful that she might yet win the war.  One of her last efforts was to push through the Blue Ribbon Commission to look at decade old policies and procedures like the archaic "price reduction clause" that has been reinterpreted and used by the [inspector gen to cause such disruptions in procurements. That commission, might well be called "Lurita's Revenge" for the very first thing they are likely to do is to bring some order and consistency where none previously existed.

Anonymous

What do you think? Paste a comment in the box below (registration required), or send your comment to letters@fcw.com (subject line: Blog comment) and we'll post it.

Comments (0)

May 14, 2008

Letter: Time to settle federal e-forms procurement

Regarding "Feds' move to e-forms delayed by third protest": Matthew [Weigelt], It has been almost four years and [the General Services Administration] has still not awarded this contract.  During my time at GSA, I worked extremely hard to set the foundation for an ongoing e-forms program for the federal government, and here we are today with years wasted with incompetence in understanding the value of what the agency had already built. It has totally tried to reinvent e-forms with individuals who have no expertise in the meaning of electronic forms. 

In early 2000, GSA had an e-forms catalog of all e-forms and a second-to-none system for completing forms electronically.  Instead of continuing to enhance the system at that time, management decided to reinvent what they already had. For what reason, is still a major question!  GSA still has one individual [who] was originally responsible for building the catalog and e-forms solution and she was not even involved in the present procurement mess. Over the past couple of years, Jason Miller and you have written articles on this procurement and it would be great if something could be done to get the right people back involved in this procurement to settle it once and for all, and to start saving our tax dollars again!

Anonymous

What do you think? Paste a comment in the box below (registration required), or send your comment to letters@fcw.com (subject line: Blog comment) and we'll post it.

Comments (0)