Wed.Oct 30, 2024

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What I learned from Daniel Kahneman

McKinsey Public & Social Sector Insights

Daniel Kahneman, the psychologist whose findings helped launch behavioral economics, passed away this March. The encouraging words he shared with me offer good news for organizations.

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Is the public safety department model the future of municipal emergency service?

American City & Country

The undeniable fiscal constraints associated with local governance has challenged contemporary public administrators to achieve more with less. Budgets are stretched thin, and local government managers face increasingly complex service delivery demands from an electorate that loathes the idea of paying higher taxes. Traditionally solely a function of the police, contemporary public administrators are cognizant of the fact that community safety through effective emergency service delivery plays a

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What is retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)?

McKinsey Public & Social Sector Insights

Retrieval-augmented generation, or RAG, is a process applied to large language models to make their outputs more relevant for the end user.

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5 Ways to Strengthen Water Infrastructure Security

State Tech Magazine

In early October, the largest utility in the U.S. was hit by a devastating cyberattack. The provider had to postpone all billing operations in the wake of unauthorized system access, and more than 14 million people were unable to pay for water during the weeklong billing shutdown. Communities in Kansas, Pennsylvania and Texas also experienced disruptions to water systems after cyberattacks within the past year.

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Municipal Maintenance: Ready, Set, Inspect!

Speaker: Noratek

Maintaining municipal operations is no small task, especially when budgets are tight and public expectations are high. In this webinar, we’ll explore how local governments can streamline their maintenance operations while ensuring safety, compliance, and efficiency. What You’ll Gain: Proven strategies for effective inspection management Insight into leveraging digital tools Practical tips for addressing common maintenance challenges Examples of municipalities that have achieved success.

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Assessing the impact of Hurricanes Helene and Milton on small businesses

McKinsey Public & Social Sector Insights

Many small enterprises stood in the path of two recent US hurricanes. How many firms and workers were put at risk, and which sectors could feel the greatest impact?

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Augmenting Intelligence in State and Local Government

GovLoop

Alan Shark is an Associate Professor at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, an affiliate faculty member at GMU’s Center for the Advancement of Human-Machine Partnership, and Executive Director of the Public Technology Institute. He’s also the author of “ Artificial Intelligence: A Primer for State & Local Government.

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State Department Bets Big on Data-Driven Diplomacy

GovLoop

In 2022, the State Department updated its criteria for evaluating U.S. Foreign Service employees’ performance to reflect data’s growing usefulness — in all aspects of department work. The Core Precepts outline five competencies that selection boards consider when reviewing employees and making decisions about tenure or promotions. As part of the “substantive and technical expertise” competency, Foreign Service employees must develop “the ability to read, understand, create, and communicate

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UK launches AI safety programme to build public trust in Artificial Intelligence

Open Access Government - Technology News

The UK Government has new plans to strengthen the power of Artificial Intelligence, while also ensuring society stays safe and secure A new programme called the AI Safety Institute Systemic Safety Grants Programme will provide researchers with up to £200,000 for each supporting project that investigates the societal risks associated with AI, including deepfakes, misinformation, and cyber-attacks.

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CISO Council and CDO Council Release Joint Guide on Federal Zero Trust Data Security

The CIO Council

Today, the CISO Council and CDO Council released the Federal Zero Trust (ZT) Data Security Guide resource , a first-of-its-kind document and key deliverable of OMB M-22-09, Moving the U.S. Government Towards Zero Trust Cybersecurity Principles. M-22-09 charged the Federal CDO Council and Federal CISO Council to convene a cross-agency working group of data and security experts to develop a data security guide for Federal agencies.

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Growing Small Towns: Why Local Leaders Should Join NLC’s Small Cities Council

NLC (National League of Cities)

Over the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some of the smallest communities across the country.

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How Breckenridge, CO Ensures Tax & Licensing Compliance

Breckenridge’s short-term rental boom—over 4,200 licenses —put intense pressure on the town’s small staff and manual processes. Facing compliance and efficiency challenges, the town teamed up with GovOS to automate its STR licensing. The new system: Cut admin time Reduced errors Improved the experience for property owners and town staff Discover the full impact of automation on Breckenridge’s STR management—download the case study.

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How One Agency Wove Zero Trust Into Its Culture

GovLoop

The U.S. Department of Education has plenty of incentive to instill a zero-trust philosophy across its enterprise, even without needing to comply with the White House’s Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity or the ensuing federal strategy for implementing zero-trust architectures. Because of the nature of the department’s work with students and their families, the agency holds personally identifiable information (PII) and other sensitive data on about 28% of the populatio

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Overcoming the European tech IPO challenge

McKinsey Public & Social Sector Insights

Europe’s tech IPO market can make strategic adjustments for growth and sustainability.

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DHS Brings New Discipline to Cyber Planning

GovLoop

In 2021, DHS, like many agencies, was putting together a funding request to boost its cybersecurity work after the SolarWinds cyberattack. Hemant Baidwan was leading the effort and reviewing requests from various DHS components when he realized something was missing: the ability to connect funding to outcome. Now the department’s Chief Information Security Officer, Baidwan puts it this way: “OK, we got $5.

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New AI Use Cases Tackle State Health and Human Services Challenges 

Government Technology Insider

As state Health and Human Services agencies explore new ways to improve constituent service and outcomes, they are identifying new AI use cases to solve some of HHSs biggest problems. In this article, our colleagues at Future Healthcare Today explore how AI solves Health and Human Services challenges The impact and applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) have been top of mind for government agencies in 2024.

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Holiday Safety Tips for Municipal Operations

The holiday season brings joy and celebration, but it also introduces unique challenges for municipal operations. From ensuring safe snow removal and managing icy sidewalks to organizing festive events and addressing increased community needs, municipalities play a critical role in keeping residents safe and operations running smoothly. This eBook provides actionable safety tips to help your team navigate the holiday season effectively, protect staff and citizens, and ensure compliance with safe

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The influence of conflict on agenda setting in the US Congress

Policy & Politics Journal blog

by Jonathan Lewallen Attention in the policy process—among individuals, among institutions and organisations, and within political systems—is a scarce resource. Paying attention to one or even a few issues means other issues go unaddressed.

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How to evolve federal performance management—and what’s possible right now

Partnership for Public Service

This time of year brings cooler weather, changing leaves, planning for upcoming holidays— and, for many, the annual performance review process. Good performance management should be happening year-round. But for too many employees and managers, the annual review and goal-setting process—if it happens at all—is the only time they think about performance management.

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How the Upcoming Election is an Opportunity to Improve Local Civil Discourse

NLC (National League of Cities)

As November 2024 approaches, many local leaders and their municipalities are working to prioritize civil discourse and strong engagement in the democratic process throughout this election cycle. During the November 2020 presidential election, research by the Bridging Divides Initiative found that threats and harassment against local officials spiked.

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How To Persuade Library Leaders To Take Your Marketing Advice

Super Library Marketing

Watch this video now #LibraryMarketing Show, episode 264 Sometimes it can be very difficult to get your library leaders on board with your marketing ideas. I’ve got five tips that I’ve used to persuade senior leaders and supervisors, and I’m going to share them with you in this episode of The Library Marketing Show. Plus we’ll give kudos to a library that received press coverage for a new outreach initiative at their local airport!

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Boost Revenue With Simple Short-Term Rental Registration and Tax Collections

Government agencies that rely on tax revenue to fund critical services and infrastructure are finding it more urgent than ever to bridge the gap between under-reported tax revenue and taxpayers’ understanding of the processes. This is especially true as things like short-term rentals (STRs) have grown in popularity and become new sources of income for residents.