Browse Ideas with tag 'development':

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  eliminate the stigma of stopping ineffective programs

  In many partrs of the government, leading a "successful" program is a path to career success, which sometimes creates an incentive for a program manager to defend their program to the bitter end, even if they know the program to be flawed, ineffective, or wasteful. By creating a culture where saying "This isn't working" is just as valued as being "successful", we can potentially save money. This should be tied to effort ...more »

  In many partrs of the government, leading a "successful" program is a path to career success, which sometimes creates an incentive for a program manager to defend their program to the bitter end, even if they know the program to be flawed, ineffective, or wasteful. By creating a culture where saying "This isn't working" is just as valued as being "successful", we can potentially save money.

  This should be tied to effort to make it both easier to start and fund efforts, and to shut them down. In the current procurement process, it's so hard to start and fund anything that once a program is up and running, it becomes at least partially focused on self-preservation, not on optimal performance, because the cost of "starting over" is so high in both time and schedule delay.

  Killing ineffective programs should not also kill one's career.

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  Consolidate Shared Info Simplify Structure/Delivery

  One source, easy retrieval and usage. Information shared agency-wide or even inter-agency can be shared and delivered to end users or applications in a standard structure agreed upon by a consortium. Instances of information can be stored or cached at multiple nodes and refreshed regularly. An example: NASA can host science publications and author information as searchable XML in a structure web developers agency-wide ...more »

  One source, easy retrieval and usage.

  Information shared agency-wide or even inter-agency can be shared and delivered to end users or applications in a standard structure agreed upon by a consortium. Instances of information can be stored or cached at multiple nodes and refreshed regularly.

  An example: NASA can host science publications and author information as searchable XML in a structure web developers agency-wide agree upon. This information can be displayed by any website or application with access to the XML feed.

  Currently, this kind of information is entered by any number of authors to any number of websites or applications. The result of this is a vast, disjointed collection and likely inconsistent information that takes much effort to normalize, alter or ingest into other systems.

  Centralizing and standardizing by consortium would allow the development community to spend more time on development, maintain control over delivery vehicle, and have easy to use consistent data at their disposal. Developers can focus on new personal innovations instead.

  Successful example of consortium-derived standards: RSS Feeds, HTML, CSS, Wordpress, et. al.

  Possible areas that could be improved: medical records, personnel listing / records, publications, research highlights, training materials, education / outreach resources, inventory, procurement, logistics, intelligence, etc.

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  Share GIS resources and strategies across government

  Consolidate geospatial data and resources across those agencies using it in their daily activities. For example, NRCS and the Forest Service deploys an Image Service only for their agency's GIS users and that effort is duplicated at agencies within DOI even if they have the resources to implement the technology. USGS has programmers who can develop GIS applications for their use but other agencies within DOI hire a ...more »

  Consolidate geospatial data and resources across those agencies using it in their daily activities. For example, NRCS and the Forest Service deploys an Image Service only for their agency's GIS users and that effort is duplicated at agencies within DOI even if they have the resources to implement the technology. USGS has programmers who can develop GIS applications for their use but other agencies within DOI hire a contractor to develop a similar application. Agencies usually have similar data and development needs and duplication should be avoided

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  Less Arms R&D, More NASA R&D

  I'm not aware of specific military spending projects, because a lot of arms development is need-to-know, but boosting our weaponry supply in general is way over-funded. I feel like shifting money to other military-based R&D has less of a beneficial effect outside of the military sector than NASA based R&D will have on the rest of the world. The military has a significantly higher budget to start with; NASAs is extremely ...more »

  I'm not aware of specific military spending projects, because a lot of arms development is need-to-know, but boosting our weaponry supply in general is way over-funded.

  I feel like shifting money to other military-based R&D has less of a beneficial effect outside of the military sector than NASA based R&D will have on the rest of the world.

  The military has a significantly higher budget to start with; NASAs is extremely small comparatively. 50 billion dollars in the Military, which has such massive capital resources, has a much smaller marginal gain than those 50 billion dollars redirected to NASA, as that would double its budget.

  The contributions NASA would give to science would provide numerous benefits for mankind outside of just space exploration. For example - if NASA were to fund, say, a solar power research project to increase energy gain from light sources, in order to further space travel capabilities, the benefits to mankind on earth due to increased efficiency in solar power would be outstanding.

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  "Open Source" government funded software projects

  The public does it! There are so many open source projects out there that provide source code and accept input from around the globe, why doesn't the government have this capability within itself? Since we're developing software with government employees and paying with tax payer money, what does the whole government gain from a piece of software only being available to one spec in the cloud? The software could be ...more »

  The public does it! There are so many open source projects out there that provide source code and accept input from around the globe, why doesn't the government have this capability within itself?

  Since we're developing software with government employees and paying with tax payer money, what does the whole government gain from a piece of software only being available to one spec in the cloud?

  The software could be released to any agency or service that wants to use it and can prove operational need for it, at no additional cost!

  We could put the source code out there for modification like all the open-source projects on the web. This could make dedicated development team's lives easier by receiving input, suggestions, and comments from around the entire system, rather than just being requirement drive.

  This drives innovation and security on the outside, lets use it as an example for the inside.

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  Enable Employee Innovation beyond their own Job Description

  Government employees with technical degrees perform their jobs according to their specific written performance appraisal and job description. Sometimes, because they are too close to their immediate work, they themselves cannot see where innovation in their own area might be made. As a counterpoint, an employee with advanced technical knowledge and enthusiasm might have good ideas that are readily applicable to another ...more »

  Government employees with technical degrees perform their jobs according to their specific written performance appraisal and job description. Sometimes, because they are too close to their immediate work, they themselves cannot see where innovation in their own area might be made. As a counterpoint, an employee with advanced technical knowledge and enthusiasm might have good ideas that are readily applicable to another government laboratory or enterprise, but the employee is reluctant to discuss this with their immediate supervisors, for fear of being perceived as not concentrating on their own job.

  I propose that an optional "20%" other technical activities be included in a Government employee's Job description, subject to normal supervisory and HR negotiation as to when and how this is to occur.

  The benefit to the Government will be new, fresh, ideas, and increased patent and technology research and development, without new contracts and programs required, at least in the early phases of innovation.

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  Move USDA's International Development Assistance to USAID

  USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service administers many international development programs, and is redundant with USAID. Move this function to USAID

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  Federal Employee Development Plans

  Each Federal position should have an Employee Development Plan attached to it. This plan would consist of education, experiential training, and other tasks and goals designed to help the employee become more proficient at their current job, and also prepare them for promotion to higher-level positions. This would make government more efficent in three ways: agencies would have a viable, powerful tool for succession ...more »

  Each Federal position should have an Employee Development Plan attached to it. This plan would consist of education, experiential training, and other tasks and goals designed to help the employee become more proficient at their current job, and also prepare them for promotion to higher-level positions.

  This would make government more efficent in three ways: agencies would have a viable, powerful tool for succession planning; employees would be encouraged and rewarded for high acheivement; and burnt-out or unsuccessful employees could be replaced with higher-performing ones.

  Succession planning in many agencies is limited at best, and training dollars are often the first to be cut from a program's budget. However, there are shortages of talent for many necessary Federal positions. If each employee has training and development written into their position, agencies could be better prepared for the future, and more likely to make an investment in their staff. Agencies would be actively developing their future leadership, and employees would see clear opportunities for an ambitious career path in the Federal government.

  Opportunities for education, promotion, and personal development would attract many high-performing and ambitious workers. A continuous focus on high acheivement, rather that taking the safe route and doing "good enough", would encourage staff to bring new ideas forward and seek out ways to make their agencies perform better.

  Requiring employees to stay active in their own development, and having Progress Reviews every 3-5 years, would allow managers to make performance-based decisions to reward high achievers, and release workers who are stagnant or unsatisfactory. Concrete, objective standards would give employees clear goals to work towards.

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  Bi-Yearly R&D Idea Competitions

  Use bi-yearly competitions to fuel innovation for research and development partnerships between the public and private sector targeting USA development and production. Use private funding mechanisms like Angel and Co-op Investing to select 1-2 ideas for proof of concept. If successful, everyone shares in a percentage of the profits while fueling potential increases in trade and exports.

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  Get DOD Out of the Development Business

  The Department of Defense (DOD) has massive amounts of funding that is being used for development activities in Afghanistan, Iraq, Africa and no doubt other regions. DOD is not a development agency; this is not what they know how to do. DOD does not do development very well, and they focus on operational concerns rather than sustainable development. Other agencies, like USAID, are experts in development, but do not ...more »

  The Department of Defense (DOD) has massive amounts of funding that is being used for development activities in Afghanistan, Iraq, Africa and no doubt other regions. DOD is not a development agency; this is not what they know how to do. DOD does not do development very well, and they focus on operational concerns rather than sustainable development. Other agencies, like USAID, are experts in development, but do not have even a fraction of the funding for their own, better-thought- out and coordinated programs. The solution: Cut the development project funding from DOD's budget and give the money to USAID, the Department of State, and other agencies with development expertise to fund their development programs so that the U.S. Government's devleopment activities can best achieve their goals. Let DOD stick to what it does best - fighting the current wars and keeping the fighting forces ready for future war fighting.

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  The R&D Corps - A Government Owned Invention Capital Firm

  Modeled after Benjamin Franklin's Junto, create a government-owned invention capital firm that converts federal employee R&D into a revenue stream for humanitarian efforts, good will missions, and social entrepreneurship. Group efforts of a collaborative information network (COIN) would empower individuals to contribute intellectual capital to solve global problems. Requests for invention for individuals or groups could ...more »

  Modeled after Benjamin Franklin's Junto, create a government-owned invention capital firm that converts federal employee R&D into a revenue stream for humanitarian efforts, good will missions, and social entrepreneurship. Group efforts of a collaborative information network (COIN) would empower individuals to contribute intellectual capital to solve global problems. Requests for invention for individuals or groups could be posted on a shared website. Related licensing and revenue would be controlled by a government owned entity.

  Goals would be to fund domestic revitalization of urban areas, as well as good will missions with trade partners in times of crisis (ie Japan). Examples of private invention capital firms already exist. This suggestion would tap into the intellectual capital of federal employees and volunteers throughout the USA.

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

• I agree

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  Increasing Trade, Exports, and Overall Competitiveness »

  The R&D Corps - Government Owned Invention Capital Firm

  Modeled after Benjamin Franklin's Junto, create a government-owned invention capital firm that converts federal employee R&D into a revenue stream for humanitarian efforts, good will missions, and social entrepreneurship. Group efforts of a collaborative information network (COIN) would empower individuals to contribute intellectual capital to solve global problems. Requests for invention for individuals or groups could ...more »

  Modeled after Benjamin Franklin's Junto, create a government-owned invention capital firm that converts federal employee R&D into a revenue stream for humanitarian efforts, good will missions, and social entrepreneurship. Group efforts of a collaborative information network (COIN) would empower individuals to contribute intellectual capital to solve global problems. Requests for invention for individuals or groups could be posted on a shared website. Related licensing and revenue would be controlled by a government owned entity.

  Goals would be to fund domestic revitalization of urban areas, as well as good will missions with trade partners in times of crisis (ie Japan). Examples of private invention capital firms already exist. This suggestion would tap into the intellectual capital of federal employees and volunteers throughout the USA.

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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