Bill's Notebook

1)  Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger, and Citizens More Powerful by Beth Simone Noveck.  Details how she helped create a Web 2.0 solution to where the public can help in patent reviews, Ms. Noveck gives some great tips on how to create a successful social networking site for government agencies.

2) If We Can Put a Man on the Moon: Getting Big Things Done in Government by William D. Eggers and John O’Leary.  Excellent book on how the federal government can better manage large-scale projects.  An especially-telling metaphor is the “Stargate” in which Eggers and O’Leary describe how bills designed to be passed in Congress often fail when they go through the Stargate into administration side of government and the civil servants have to figure out how to implement the new law without any guidance from those who created the law.

3) The Next Government of the United States: Why Our Institutions Fail Us and How to Fix Them by Donald F. Kettl.  Kettl, a noted scholar in public administration, describes why there needs to be a new approach to governing.  He calls for training public managers in “rocket science” which is his term for the skills that lead to the Coast Guard’s successful rescue efforts during Katrina.