Stepping into that grocery store was intimidating, to say the least. It’s hard enough that everything is in a different language, but the types of products, arrangement, pricing, and even social interaction that takes place in the grocery store are so radically different that, despite how much I’ve traveled, foreign grocery stores still make me pause with foreign unease.

It wasn’t just Copenhagen, either. In fact, grocery shopping in Tokyo was much more difficult, for obvious linguistic reasons. But on the other end of the spectrum, even visiting a convenience store in London, or closer to home, even New York City can be a shockingly unfamiliar experience for someone like myself, who’s grown up in rural America and moved to Washington, D.C.–a city that is, well, remarkably unique. Sure, there’s no language barrier, but there’s still that odd feeling of unfamiliarity. I remember the first time I walked into a Duane Reade–it felt exactly like walking into a 7-eleven in Japan, a Netto in Copenhagen, or a Sainsbury’s in London.

Now the only reason I write all this is because this morning I got that very same feeling walking into a Rite-Aid here in Crystal City.

I walked in and was suddenly stunned by that odd feeling of out-of-place-ness. That feeling you get when you go in a place that you expect to feel comfortable, normal, and consistent, but instead are confronted with an environment radically different from your own–like walking into a foreign grocery store.

There’s nothing particularly remarkable about this Rite-Aid that I can pin this feeling on. The products were the same, the prices no different. Even the layout was remarkably similar to most of the CVS’s and Rite-Aids around the District. Perhaps it was my mood, my state of mind at the time, or my imagination still lost in the book I was reading on the metro.

In fact, I woke up at 3:30 because my poor roommate had managed to lock himself out of the building when he ran back outside to look for something he thought he had lost (he works late nights). We ended up talking for about 20 minutes, then I found that–surprise, surprise–I couldn’t go back to sleep. I’d gone to bed at a shocking (for me, especially), 11 p.m. last night.

I stayed up and read part of Netherland by Joseph O’Neill (which is an absolutely fantastic read so far, by the way) until about 4:30 a.m. Then napped and snuggled with the kitty (don’t diss it) until about 5:00 a.m. Then I got up for real.

So what’s the point in me describing my morning to you so far? It was early, and I love it. And I feel like I’m in a constant struggle to establish a morning routine that I enjoy.

Too often, I’m waking up at 7:45 or even 8:00 a.m. and then forced to rush through the whole morning getting-ready process. No breakfast, quick shower, brush the teeth and out the door. By the time I get to work not only am I not awake, but I’m irritable from having to rush and even more tired from all the rushing. No fun at all.

This week I’ve been waking up around 6:00-6:30 a.m., and it’s nice. It’s given me a little more time to get ready in the mornings, grab a bite of breakfast, read the paper, catch up on e-mail, and prepare for the day. But I’m finding that 5:00 a.m. is really my sweet spot. Waking up that early gets me genuinely excited about being awake. There’s something incredibly special about enjoying those last minutes of darkness, watching the sunrise, experiencing the city still slumbering around you.

But waking up at 5:00 a.m. obviously isn’t easy to do. Every once in a while, like today, I can pull it off, but obviously it’s much easier to do when I crashed at 11:00 p.m., as opposed to my normal midnight, 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. bedtime. I’ve tried all the tricks: leaving my alarm on the opposite side of the room (even in an entirely different room, in fact), drinking water before bed, drinking water as soon as I wake up, jumping immediately in the shower… you name it. More often than not I wind up back in bed, at some point, and find myself groggily rushing toward the door when I finally snap out of it.

So what’s a busy college student to do? I’m not sure I have much of an answer. I need to work on going to bed earlier instead of staying up to do work, I think. I find that I’m not only more productive early in the mornings, but I’m happier while I work, too. At night I’m tired and sometimes a little irritable and well, I’m probably not getting much done.

And I suppose I’ll keep trying the tricks, and seeing if I can start finding this morning routine. Getting into a pattern of sleep at 11:00, waking at 5:00. A good six hours of sleep (more than enough for me, generally) and a nice fresh start to the morning. Wish me luck.

That said, I felt the need to say something about just how amazing it is to bike in the rain.

So how amazing is it? Really, really amazing.

My love affair with biking in the rain began in Copenhagen and well, it started out as a love/hate relationship. Sure, it felt kind of nice in September 2009, but as soon as it started getting colder (ya know, like the third week of September…) it wasn’t quite as nice. And sometimes it just wasn’t convenient to get all wet whenever I needed to be somewhere and, well, look decent.

But I soon got over that. After biking in Copenhagen for a few weeks, you get used to the rain and the clouds and biking in the dark on winding city streets. You get used to wearing water-resistant clothing and drying out quickly (even using bathroom hand dryers, if absolutely necessary!). And you get used to everyone else being soggy and out of breath from pedaling through the storm, too. It’s just part of life.

Once I got past that, I started to realize just how beautiful a city can be in a rain storm. It’s not always about the sun, or blue skies, or being able to see miles and miles. Sometimes it’s nice to just appreciate the calm and the overwhelming monotony of the rain, drowning out traffic noise, voices, trains, planes, you name it. Sometimes it’s nice to bike along and get absolutely soaked, like I did today, and just enjoy it. You learn to let go and get over it, realizing that there are so many worse conditions to be in than soggy.

Today I biked home from Northern Virginia and biked my way up Wisconsin Avenue. It’s not an easy bike ride–those of you familiar with that hill will back me up, I’m sure–but it’s a pretty one. Just as I almost reached the top, the skies opened up and decided to throw everything it had at me. It was like biking through a river in spots, and needless to say, by the time I reached my apartment I was thoroughly, utterly, drenched. And naturally, the rain stopped about 15 seconds before I reached my door.

I made my way upstairs, dropped my shoes outside the door, parked my soggy bike out on the deck and stripped off my ridiculously wet clothes, and then took a look outside. The bike ride was amazing, the rain came at the perfect time, and I didn’t mind being soaked at all. But what I saw out my kitchen window is what really made my night. And well, a picture is worth a thousand words:

I hope you all have an amazing night, and next time it looks rainy outside and you’re thinking about biking, but start to change your mind… go for it. Who says you can’t bike in the rain?

Today @ptklein, @laurenkrizel and I wandered over to the National Zoo for a while to enjoy the weather (it’s free, and you can literally just walk in–one of the best things to do on a pretty day in DC, if you ask me). Being in the zoo sparked all of our more adventurous sides, and naturally we got to talking about safaris, traveling the world, and long-shot career options like nature photography, etc.

But Paul brought up a great point, and it made me start to think. We’re the first generation who isn’t brought up to be just one thing in life. Very few of us anymore set out to be only doctors, or only businessmen. I’d even be willing to bet that if I surveyed 500 of my closest college-age friends, very few of them would be able to pinpoint one answer to the age-old question, “What do you want to do when you grow up?”

I’m far from being able to answer that question, too. My degrees are in marketing and communications, with some study in statistics. So where will that leave me? In a PR firm? Doing marketing for some big company? I’m not sure that’s where I want to be.

Instead, what if I put my marketing and social media skills to use in a high-profile political campaign? Or took them into humanitarian work abroad? Or used them to document the natural world on wild African adventures? Or maybe I could take them into the government, working in the White House; as an elected official connecting with my constituents; or maybe even in the State or Defense Departments, working to keep our country safe and secure?

See what I mean? I can envision thousands of possibilities for my skills, and who knows, my degrees might not even be relevant five years from now. For all I know Twitter and Facebook will be a thing of the past, this blog will be a relic, and I’ll be on to bigger and better things.

As long as it’s exciting, I’m ok with that. If there’s one thing I fear, it’s living a boring life. I’m pretty confident I’ve avoided that so far, and with a little luck I’ve got nothing to worry about in the future. My life-long goal is simple: to have good stories to tell when I’m old. I want to be a 21st-century Indiana Jones (perhaps minus the Nazis), one adventure after the next, living, learning, and, well, living.

What do you want to do? What adventures can you imagine in your future? Sound off in the comments, or chat with me on Facebook or Twitter.

Studying abroad last fall in Copenhagen, I continued my bicycling habit, purchasing a used bike there and using it almost exclusively for my transit around the city–along with the other 60% of Copenhageners who ride bicycles regularly, and 30%+ who commute by bike every single day. In Denmark, bicycle is actually spelled bycykel, which literally translates to “city bike.” It was there I learned about one of my favorite blogs, Copenhagenize (and they’re on Twitter: @copenhagenize).

This past semester I continued biking back here in DC, despite the snowpocalypse, snom attack, and snowverkill. In the past two days, my bicycling has picked up significantly now that I’m working out in Arlington. The choice is pretty simple–I can spend over an hour and $6-8 per day (especially with today’s fare hike announcement)… or I can spend 30 relaxing, healthy, active minutes on my bicycle to get to work.

So why aren’t there more of us out there biking on all these beautiful summer days? I’ll admit I’ve noticed more people on bikes this spring and summer than I remember seeing last year, but we’ve got a long way to go to catch up with Copenhagen. Let’s Copenhagenize DC! Let’s turn this into a bike city. We’re already the fittest city in the nation, so why not really earn that title?

Do you bike? How often? Where to? If not, why not? Do you have any questions about biking in DC? Ask me!

And now trust me, I’m not a hardcore bicyclist. I don’t have a fancy bike uniform, a super-expensive bike, and I’m not one of those people who wakes up at 4am so I can bike 60 miles before work every day. I’m your pretty average kid, who just happens to enjoy riding his bike to work.

Anyway, I’ll leave you with some of my favorite sites for bicycling and public transit in DC–check them out, bookmark them, add them to your RSS feed. You won’t regret it!

• Greater Greater Washington – one of the best transit and bicycling sites in DC, hands down. There is no better source for news on public transit, WMATA failings, and ways to make DC a greater city. They’re also on twitter @ggwash.
• Washington Area Bicyclist Association – pretty much the official source for all things bicycling in DC (but also more geared towards the fancy bicycling pros).
• Bike Washington – the absolute best resource for trails, routes, and almost everything else you could need to bike Washington, DC; definitely visit this site to get an idea for what all is out there!
• Hudson Trail Outfitters – probably my favorite Washington-area sporting goods store, they seem to have some of the most reasonable prices on bikes and bicycle accessories in the city (not that they’re cheap!). They also do full-service tune-ups, repairs, and have a pretty friendly staff.

Passion poured out in the form of ten completely different presentations, all united around a single purpose: to share what they’re thinking, dreaming and doing. This was Chispa D.C.

At first, I was on the fence about attending. I’ve got lots of schoolwork, I’m clearly behind on my blogging, I’ve got enough reading to do to keep me engrossed for 48 hours straight… but this was well worth it. Never again will I question going to an event in D.C. like this–these don’t happen every day, and each one is another chance to learn and to grow. Check below the cut for a quick summary and some of the photos I shot tonight.

The event kicked off with Jared Ball, presenting his views on “mixtape radio, emancipatory journalism and anti-colonial media.” Was it a bit radical? Of course–he argued that capitalism is equal to commoditization, and that we’re witnessing neoslavery in the prison system of the United States. My views certainly differ from his in many ways, but it’s always fascinating to hear different viewpoints, no matter how “radical” they may seem to some.

The first half of the event was mostly speaking presentations. But boy were they good.

Regina Holliday was fired up as always!

We heard from Kristy Li Puma Herrera about her fascinating life bouncing back and forth between living in the U.S. and visiting her family back in Lima, Peru. ”Packing a suitcase is like an act of subversion,” she said, saying that really, the different parts of the world aren’t as backwards, as different, or as far apart as they may seem.

Adam Eig showed us some absolutely incredible photographs of his cross-country motorcycle trip and spoke about the lessons he learned along the way.

“Sometimes you have to drive on the wrong side of the road… to get a good shot,” he said.
“This is a journey you can have walking down the street.”
“There’s a lot of reasons to smile,” said Adam, as we go about the world we live in.

All incredibly valuable lessons. Most importantly though, he wrapped up with some of the best advice I think I’ve ever heard: “Live, smile, enjoy, appreciate.” Love it.

Loryn Wilson told us about why “black girls rule the Twitter world.” Charlie Seashore gave us an awesome presentation relating the challenge of diversity to a wide variety of chickens. “Being adult is hard work,” he said, “It involves speaking out and pushing back.” We should look at being adult as a moment in time, not a stage of life. You can choose to “act like an adult” or let our your childish side–that’s ok too.

The second half of the event kicked off with a bang after a quick intermission. Tiik with G.U.T.S., a local indie band, kicked off the fun with three of their songs. Binahkaye Joy followed them up with a lesson in “booty” that ended up with the entire room on their feet, dancing around and shaking their booties. “A liberated booty is a liberated being,” was her mantra.

“The Holy Grail Gone Wild” was Zaccai Free‘s wild presentation that, I’m pretty sure, just about blew everyone’s mind. Relating sex and religion in some no doubt controversial ways, it was fascinating to watch and certainly an attention-getter. The HollabackDC crew gave an awesome presentation with the brilliant Regina Holliday and Josef Palermo of CHarts, the Columbia Heights Arts Foundation.

And finally, the event wrapped up with a great presentation by the Potomac Group, LLC, about “The Dream and the Drama”–power, conflict and structure within social justice organizations, possibly the more incredibly relevant and important topic of the night for all us activists in the room.

For more info on the presenters tonight, check out their bios on the ChispaDC blog.

I could literally talk for hours about how much fun the event was, how great it was to see friends, meet new people, and hear new and fascinating ideas. But I’ll stop here and instead ask you: why weren’t you there? Follow me on Twitter and rest assured I’ll let you know when the next ChispaDC is coming up. I dare you, come out and see what all the fuss is about–it was well worth it.

Oh, and don’t forget to check out my photos from the event on Flickr here, or just by scrolling through the slideshow below.

]]> http://alexpriest.com/2010/03/12/chispa-dc/feed/ 8 http://alexpriest.com/2010/02/09/making-it-social-irl-in-real-life/ http://alexpriest.com/2010/02/09/making-it-social-irl-in-real-life/#comments Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:15:59 +0000 Alex Priest http://alexpriest.com/?p=578 There are plenty of networks online for connecting people. You’ve got Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, you name it, they’re all meant to connect people who might not have otherwise been connected. And that’s all well and good, but what if you want to get to know someone in a better way than just online?

Just today, actually, I had a follower on Twitter, @Sullivan_Smith tweet at me, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRIEND I ONLY KNOW ON TWITTER!” (Yes, today is my birthday.)

So what if you want to move those connections into the ::gasp:: REAL WORLD? Well there are tools for that too, and they’re fantastic for strengthening friendships, networking, and even meeting new people you might not have ever found through the mass that is online social networks. Check below for some examples of sites to use, as well as a list of D.C. networking and meetup groups that I’m involved in (and you should be too!).

As a student, I’m already discovering the incredible benefits these IRL social media services provide. Just browsing sites like meetup.com, for example, yielded tons of opportunities to connect and network with other professionals and like-minded individuals in the D.C. metro area. I even found a book group that is discussing my very own sister‘s newest book this Thursday at Politics & Prose.

Of the more light-hearted nature are sites like Tablesurfing, which promises that “you’ll never eat alone again.” Although not particularly active (sadly, it actually seems very inactive right now), it still provides a good glimpse of the possibilities of using online social media for making IRL connections.

Finally, there are some services that, in my humble opinion, take themselves far too seriously in their goal of making real-life connections. Take By/Association, for example. Their introduction proudly proclaims the following:

By/Association is a private service for personal introductions to remarkable people.

We hand select our members for their exceptional creativitiy, vision, and cross-disciplinary networks.

We then introduce them to each other. Because when two amazing people get together, their potential impact grows and the world changes shape.

We know someone you should meet.

For them, there is an application process and, if selected, they contact you to hook up the meetup. Interesting, if a bit too hardcore for my personal liking.

Of course, all this is without even mentioning the myriad of third-party services that add-on to Twitter, Facebook, etc. for managing IRL meetups. Plan.fm is a new service that caught my eye recently, for example, and it aggregates event data from Facebook, Twitter, Eventbrite, Meetup.com, and even an iCal feed to put all your IRL events in the same place. Still a little iffy on quality and usefulness due to the limited manipulation you can do with your events there, but it shows some promise.

For me, there’s several groups right here in the District that I’ve discovered via some of these tools. I try to participate in as often as possible, as I’m already reaping some major dividends in terms of the friendships and networking connections that I’ve gained. Here’s a list of some of those groups and their upcoming events–hope to see you there.

• DC PR Flacks – next event: Happy Hour, 2/16, 6:30pm at District ChopHouse & Brewery
• Capital Cabal –  next event: 2nd Tuesday Happy Hour, 2/16, 5:30-9:00pm, Upstairs at Gua Rapo’s private space (I’ll have to pick which one I want to go to, obviously!)
• Social Media Club DC – next scheduled event: Social Media Breakfast, 3/1, 8:00am at Busboys and Poets
• Ignite DC – next event: Ignite DC No. 3, 2/18, 6:00-10:00pm at Town Danceboutique
• RootsCampDC – 2/20-21 at the NEA Building
• DC Media Makers – next event: “The Who-What-How: Impact of Community Technology and Crisis Camps,” 2/24, 6:30pm at NPR headquarters

]]> http://alexpriest.com/2010/02/09/making-it-social-irl-in-real-life/feed/ 2 http://alexpriest.com/2010/02/08/snopocalypse-take-three/ http://alexpriest.com/2010/02/08/snopocalypse-take-three/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:12:13 +0000 Alex Priest http://alexpriest.com/?p=570

American University

So as you may have heard, D.C. has been absolutely trounced by snow this past week. And it doesn’t look like it’s over yet.

Now the National Weather Service is predicting 10-20″ tomorrow and Wednesday, to add to the two feet plus that we already have on the ground. Insanity.

The federal government was shut down today and likely will be tomorrow. D.C. public schools were closed yesterday (despite our Mayor at first declaring a two hour delays) and now are closed tomorrow, too. Almost every other school system around the Washington metropolitan area, in both Maryland and Virginia, is closed until at least Wednesday–although with this newest storm they’ll likely remain closed all week.

American University, my school, was closed today. Still wondering if we’ll have class tomorrow, but if the storm tomorrow night is as bad as expected, no class Wednesday (and possibly Thursday) is almost guaranteed. We shall see.

For now, I’m doing my best to stay productive. So far doing alright for staying on top of schoolwork (and got lucky, one exam was pushed back to next week) but there’s always more to do. Also, I’m trying to keep up with blog posts–be sure to check out my post from earlier recapping the Gibraltar Associates social media event from Thursday and discussing how to create a new “need-to-share” culture within governmental agencies.

Now on to more work. Got one more part of a paper to write, a few blog posts to draft, and then lots-o-reading to do. More updates soon and, as always, on my Twitter.

]]> http://alexpriest.com/2010/02/08/snopocalypse-take-three/feed/ 0 http://alexpriest.com/2010/02/08/creating-a-culture-of-need-to-share-in-government/ http://alexpriest.com/2010/02/08/creating-a-culture-of-need-to-share-in-government/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:26:02 +0000 Alex Priest http://alexpriest.com/?p=566 This past Thursday I had the privilege of attending Gibraltar Associates first annual “Social Media Resolutions” event, held here in Washington, D.C. Although I could only stay for the first half of the event, what I witnessed was probably one of the best panels I’ve seen. Not only did I learn far more than I realized I would, but I gained some incredible insight into how our government is (surprisingly) acting very progressively to get a hold on social media.

Panelists were:

• Brent Colburn, Director of External Affairs for the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
• Roxie Merritt, Director of New Media at the U.S. Department of Defense
• Richard Boly, Director of eDipomacy at the U.S. Department of State

It’s difficult to sum up over an hour of panel conversation. Throughout the course of the presentation, much of the discussion focused on challenges the government is facing to get into social media and take advantage of it in order to perform better in their respective functions as government agencies. So I’ll focus on that here, as well. Here’s, from what I heard, the three biggest challenges for government right now and how their working to overcome them.

1. Getting over the bureaucratic “hump”

One of the first and most memorable quotes of the morning came from Brent Colburn, at FEMA.

“Government needs to realize it’s not always the smartest person in the room,” he said. He said that sometimes the most innovative person in government is being the one to make a memo teaching everyone else how to understand things coming from the private sector–like social media.

Later on, he spoke about how, although it’s easier at a smaller agency like FEMA, the public needs to continue to push government for interaction. Roxie Merritt, at DoD, concurred, as did Richard Boly. Merritt said the first task is to convince the leadership, something that, surprisingly, has gone particularly well for DoD and State.

At DoD, Merritt said that Secretary Gates has made communications a priority. Looking at things like social media from a tactical standpoint, they’re being used by the enemy in the Middle East, and all over the world. If we don’t have a handle on it, we’re losing. Boly spoke about the priority Secretary Clinton has placed on new media with the Department of State. Failures in communication such as the Christmas Day underwear bomber obviously indicate they aren’t quite there yet, but they’re making progress.

2. Convincing the “middle”

The leadership is on board with social media. The new people coming into these agencies are already tech-savvy naturals with Facebook, Twitter, etc. So what’s the problem?

According to the panelists, it’s in the middle. Middle managers have been there the longest–even longer than the leadership, obviously. They’ve got the most at stake, and they’re typically the most reluctant and resistant to change. They see this technology, and they’re skeptics.

The trick is how to convince them of its value. As Richard Boly said, “[Social media] is not a passing fad, it’s crucial to the way we do business and we avoid it at our peril.”

State has already gone a long way towards convincing its employers. With the creation of an internal “e-suggestion box”, they’re already showing employees the power of crowdsourcing and social media. They’re made the suggestion system a true two-way conversation and used it effectively to enact some worthwhile changes at the department.

Take, for example, their bike-lending program, which came out of a suggestion from the e-suggestion box. After complaints that it took too long to travel the city via taxi, public transit, and personal vehicles, employees suggested bikes as a quick, easy and healthy means to get from place to place. The State Department took it to heart and started a program, even putting in showers for employees to use.

“What used to be water cooler discussion,” said Boly, “has become the crowdsourcing of solutions.” In one fell swoop, the e-suggestion box helped improve employees work atmosphere, empowered them as forces for change within the organization, and shown them the power of social media. Merritt suggested emphasizing communications tools in training courses for employees, to start them out with this mindset.

And for those afraid of social media? The Department of Defense has come up with a clever solution for that.

Many have feared the technology for national security concerns, and due to the fact that it’s often difficult to tell a legitimate source from an illegitimate one. At the Department of Defense they’ve created a registration system that registers all official DoD Web sites, accounts and social media presences. If it’s not on the list, it’s not cleared by DoD.

Colburn, at FEMA, made a good point about the issue, too. The old media isn’t dead, their role is just changing a little. He said it’s essential to maintain a good relationship and balance between old and new media, particularly for maintaining legitimacy. The “watchdog role” the old media play still applies, and like it or not they still serve as a credible source of information. By maintaining a good relationship with the old media, they can act as a legitimizing force.

Finally, Richard Boly at State had a great point to make, too. Part of credibility is about the relationships you already have. If you get followed, linked to, or re-tweeted by someone else influential, particularly in the technology and Web community, you gain credibility that way. It’s “credibility by association,” he said.

3. Creating a two-way conversation

The final challenge is, without a doubt, the largest. It’s a problem not just for government but for all users of social media–private corporations, individual people and government departments alike. How do you create that two-way flow of information? What if your reputation becomes tarnished by comments on your Facebook feed? How do you monitor it? How do you convince people you are real? Isn’t it easy to be overwhelmed?

All valid questions. But also, solvable ones.

Colburn said he didn’t have a lot of answers for those kinds of questions yet, but then he went on to prove that he actually has some pretty good ideas. He talked about social media presences having to pass the “smell test”–they have to prove they’re human. He said that expectation of ghost-twitterers and ghost-bloggers for important people has to be overcome. It’s all about the two-way interaction, he said, that will help build the trust.

Providing employees with the right tools is part of it. Colburn talked about how, on the ground in Haiti, the only form of communication FEMA employees had at first was texting via AT&T’s network. By having as many tools for communication as possible at their disposal–whether it’s texting, social media, or something else–they can do their job better. They can also be more actively present on social media and in the conversation.

Roxie Merritt at Defense said they’ve actually already had huge success reaching out to bloggers. Communications people at DoD have even started considering some bloggers part of the mainstream media! By reaching out to “chronic posters,” as she called them (people who reach out constantly and act as a force multiplier for spreading information), they’ve been successful at spreading word and creating a conversation.

The feedback to their social media presence is huge, said Merritt. She spoke of how there’s more tolerance for “less perfect” being built into the culture–I see it as a humanizing effect. It breaks down those traditional psychological barriers between “normal people” and important leaders.

As for concerns about comments, re-tweets, etc., Merritt was blunt: “You have to be pretty hard-skulled,” she admitted. They pretty much take it all. She said the screen on a limited extent, for sensitive information and possible national security threats, but for the most part they just try to respond to as much as possible. They take criticism and run with it, trying to improve as much as they can.

Moving from need-to-know to need-to-share

Overall, I obviously came away extremely impressed by the panelists. Not only did they know their stuff, but they had concrete accomplishments to show for their efforts. Many of these things I’d never even heard of, but they’re clearly having an effect.

One of the things that truly stuck with me from the panel discussion came from Richard Boly, at the State Department. He talked about how, during the Cold War, everything was on a need-to-know basis. Everyone was so paranoid and afraid of leaks and security issues that communication was absolutely kept to a minimum.

We’re living in very different times. No longer is it need-to-know, Boly said. We’re moving on to a “need-to-share” phase of government.

There are a lot of pros to this. Empowered employees, increased collaboration, greater openness and transparency, increased interaction with the public, bridging the divide between private industry innovation and government advances–the list could go on and on.

I’m excited to see what they come up with next.

Thanks so much to Gibraltar Associates and especially James Davis for inviting me to the event. Already looking forward to the next one!

]]> http://alexpriest.com/2010/02/08/creating-a-culture-of-need-to-share-in-government/feed/ 5 http://alexpriest.com/2010/02/06/snom-nom-nom/ http://alexpriest.com/2010/02/06/snom-nom-nom/#comments Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:47:06 +0000 Alex Priest http://alexpriest.com/?p=563 Yes, that’s #snom. As in, a snow monster just nom nom nommed all over our nation’s capital, leaving over two feet of snow in its wake.

Sure, it’s inconvenient. It’s expensive for the local government. And really, it’s detrimental to the productivity of our local businesses, schools, and government. But it’s just FUN.

Between last night and today I spent a fair bit of time in the snow, playing, exploring and just overall enjoying the largest snowstorm I’ve ever been in. This afternoon we even had a giant Alpha Kappa Psi (my co-ed professional business fraternity) snowball fight in the quad on AU’s campus. It was a blast. Anyway, for your viewing pleasure, here’s some pictures of the #SNOM–the great D.C. Blizzard of 2010.

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