SECTOR: PUBLIC

Microsoft Corp. (Redmond, WA) — Since most people don’t live in New York City or pay close attention to foreign relations and international development work, what the United Nations does and stands for can sometimes seem like quite a mystery. However, something called the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are much more straightforward than your average diplomatic treasise, ... Read more »

Microsoft Corp. (Redmond, WA) — Veteran’s Day is always a serious and thoughtful time for many Americans. No different for Microsoft, which has many employees who themselves are veterans of all the military services, and who also in many cases have family members who currently or previously served. Throughout this week, Microsoft’s corporate citizenship team will ... Read more »

Mark Drapeau (Washington, DC) - Coming into my new role at Microsoft, I took on the task of reading more widely about business, communications, and other topics. I was very influenced by the new book Chief Culture Officer, written by Grant McCracken of MIT. It’s not about pop culture, and not about “cool hunting,” but rather ... Read more »

Cameron Evans (Irving, TX) — Waiting for Superman continues to get a lot of buzz. A documentary about failures in the American educational system told through the lives of a number of individual students, it has people questioning a host of inter-related issues. At the same time, controversial local education reformers like Washington, DC’s Michelle ... Read more »

Mark Drapeau (Washington, DC) — Beth Kanter, CEO of Zoetica and long-time writer about nonprofit organizations, described the “networked nonprofit” as …nonprofits [that] can unleash the power of social good by transitioning from stand-alone institutions to networks energized by abundant resources in their ecosystem… they need to work with free agents, hyper-connected individuals who are passionate ... Read more »

Mark Drapeau (Washington, DC) - Tim O’Reilly often explains Open Government, or Government 2.0, as “Government as a Platform” on which citizens and build things for each other and participate in their government (rather than treating it like a vending machine). The co-founder of Personal Democracy Forum and techPresident Andrew Rasiej has a similar notion that ... Read more »