Topic: Government
Dr. Moira Gunn talks with New York Times best-selling author, Lisa See, about her new book, Dreams of Joy, and where she looks at the impact of questionable science in China during the Great Leap Forward.
How can cloud email and calendaring not only save $5 million but improve communication between staff? The City of Los Angeles CTO, Randi Levin, has embraced the next generation of IT services simultaneously cutting costs and enabling staff to access emails and calendars via web, mobile and desktop. Joined by Dave Girouard, President of Google Enterprise, Levin and Girouard answer questions posed by Tim O'Reilly about the unique challenges and opportunities of using 'the cloud' in government organisations.
Given the United States' fundamental fiscal imbalances, how can we ensure a more positive future? In this university podcast, hosted by the Center for Social Innovation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, McKinsey partner Lenny Mendonca calls for nothing less than "an innovation and productivity revolution." He looks at what activity will be needed at the national level to stimulate our economy in the direction of growth.
Where is the United States economy and budget going? How can the U.S. stop accumulating debt at the same accelerated rate that's been happening over the past few decades? In this audio lecture, Joe Minarik summarizes how the U.S. deficit has gotten to the state it's in, and outlines steps needed to solve the problem and help the economy grow. The event was hosted by the Center for Social Innovation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
The environmental sustainability movement has long been pushing for the development of renewable energy resources. Yet to have a significant impact in the energy market, any renewable alternative must be scalable, argues Haas School professor Severin Borenstein in this audio lecture. Speaking at the 2010 Climate Policy Instruments in the Real World conference at Stanford, he suggests where policy interventions should be focused so as to pave the way for the greater appeal of renewable technologies.
One of the great aspects of 21st century technology is the ability to use and keep track of public information. Unfortunately, many government agencies choose not to take advantage of the ways to communicate with the public. Micah Sifry returns to Technometria to discuss the status of open government.
Deborah Estrin talks about GIS tracing of individual activity, it's fascinating usefulness, and potential privacy drawbacks. She assesses how combining tools such as location trace and environmental data with a wellness focus can inform public policy and personal decision making. According to Estrin experience sampling can yield data points which help patients to adjust and cope with medications. On the other hand, these living records can be intimate traces almost impossible to erase.
Consumer mapping on the web and traditional back-office geographic information systems (GIS) are becoming less distinct. Both are more accessible, standards-based, and flexible. Jack Dangermond, President of ESRI, speaks about the creation of a publicly accessible GIS mapping system, ArcGIS.com, a web platform that works with maps from various authoritative sources and provides the public with useful tools to add and use their own crowdsourced, volunteered geographic information (VGI).
What policy tools can the U.S. government use to get companies to reduce their greenhouse emissions and promote environmental sustainability? Carbon pricing, says Harvard professor Robert Stavins. Speaking at the 2010 Climate Policy Instruments in the Real World conference at Stanford University, Stavins explains how two instruments, carbon fees (taxes) and cap and trade, can be used to promote environmental responsibility, even though these mechanisms may be imperfect.
Pollution coming from the transportation industry has been a major problem for the environmental sustainability movement. Yet the government has done little to push for reductions in oil use or carbon emissions from this sector, says UC Davis associate professor Christopher Knittel in this audio lecture, delivered at the 2010 Climate Policy Instruments in the Real World conference at Stanford. Knittel suggests how pollution can be reduced in this arena, and how emissions goals may be achieved.
