e.Republic has just been notified that its newest web site, Emergency Management, is a finalist in the Digital ASBPE awards which will be presented in San Francisco on November 6^th.   The Digital ASBPE’s is a national competition by the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE) that honors online excellence.

Launched in August of this year, Emergency Management is up for “Best New Web Site”.  Its focus is information technology solutions and best practices in all-hazard preparedness and response for emergency management, public safety and homeland security officials in state and local government.

Bericht über Google Books’ Probleme mit den Copyrights: www.20min.ch

Neues Online Game: Erepublic, mal reinschauen?!

It is a free online mmorpg game, browser based, so you don’t need to install anything in your PC. Play it directly from your browser.

The game play is ultra slow paced. After registering, setting up the profile, i look for the company who gives the highest salary. Work to gain money and train to build strength. Oh, and go to market for some food so my character not starved to death.

This is the third day i play it. I’m still on level 4 now. They said after few advanced level i can build my own company and hire other player as a worker.

The economy and politic seems quite complicated. There are news about peace, treaty, war and even elections. It looks like they tried to copy the real world.

I wonder how the banking works. Can i borrow money to build a company? Is there any “Federal Reserve” who control the world? Do they incite war and conflicts to gain profit? And, since we can build weapon factory… ah. That’s why i join the game. If it real simulated politic, maybe we could learn something, maybe we could find some solution for the “real” world.

That is all what i can say for now.

What the press said about the game:

“eRepublik offers a real second life” – guardian.co.uk

“eRepublik creates multiplayer global strategy game” – The New York Times

“Love, loss and the world wide web” – BBC

If you interested to try it, please register via my referal >> Join eRepublik << or click at the widget on the right. If you like the game an play it after level 6, i will get some rewards, maybe it can help me to build my own eCompany

Thank You.

Years back, as a mother with two young children, I would often talk with other moms and exchange tips on how we could help our kids navigate the sometimes rocky road to growing up. In essence, we would share information about what child-rearing tools worked and what didn’t. It was like creating a data base of “best practices” for moms in handling issues we faced in raising our kids. It was helpful and rewarding to have and be a sounding board for each other with good ideas shared and implemented.

The reason I bring this up is, here at e.Republic, our Center for Digital Government for many years has encouraged state and local government to work toward better solutions for its citizens using digital technology. Now you might wonder what this has to do with sharing ideas about raising children – but in my mind there is a similarity of sorts. Surveying and sharing good solutions is beneficial. Rather than go it alone, it seems smart to collaborate on what works.

To this end, the Center just launched the Digital States Performance Institute (DSPI), a research and best practices clearing house and community of interest on the most effective uses of information technology by state governments throughout the country. It’s designed to foster close collaboration among state executives and raise national standards for the use of digital technology in government performance. The institute will consist of ongoing original research, planning aids, online communities, focused planning sessions and special events.

The DSPI is an outgrowth of the Center’s successful Digital States Survey which ranks the 50 states in their use of information technology to deliver government services. The bi-annual survey showcases those states that have instituted improved technology so it is easier for citizens to access and communicate with their state and local governments.

Sharing is a good thing – just like our mothers taught us.

As e.Republic is a media company focused on information technology for the state/local government and education markets, Converge is our firm’s education component. For over ten years it has documented education through research, surveys, award-winning editorials, and conferences. Now it has something new…

Convergemag.com went live this week with a new look, feel and focus – that of “Sustainable Education”. As Marina Leight, Vice President of Education for Converge explained, “Largely associated with environmental issues, sustainability is in fact a much more embracive concept which reaches across all of humankind’s endeavors. What this means for Converge is moving the conversation beyond ed tech to include the wider range of factors central to both 21st century learning and a 21st century civilization.”

The redeveloped site forwards this vision by offering a forum for leaders across public and private sectors to address key issues:
• Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
• Effective Literacy Programs
• Exceptional Arts and Humanities Programs
• Digital Infrastructure and Education Technology
• Green and Vibrant Schools
• Integrated Workforce and Economic Development Initiatives
• 21st Century Skills, Careers and Context

Features include updates on the stimulus package–a topic commanding A LOT of attention in many sectors–and its impact on education. Converge is “going on the road”, visiting six states over the next six weeks, holding workshops to help educators understand what the stimulus package means for education and the issues mentioned above.

Another feature of the site is blogs from the view of a high school teacher (“Behind the Whiteboard”); students (“Growing Up in a World of Technology”) and trends in education in Europe by the former Senior Policy Adviser of England’s Department for Education (“Across the Pond”).

And one of my favorites–the Students’ Education Proclamation, is a web collaboration of student voices. Its goal is to help students be heard by public and elected officials on what their opinions and ideas are about their rights to a 21st Century education.

New ideas bring new futures.

I read a wonderful article by Samir “Mr. Magazine” Husni in Publishing Executive magazine yesterday.  He gave some history of magazines and how, over the years, some have predicted their demise, as well as all print, and yet it holds on, even in uncertain times.  His advice is not to fall prey to those dire predictions.

I have to agree.  There is something to be said about the pleasure of reading a magazine or newspaper at my kitchen table with a cup of coffee in the morning. Or to leisurely read about important items when I get spare minutes on a weekend.  

 And then there is the actual weight of a magazine or newspaper that is much more appealing to me than sitting in front of a screen reading an online story – its mine and not the internet’s.  Don’t get me wrong – there is certainly a place for online information, especially in a hectic-paced world where a computer is an absolute must. 

What I am talking about is the opportunity, whether at home or on the road, to do “catch up” reading of an important or even frivolous nature.  I put aside articles or magazines I want to read, and when on a plane or on a weekend, take them out and spend an hour soaking them up.  To do so in front of a computer is just too “work-like” for me – but then I’ve always preferred the actual thing to the virtual thing.   Besides, one magazine is worth a good 45 minutes of great boredom-avoidance reading on my treadmill.

Yesterday I attended the 6^th annual SARTA Tech Index celebration at the Hyatt in downtown Sacramento.  If anyone thought there was a recession going on, they forgot to tell these people.  At a full house where they actually had to turn people away, J.D. Stack, CEO of SARTA (Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance) read the list of Sacramento’s leading  50 high-tech companies this year. 

Good news from J.D. – he mentioned that 18 of the 30 Dow Jones industrial companies started during recessionary periods.  So it behooves any technology company to stay at it and see the future rather than impending doom from today’s recession.  As a matter of fact, I think it would behoove us all to take the “recess” out of recession – and just like a kid in a school yard – take some time to think big thoughts, stretch one’s imagination, and play the game of a bright future by creating better products in one’s job and encouraging others to do so in theirs.  

Cathilea Robinett, Executive Vice President, e.Republic

The Business Hall of Fame honors prominent business leaders who’ve made extraordinary contributions to the Greater Sacramento Area, earned the respect of the local community and called attention to free enterprise and its value to citizens and the community. Cathilea, with over seventeen years in her field, has certainly earned it and will receive her award, along with five other Laureates, at the 5th Annual Greater Sacramento Area Business Hall of Fame held on May 7, 2009 in Sacramento.

Event proceeds will help fund the business and economic education of students in the Greater Sacramento Area through programs offered by Junior Achievement of Sacramento, whose purpose is to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy.

Continuing the tradition of great editorial and design in its magazines, e.Republic was just notified that its magazines are finalists nine times over for the Maggie Awards. The Western Publications Association’s (WPA) Annual Maggie Awards competition honors excellence in magazine and electronic publishing with over 2000 entries from more than 500 magazines entered each year.

Four of our magazines were named as finalists for the top magazine award in each of their respective categories along with three competing for Best Overall Design/Trade and another for best Special Theme Issue. Winners will be announced at the Maggie Awards presentation at the Grand Ballroom of the Westin Hotel in L.A. on April 24th.

The team of editors and designers that we have here are simply the best – in my opinion – even though I may have somewhat of a prejudiced look, seeing that I work with them day in and day out. It’s just that they work hard yet have a really good time doing that work and create incredibly informative AND aesthetic products. When the awards presentation occurs, I’m sure the judges will agree.

Recently, e.Republic, Inc., was awarded a major media award for its online streaming video channel, Government Technology TV.  B-to-B Media Business honored our firm with its highest award, “Overall Use of Video, Small  B-to-B”, in its 2008 inaugural Online Video Awards, which recognized large and small business-to-business publishers, as well as general business media companies in ten categories. 

The brainchild of our CEO, Dennis McKenna, Government Technology TV was launched in 2007 as a first-in-its-market  streaming video channel covering breaking news for state and local government information technology issues.  Dennis established the studio with portable capabilities, expanding it in 2008 and upgrading to cutting-edge high definition video.  

If you’ve never watched the channel, you should try it. It’s informative and entertaining though one might not expect it coming from a news channel which covers the “boring” subjects of government and technology.  All the latest in technology – from Super Bowl security to turning garbage into energy is there.  And you don’t have to TiVo – the stories are one press of the finger away.

e.Republic’s Government Technology magazine and Center for Digital Government yesterday announced their list of top public-sector officials from across the U.S. in the 8^th annual “Doers, Dreamers and Drivers” awards.  Profiled in our March issue of Government Technology magazine, they make up those government officials who implemented technology changes in 2008 that reshaped government operations for the better.

Government Technology’s team of editors collaborated with our Center and Conference executives to pick the winners.  Honorees included Utah Governor, Jon Huntsman Jr., California Secretary of State, Debra Bowen, and Michigan Chief Technology Officer, Vivek Kundra.  

It is refreshing to see that although there are obstacles, with enough purpose and drive, technology improvements can and do take place in government.  In the months ahead, it may be even more of a challenge for change, which is why it remains important for us here at e.Republic to stay committed and focused on our goal of informing 21^st Century Government.  

For the full story and list of 2009 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers go to www.govtech.com/gt/articles/624096

Converge, which is e.Republic’s education division, just named Jessica Jones as Director of Publishing where she oversees print, online and custom publishing. She’ll continue holding the position of Editor of its award-winning quarterly, Converge magazine, which informs senior education policy leadership on the role of technology in K-12 schools and higher education.

Prior to this, Jessica worked as a technical publishing specialist at CH2M HILL, an international engineering firm. She rejoins e.Republic where she had previously worked for five years – her last position as Editor of Emergency Management magazine which won numerous awards for editorial excellence under her direction. Jessica said what brought her back is her passion for writing and editing.

Converge is home to the Center for Digital Education, a full time research institute dedicated to the education market.

e.Republic’s Center for Digital Government has expanded its impressive knowledge base by recruiting two new state and local government IT experts. The Center welcomes the following senior fellows:

Carlos Ramos, a key leader on many of California’s technology initiatives, served as director of the Office of Systems Integration and as assistant secretary and senior technology executive for the California Health and Human Services Agency (CHHS). Later, he was the principal technology advisor to the secretary of CHHS and was responsible for the entire agency’s IT portfolio. Ramos helped architect the consolidation of the state’s largest data centers and the creation of California’s Department of Technology Services.

Ramos was also director of the Teale Data Center – one of the largest public-sector data centers in the world – and was the chief information officer for the California Department of Social Services, where he managed a large computing infrastructure and a statewide data communications network.

Dianah L. Neff has served in government for 20 years as the chief information officer for the City and County of Philadelphia, Penn., the City of San Diego, Calif., the City of Bellevue, Wash., the County of San Bernardino, Calif., and the City of Palo Alto, Calif. Prior to working in government, Dianah spent 14 years in the private sector working for high-tech software and hardware firms in Silicon Valley.

The Center for Digital Government, a division of e.Republic, Inc., is a national research and advisory institute on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government. Through its diverse and dynamic programs and services, the Center provides public- and private-sector leaders with decision support, knowledge and opportunities to help them effectively incorporate new technologies in the 21st century.

Martin Pastula

Previously, Mr. Pastula held positions as Vice President of Emergency Management and Homeland Security for ICF International and as U.S. Manager of Justice and Public Safety for Microsoft Corporation. He also served on the Board of Directors for the IJIS Institute, an independent non-profit funded by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA).

Emergency Management magazine is an award-winning thought-leadership publication serving the public-sector community of first responders, emergency managers and public officials from federal, state and local institutions who make key decisions about preparation, response, mitigation and recovery of natural and man-made disasters in the United States.

Emergency Management is published by e.Republic, Inc., the nation’s leading publishing, research, event, and new media company focused on information technology for the state/local government and education markets.

About Dennis McKenna

Phone Number: 1.916.932.1300

Fax Number: 1.916.932.1470

E-Mail: e.republicinc@gmail.com

Website: http://www.erepublic.com

Co-founded and directs the leading media company focused on information technology in the public sector, most specifically serving the state and local government and education markets.

Launched award-winning trade magazines in this field, including, Government Technology, Public CIO, Emergency Management and Converge. In 2007 e.Republic’s Public CIO was named “Magazine of the Year” by the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE). In 2008, e.Republic titles won seven additional editorial and design awards with Government Technology named as “Best Overall Publication/Trade” by the Western Publications Association (Maggie Awards).

In 2007 e.Republic premiered Government Technology TV(GTtv),  an online video news and information channel as part of govtech.com. In 2008 BtoB Media Business magazine awarded GTtv best “Overall use of Video, Small BtoB”.

Designed and developed the Government Technology Conferences and Executive Event series, the largest intergovernmental events for public sector IT leaders, held each year in more than thirty jurisdictions around the US.

In 2008 launched the Conference on California’s Future.

Developed and oversees management of the Center for Digital Government the first of its kind research and business intelligence consultancy focused exclusively on state and local government.

Tags: e.Republic, erepublic, Erepublic, e.Republic, ERepublic, E.Republic, Government Technology, GTC, Executive Events, Center for Digital Government, Center for Digital Education, CDE, CDG, Converge Magazine, Digital Government Navigator, Digital Education Navigator, public sector, public sector advertising, government advertising, education advertising, government research, education research, government magazines, technology magazines, government events, education events

Από αύριο, 14 Οκτώβριου γίνεται το μεγάλο update στο Erepublik!!!

Για σήμερα 13 Οκτώβριου οι server του παιχνιδιού θα είναι κάτω έτσι ώστε να γίνει η μεταφορά των δεδομένων από την beta στην V1. Οι αλλαγές τόσο στο interface, όσο και σε όλο το παιχνίδι είναι μεγάλες και ελπίζω θα λύσουν κάποια από τα μικρά προβλήματα που έχουν εντοπιστεί.

Dear Citizens,

As many of you already know, 14th of October will be the first day of Erepublik V1, our pre-launch. This is why the site is down today as we make the transfer from beta to V1.

Here is some fun stuff about the development:

- 4 months of work until the first blueprints were created
- 10.000 hours is the total amount of work for creating the specs, design, developing and testing. Not included the brainstorming fights we had.
- more than 2000 tickets (tasks) for the developers
- more than 200 pages of documentation
- around 40 km walked by George within the office
- more than 20 team members worked on creating this product
- 4 different major layouts changes
- 2 team members broke up with their girlfriends because they spent most of the time at the office.

All of this because:

- we had a crazy idea that proved to be interesting not just to us (thanks for that)
- you the community quickly showed us the limitations of the beta and how we could make it better
- we were prepared for hundreds of challenges but had to resolve thousands;
- the beta design did not support a big amount of simultaneous citizens online and we couldn’t grow it technically to its potential; so had to rewrite everything for scalability;
- it was harder and harder to add new features in the old code;
- we have a huge amount of involved citizens that drive us to work in the weekends and during the nights because we are passionate about making Erepublik a better place for the community.

What we’ve done:

- changed almost 100% of the code and design;
- a slightly different gameplay based on the same ideas of economical, political and geo-political simulations and community interaction. Erepublik is still Risk meets Civilization meets the web on steroids;
- came up with new modules, improved many and took out a few of the old ones;
- we focused on the “15 minutes user experience” so that we can offer to Citizens that are less excited about the political or economical career a fun way to spend their 15 minutes.
- we have improved the Citizen’s interactions

What we have not done:

- Got it all perfect for tomorrow. We know that some of you will not like some parts of V1 and others won’t like some of the things we removed.
- Make all the modules as good as we would like them to be.
- Put all the changes that we wanted to make in this first version of V1
- Found all the bugs, although the ones we know about have been fixed.

What we’ll do:

- top priority: resolving bugs and security issues that may appear over the next few days and work on the scalability of the new platform;
- improve the current features and implement new ones: API system, multi-language, mobile version, citizen’s adds, 1vs1 fights, random events, reputation system, create polls, private forums and the list continues
- help the API devs create new interesting apps connected to Erepublik.

Conclusion:

We will present to you in a few hours a new Erepublik. A new world in which we invested a lot of work and energy. A new world that we consider a big step forward but, in the same time, a world that needs much more work and is far from being complete.
The real world might have been created in 6 days but… we are just the admin and the only person with superpowers around here is Cristesco (apparently he says he can find multi accounts when sleeping), consider this version if V1 as day 1 and enjoy it when we go live!
Thank you all for your support and for being a part of Erepublik.

The Erepublik team

http://blog.erepublik.com/welcome-erepublik-v1/

MIX: A Group of Local Government CIOs

The Metropolitan Information Exchange (MIX), an association of City and County
CIOs, met in Seattle this week. MIX is a select group of 55 forward-thinking technology leaders. Their discussions about the future uses of technology in government have been quite enlightening.

For the most part, these are mid-sized cities and counties, almost all with populations of 100,000 or more. These Chief Information Officers (CIOs) share at least one passion: making information technology work in service to the government and people of their communities.

Many of these jurisdictions have award winning government websites – Las Vegas, Riverside, Wake County (North Carolina), King County (Washington) and Yuma County (Arizona) each were among the five top web portals in eRepublic’s 2008 competition. Others – such as Seattle and Tucson – have top municipal television channels.  Still others have cutting edge implementations of a wide variety of technologies, ranging from the 35,000-public-safety-radio network operated by Harris County (Texas) to the Second Life experiments of Nevada County (California) to the City-wide Wi-Fi network operated by Corpus Christi.

Web 2.0 was the subject of this conference. All of us working in government technology know Web 2.0 is leading edge. But Web 2.0 is really “icing” on our government technology “cakes”.

The core, first layer of IT in government is infrastructure – networks, computers, data centers. That infrastructure has to be rock solid and operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week because local government delivers service all day, every day.

The second layer of our “cake” is the applications, built upon the infrastructure, which provide efficiency and effectiveness for government. These applications include mapping, utility billing systems, financial management, computer-aided dispatch and many others.

The third layer of our IT “cake” is a wide variety of ways government employees and constituents use the technology to request and render services or provide information. These methods include interactive voice response systems, television channels and the websites of our jurisdictions.

Web 2.0 is the “icing” in one sense, because it is so leading edge (for government). In another sense, web 2.0 technologies are the essence of government. Web 2.0 is about collaboration. It is about social networks.  It is about building community.  And that – building community – is what government is all about – collaboration and making our communities stronger.

How are governments using Web 2.0 technology? I have a detailed set of examples here (and welcome feedback with more samples).  Some highlights:

• Some elected officials are blogging, but only a few regularly write – Tim Burgess of Seattle and Walter Neary of Lakewood (Washington) are two examples.
• Chicago Police is doing a great mashup and display of detailed crime statistics by address or ward, around schools and parks.
• Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, is making extensive use of wikis to improve information sharing among county departments.
• The Seattle Channel is doing podcasting and interactive television with its Ask-the-Mayor program for Mayor Greg Nickels – viewers can call or e-mail real-time and there are video-taped questions.
• A very few governments have YouTube channels, e.g. Mountain View/Los
  Altos California, although constituent video of local government
  meetings appears to be a more popular use of YouTube, such as Somervell
  County, Texas.
• Some cities and counties have Facebook or Myspace pages, e.g. Prince William County, Virginia, which uses MySpace for recruiting. MIX, itself, has a LinkedIn group.
• But I’ve not seen local government effectively use social networking yet. Fertile ground for innovation!

In short, we in MIX – and other local government CIOs – are concentrating on keeping the core of information technology networks and systems running well in our governments.  And we are experimenting with a wide variety of Web 2.0 and similar technologies which we know will make government more collaborative and interactive.