The process began with engaging real citizens first. Last October, FCC Managing Director Steven VanRoekel let users look under the hood and directly provide feedback for the design. Soliciting feedback right from the start was part of the key for success. Usability issues and other sticking points that had persisted on the old FCC.gov site for years were finally brought to task.

In addition to improving the usability and functionality, many of the latest Web 2.0 principles and technologies have been integrated into the new site, assuring this new FCC site can “keep up with the pace of the Internet.”

Reading some of the blogoshpere’s first reactions to the overhaul, you’ll see nothing but smiles on our faces:

• “FCC.gov reboots as an open government platform” by Alex Howard (aka @digiphile)
• “Miraculous makeover: using the new FCC.gov” by Matthew Lasar
• “Having Sat Out the Aughts, FCC.gov Steps into the Modern Age” by Nancy Scola

Unlocking the power of the FCC through smart design and engagement is just the beginning. We’re excited to see how the public takes advantage of the simpler design, open data, and powerful FCC toolkit.

And of course, if you haven’t checked it out yet, please do so and feel free to leave us a comment with your thoughts: http://beta.fcc.gov/

You can also contribute your feedback directly to the FCC.  Your thoughts and ideas about additional features, improving the user experience, and/or improving the functionality of the website will be considered in future releases and updates: http://fccdotgov.uservoice.com/forums/105541-a-new-fcc-gov-feedback

The post You Beta Believe It: FCC.gov reimagined and redesigned for Open Government appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

“A Single Drop of Water is an environmental awareness project that uses the arts, specifically photography, to document the journey of water. Our goal is to raise awareness about this importance resource, it’s scarcity in some communities, and water pollution. The project will provide photographers with a platform for sharing their images and stories. Winning entries shall be exhibited in New York City, and will be used in future Statement Arts education materials to teach students about water and inspire them to produce their own artistic work.”

The Photo Contest Sponsor, Statement Arts, chose the Votridea Contest Platform to run and effectively manage their online contest, including file uploads, voting, content moderation, analytics reports, and more. Contestants pay a small entry fee to submit their photo; the proceeds going towards the Statement Arts programs and the contest prizes.

Contestants who enter become eligible to win a $1500 Grand Prize and their photo exhibited in New York City as part of the World Water Day celebrations! Submissions are already underway, so the time to act is now!

To learn more about A Single Drop Of Water visit: http://www.asingledropofwater.org/

The post Statement Arts Promotes Education In The Arts With Votridea Contest appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

On September 25th, David Keener, a Solutions Architect for MetroStar System’s New Media Group, spoke at SunnyConf in Phoenix, Arizona. SunnyConf is Arizona’s first Ruby conference.

According to David Keener, “I’m pleased to be one of the inaugural speakers for what is shaping up to be a great annual technical conference for Arizona. It may be the first year of the conference, but they’ve assembled a great group of speakers. I’m excited to have been invited to be one of them.”

Taking advantage of his extensive social media experience at MetroStar, Dave presented “Leveraging Rails to Build Facebook Applications.” His talk builds on his experience with real-life clients, both commercial and government, who are increasingly clamoring for social features to be “baked into” business applications in order to communicate more effectively with customers.

Speakers at SunnyConf: Back Row: Blake Mizerany, creator of the Sinatra web framework; Jeremy Ashkenas, creator of the CoffeeScript language and lead developer for DocumentCloud; Les Hill, Hashrocket consultant, open source contributor and occasional host of the Ruby5 podcast; Charles Nutter, co-lead for the JRuby initiative; David Keener, Senior Solutions Architect for MetroStar Systems and co-found of the RubyNation conference; and Front Row: Brian Sam-Bodden, creator of the Trellis component framework; Jim Remsik, Haskrocket consultant and well-known open source contributor; Luigi Montanez. developer for Sunlight Labs.

Find out more about the conference at:
http://www.sunnyconf.com/

The post SunnyConf 2010 appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

MetroStar Systems has implemented Microsoft’s Pivot technology to create a new way to search Supernova: Visually! If you haven’t checked it out yet, give it a try by clicking here and see what catches your eye!

What is Pivot? Put simply, it’s an interactive navigation system built by Microsoft (on top of Silverlight) to organize vast quantities of data in a way that’s both fun and easy. To learn more about the product, check out the Pivot website: http://getpivot.com/

What excites us most about this technology is the variety of ways our posts can be visualized: By Author, Category, Post Date, or even by Tag! This is the kind of navigation that you simply do not get with a traditional archive.

For those of you who are more technically oriented, you can check out Lee Kohn’s earlier blog post to see what code we implemented to get our new visual search up and running.

What are you waiting for? Scroll up and click on the friendly alien to give it a shot!

The post New Visual Search! appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

Nearly a year and a half (524 days to be precise) has passed since we released Supernova to the world, shedding light on the inner workings of MetroStar Systems. In that time we’ve experienced continuous expansion, enjoyed a wide spectrum of client projects, and made a positive impact in our local and global community.

But as things continue to heat up our blog has been getting denser and denser. Rather than let it collapse on itself, we took the initiative; choosing to put in the energy so Supernova could shine once again.

So what’s changed? Here are just a few of the major changes we’ve implemented:

1. A much, much simpler interface. In both the theme/layout and in the organization of the blog, we took every step to ensure that we ended up with a much cleaner, easier-to-navigate blog. We literally cut our categories down from 57 to 5! All of the widgets in the sidereel were re-organized into a better configuration. Search is now prominently featured at the top.

2. A whole bunch of behind-the-scenes: Not all of the work that was done is immediately visible on the front page. We went through a kind of “spring cleaning” phase: deleting old and unused media, evaluating and updating plugins, consolidating tags, that sort of thing.

3. A shift to WordPress 3 “Thelonious” of course! This is a powerful platform that gives us the flexibility we need to make a blog like Supernova. A huge thanks to the entire WordPress team for putting together this awesome package! We found the upgrade to be simple, and easy.

4. Visual Search functionality! Using Silverlight + Pivot we are now able to visually navigate Supernova posts and pages. If you haven’t seen it in action yet, check it out!

None of this would have been possible without a stellar team of marketers and designers to build it. Special thanks to Ali Manouchehri, Daniel Nguyen, Hector Portillo, AJ Shah, Monica Huie, and Patricia Joo!!

For your consideration: click here to see a screenshot of the old theme. We’d LOVE to hear your feedback on the new look and feel!

And finally, I’d like to thank Fritz Zwicky for coining the term “Supernova.”

To infinity and beyond!

-D

The post New Supernova bursts onto the scene! appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

And MetroStar Systems will see you there!

Janis Hall, Ricardo Palhano, and Mostafa Elzhogbi will all be flying up to the Big Apple this year to talk SharePoint and, as speakers, cover a SharePoint-specific topic. Mostafa, a Microsoft C# MVP since 2006, will be giving a tech-oriented talk on SharePoint Sandbox solutions and demoing its applications and limitations. Janis Hall and Ricardo Palhano, on the other hand, will be holding a higher level session on SharePoint Governance.

“I’m very excited to meet up with the other speakers, many of us only see each other at these types of events. I’m also looking forward to dialogue and interactions with others attending the event. Being in the presence of other enthusiasts is exhilarating and I always leave these events with new inspiration and ideas. I must say that I’m also really looking forward to a visit we’re planning to the nearby cupcake shop. From the online pictures, it looks like chocolate for days…” said Janis Hall, Lead SharePoint Instructor.

You can also attend the event virtually via Twitter using the hashtag: #SPSNY or simply by following Janis and Mostafa. Janis Hall and Ricardo Palhano will also be giving their SharePoint Governance presentation in DC on August 12th with the SharePoint User Group of Washington, DC.

This is shaping up to be an amazing event and we hope you’ll join us! Break a leg, Janis, Ricardo, and Mostafa!

Click to find out more about this event

The post SharePoint Saturday New York City appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

MetroStar Systems was delighted to attend and support SPSDC. Our very own SharePoint experts, Janis Hall and Ricardo Palhano, presented on SharePoint Governance, specifically covering details on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) and SharePoint 2010.

Mark Miller, Bill English, Dux Raymond, Dan Usher, Dan Lewis, Joy Earles, Fabian Williams, Deff Deverter, and Marcy Kellar were among the prominent SharePoint leaders in attendance, as well as a number of MVPs. With such a stellar cast of SharePoint experts, we took the opportunity to ask some of the speakers their thoughts on where women stood in the tech-industry. The responses were intriguing, but you’ll have to check out the video below to hear them…

The next SharePoint Saturday will be held July 31st in New York City.  Mostafa Elzoghbi, Ricardo Palhano and Janis Hall will be attending and representing MetroStar System’s skills and offerings. We hope you’ll join us!

Click to find out more about this event

The post SharePoint Saturday Washington DC appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

This year’s RubyNation conference will take place on Friday April 9th and Saturday April 10th at the Sheraton Reston Hotel in Reston, Virginia.  In its 3rd year, RubyNation is a two-day conference presented by the Washington, DC area Ruby community that “features debate and discussions of the latest trends, techniques, and tools in Ruby development, design, deployment, business and marketing.”  This year’s speakers include Dave Thomas (Co-Author of Agile Manifesto and Author of The Pragmatic Programmer, Agile Web Development with Rails and Programming Ruby), Jeff Barr (Amazon Web Services), and MetroStar Systems‘ very own Dave McVicar and David Keener (shameless plug). Click on the list of speakers and agenda for complete details and info.

MetroStar Sytems is proud to be a diamond sponsor for this event and happy to support the Washington DC area Ruby Community.  Members of our team will be attending, volunteering, filming, and presenting at RubyNation, so please leave us a comment below if you plan to come.  We will also be hosting the “Ruby-B-Q” at our headquarters on Friday evening (after RubyNation Day 1) featuring food and drinks.  Registration for the conference is still open, but get your tickets soon before the event sells out: http://rubynation.org/registration

The post Rubyists Return to RubyNation in Reston appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

Today, X-Life Games launches the “Who Am I?” Poetry Contest.  The contest encourages you to use poetry to describe yourself on a global level while sharing ideas of tolerance and respect for other cultures, societies, and environments around the world.

“X-Life Games has been such a fun and educational experience thus far for everybody involved, and we wanted to figure out a way to celebrate this success,” said Daniel Nguyen, Community Manager of X-Life Games. “By coordinating the Poetry Contest, we reward our fans with a challenge that yields fun and exciting prizes, as well as continues promoting cultural unification and understanding through the X-Life Games modules.”

Submissions for the contest will be accepted until midnight on Sunday October 4th.  The VIP Judging panel, featuring MetroStar Systems executives and two professors from Georgetown University, will select finalists.  Then there will be a public voting period beginning Tuesday, October 13 that will ultimately decide the winners.

Prizes:

• 1^st Prize:          Apple iTouch for 1^st place winner & $1,000.00 USD donated on behalf of the winner to a charity of the winner’s choice*

• 2^nd Prize:          Apple iPod Nano for 2^nd place winner & $500.00 USD donated on behalf of the winner to a charity of the winner’s choice*

• 3^rd Prize:          Apple iPod Shuffle for 3^rd place winner & $250.00 USD donated on behalf of the winner to a charity of the winner’s choice*

*MetroStar Systems will provide a list of acceptable charities that the winners can select from to have the respective prize donation donated on the winner’s behalf

The contest will use Wildfire App‘s Promotions application and will be hosted on the X-Life Games fanpage on Facebook.  Please visit http://www.facebook.com/xlifegames.community for complete details, rules, and to enter the contest.

The post X-Life Games presents the “Who Am I?” Poetry Contest appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

Article Source: Smart Planet.com

More about Smart Planet:

CBS Interactive has unveiled a new website dedicated to people who realize the need to make our world a better place to live, for all of us, and for generations to come. At SmartPlanet.com, you will find thought-provoking progressive ideas on diverse topics that intersect with technology, business, and life, and matter to the world at large.

Try e-diplomacy out for yourself:

Download the free mobile game at the recently revamped X-Life Games.com website. To join the X-Life Games Community become a Fan on Facebook or follow us on Twitter @xlifegames.

The post X-Life Games Featured on Smart Planet.com appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE4Pyp2qaYc

X-Life went out to Washington D.C. to ask “What would you do with an X-tra Life?” People had some pretty creative and interesting answers!

Become Part of the X-Life Games Community and leave a comment or your thoughts on the Facebook fan page.

Follow @xlifegames on Twitter: http://twitter.com/xlifegames

Become a Fan of Xlife on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/xlifegames.community

You can also view the video here on YouTube: http://bit.ly/ysZwe

The post What Would You Do With An Extra Life? X-Life Games Video appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

Source: Fox Business News

Should CEOs Use Social Networking More?

MetroStar Systems Founder and CEO Ali Reza Manouchehri was interviewed today on Fox Business News on how MetroStar Systems advises CEOs and companies about how best to utilize social networking tools such as Twitter.

The post Fox Business News Interviews MetroStar CEO appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

Geoff Livingston Keynote Speech – Part I

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHLNYN3A1ME

Geoff Livingston Keynote Speech – Part II

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGa5-IXjN9I

Geoff Livingston Keynote Speech – Part III

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HLkJal5l08

For more information about the Capital Area Food Bank click here and for more info about YNPNdc click here.

The post YNPNdc Social Media for Social Good – Geoff Livingston Keynote Videos appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

Download the Blogging for Nonprofits Workshop Mindmap. If the file does not immediately download as a “.mm” file and code pops up in your browser then:

1. Click on “File” in your browser
2. Go to “Save Page As”
3. You will see “Blogging_for_Nonprofits_Workshop_Mindmap”
4. Add “.mm” to the end of the file name: “Blogging_for_Nonprofits_Workshop_Mindmap.mm”
5. Download it to your computer
6. Open the .mm file with Freemind

You will need FreeMind mind mapping software in order to open this mind map because it is in the Freemind “.mm” file format. Don’t worry though, Freemind is a free open source mind mapping solution which you can download here for free. On the download page be sure to select the correct download for the whatever operating systems you are running (Windows Min or Max, Mac, Linex).

Also, wanted to let everyone know to check back on SUPERNOVA soon as we will be releasing some video that we shot of the YNPNdc Social Media for Social Good event.

The post YNPNdc Social Media for Social Good – Blogging For Nonprofits Workshop Mindmap appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

What is Change Management?

Change management is a structured process and a set of tools to effectively managing the people side of change. – Prosci

Critical Change Facts:

1. Employee resistance and ineffective management of the people side of change is the #1 obstacle to successful change projects
2. You can have the best vision, the best training and communications that exist, but if you cannot get your people (the organization) to adopt that change, the initiative or project will FAIL.

Interesting Change Quotes:

“We do this (change management) everyday!  No matter if we are aware of it or not, it (change) is part of every project that we work on.” – Melissa Dutmers (Change Manager @ RiverFork Consulting)

“People react to change in a very similar way to the stages of death” – Butch Alligood (Senior Change Management Instructor)

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” – Leo Tolstoy

“Research says that most change management initiatives fail.” – Butch Alligood

“Resistance to change is a natural human reaction.” – Prosci

“Never underestimate the power of the current state.” – Butch Alligood

“We see things not as they are, but as we are.” – Anais Nin

“Organizations do not change, people do.” – unknown

“You can never change unless you know what you want and how you are going to get it” – Butch Alligood

Terms:

• CM = Change Management
• ADKAR = Awareness Desire Knowledge Ability Reinforcement (Prosci Model)
• FUO = Fear of Uncertainty and Doubt
• WIIFM = What’s In It For Me

Why Change Management?

Here is a conglomerate of reasons why change management is important to organizations, businesses & clients:

1. Because your business, products, markets, people, clients and tools will change over time weather you like it or not. To not have a change plan is to invite disaster and failure into the org.
2. CM can improve the success and delivery of projects (internally & externally)
3. CM processes can facilitate better team cohesion and organizational moral.
4. CM can unite people around achieving common goals that mutually benefit everyone in the org.

States (No I’m not talking about Texas)

With any enterprise level transformation or change campaign there are different states.  How things are now is referred to as the current state, how things are after  changes are in the process of being implemented is a transition state, how things will be when a change is completed and your vision becomes actualized is the future state (how things will be).  These notions of state do not just apply to change management initiatives, they are also popular in Business Process Re-Engineering (BPR) and Organizational Design (OD).

Understanding states is important so that you can figure out where you are, what you need to do, and how that will get you to where you want to be. Seems simple right? Well try assessing just your current state when you have 10-20 disparate and/or overlapping changes going on in and you can quickly become immersed in fog!  To put it another way, it’s like trying to play to play multiple songs and instruments at the same time.

Individual Change ≠ Organizational Change

Though they have similar change attributes and processes, what is required to change an organization is not the same as what is needed to change an individual. The differences lay in the strategies, tactics, scope, resources, time, training, communications, leadership, sponsorship, planning and project management. A change that effects one individual in an organization (say for example a compliance officer being effected by regulatory changes) is vastly different then implementing a new computer Operating System (say for example an enterprise wide switch from Windows XP Pro to Windows 7) in a medium sized company with 750 employees.

100% Change is a Myth

(Don’t Confuse Icarus With Reality)

What did that old Greek tale of Icarus teach? Fly too close to the sun and you will get burned (set realistic goals, heed knowledge, lessons learned and advise).  No change will ever be executed and 100% adopted in a organization.  Know up front that you will deal with resistance on may different levels (bottom, middle, top) in a variety of ways (active/passive, direct/indirect).  Prepare yourself for it and have a thick skin.  Remember to keep your enthusiasm for change in perspective, and set reasonable achievable goals.

Also, remember to keep the individual perspective in context because organizations are composed of individuals, and every person will ultimately make their own decision weather or not to support/adopt the change, thus having a tangible impact on the overall change.  Not everyone will get on board with change (for a variety of reasons) and know that some people may actually not be capable of change (depends on what type of change it is).

Many Models for Change

(Do not Worship a Single CM Model)

Change management is a large and growing field.  Several models have been developed to explain change and to give structure to approaching that change in organizations.  From what I have encountered Prosci & Kotter are the two most popular that I have seen in organizations, but that is just my perspective.

There are other models for change out there and I think that the field has some emergent areas which are still untapped.  One of the things that is really important is to know the different models, the difference between them, and which one is the best fit for your organization or client.

Perspectives on Change Will Vary

(No Two Change Projects or Vantage Points are the Same)

One of the central takeaways from everything I have learned over this knowledge crammed week is that no two change initiatives are the same so virtually everyone is written from scratch and adapted to individual organization, it’s unique attributes.  No matter what the change is in the organization everyone has a different perspective or vantage point of that change.  Not all of the stakeholders or team members are effected the same by the change.  So it goes without saying that when you do managing change you must keep in mind individual perspectives and that each person has a unique perspective on the impending change.  Effects on projects, services, will vary

Perspective 1 (Direct/You are looking straight at it)

Perspective 2 (Indirect / It’s right in front of you but you don’t always see it)

Same clouds and vista but completely different ways of looking, seeing and interpreting them.  Change is the same exact way and using cloud as a metaphor for change can carry many parallels.   Clouds look a certain way then you move or they move and the way they look can completely change from moment to moment.  They are dynamic, like your people, you business, the demands on your business, and the markets you work in.  Just like there are many different types of clouds (cirrus, stratus, etc) there are many types of organizations (government, non-profit, NGO etc) The more you understand about change and how to manage it, the more agile, adaptive and responsive your organization can be in any situation.

Last Updated: 6/25/2008 4:55PM

The post Change Management Liveblogged and Distilled appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

Youtube: Al Jazeera news Iran’s ‘citizen journalists’ – 18 Jun 09

Our CEO Ali Manouchehri was interviewed by the Al Jazeera news network about the use of new media technologies including micrblogs (Twitter) and social networks (Facebook).  Social media sites have evolved with the internet and the movement towards citizen journalism to become important “vehicles for instant distribution of information.”  With the events surrounding the recent Iranian elections, citizen journalism is taking on a new form, gaining visibility with wider audiences, and increasing global awareness of these emerging technologies.

The post Evolution of Citizen Journalism Video appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

Overall the talk had a heavy focus on “Diplomacy 2.0″ and the Department of State‘s campaigns applying Web 2.0 applications to promoted public diplomacy.  The talk was more interesting from a conceptual level since MetroStar System’s created X-Life Games, the State Departments first Government 2.0 mobile diplomacy game. Here is a brief description if you are interested in learning more or have not heard about it yet:

“X-Life Games is a free game for mobile phones designed to improve diplomacy by communicating American culture and English Language.  Launched in March 2009, the X-Life Games project is a pilot program developed by the State Department and MetroStar Systems.  It is a Government 2.0 example of the Department of State’s Diplomacy outreach initiative whose purpose is to bridge cultures, encourage exchanges, and break down cultural barriers.”

The Center for American Progress coordinated this event with the release of a new video called White House 2.0 and three Gov 2.0 related papers.

White House 2.0 – Web 2.0 Technology and the Government

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qplAFVy_Hqk

Video Description:

“Peter Swire discusses Web 2.0 issues specific to the federal government and how the Obama administration can promote open government and new technology for all Americans.”

3 CAP Government 2.0 reports released today

1. It’s Not the Campaign Any More – How the White House Is Using Web 2.0 Technology So Far
2. Six New Media Challenges – Legal and Policy Considerations for Federal Use of Web 2.0 Technology
3. How to Buy Free Software – Procuring Web 2.0 Technology for the Federal Government

From Diplomacy 1.0 to Diplomacy 2.0

The panel emphasized the shift from Diplomacy 1.0 > Diplomacy 2.0 referring to the latter as “21 Century State Craft.”   It was quite intriguing to think about how the set of tools that are available to “craft states” has fundamentally changed for government over the past 100-200 years.  Another way of putting it: Diplomacy 2.0 is applying information technology to go beyond the traditional crafting of states.  Also there was a heavy focus on mobile phones and smart phones as a platform for the government to reach a wider audience globally, because access to the internet is not universal to or affordable for all citizens.

“It is far likelier that people in the developing countries are going to be accessing the internet through a smart phone…we cannot wait for ubiquitous broadband access to the internet” – Alec Ross

There was a keen awareness in the panel that everyone in the world is not afforded the same set of tools, has the same access to information or even the same internet because of government censorship.

The Heart of Diplomacy 2.0

I think that this begins to get at the heart of diplomacy 2.0, mobile diplomacy and mobile diplomacy gaming: the notion that if you want to be a modern diplomat then you must meet other people where they are (or at least where they can actually go) otherwise how can you ever seek to reasonably engage them?

All in all it was a pretty good event, but they could have allowed for more time for questions at the end.

Update: For those of you who missed the webcast watch the full event video

The post Government 2.0 Panel at Center for American Progress appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

Theme: What is Social Media?

Format: Open discussion, perhaps should I call this a barlunch = barcamp + lunch

Location: Reston, 2nd Floor Conference Room

Interval: Bi-Weekly

Objectives:

• Eat lunch & be social
• Have an open conversation about social media or just listen & learn
• Share knowledge of social media
• Provide an opportunity to learn about & participate in social media
• Discuss social media ideas, concepts, principles, best practices, case studies
• Ask compelling questions, share compelling answers

Social Media Lunchbox #1 – Recap

We had a good turn out at the first social media lunchbox and even better conversation.

Theme: What is Social Media? (surprise, suprise!)

Concepts Covered:

• You no longer control your brand
• Social media is diffuse
• Increasingly interconnected

Video:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZEvnSk9aOE

Recommended Text:

The Clue Train Manifesto

The post Social Media Lunchbox #1 appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.