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The Finalists Are In
 By Tom Shoop | Tuesday, June 03, 2008  |  04:09 PM

The finalists for the 2008 Innovations in American Government Awards have been unveiled -- and few of them, it turns out, are from the federal government.

The 15 finalists were announced Tuesday by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University's Kennedy School. They include state, local, and tribal programs ranging from a fresh food financing initiative in Pennsylvania to a teacher residency program in the Boston Public School District.

But only two of the finalists came from federal agencies:


  • The Global Maritime Domain Awareness program at the Department of Transportation, a low-cost, rapidly deployable, vessel traffic monitoring system.

  • The Intelligence Community Civilian Joint Duty Program, requiring intelligence professionals to complete assignments outside their agency to achieve executive rank.

The finalists, selected from a pool of almost 1,000 applicants, will make a case for themselves before an awards selection committee on June 12. Eventually, six winners will get $100,000 each to spread the word about their achievements.



Comments


The IC joint duty program as a major innovation? The military has done this for more than 20 years, and a fair percentage of IC people already spend at least some time in other agencies prior to becoming executives. The only thing new here is that it's now mandatory -- meaning, a massive rugby scrum for the "choice" joint duty assignments, even more careerism among mid-career intel types, etc. Forcing people to sit in another building for two years doesn't guarantee they'll suddenly become big picture thinkers, and not all stovepipes are defined by agency boundaries. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but there are big differences between the military and intelligence communities -- it's not at all certain that what may have proved useful in the former won't be harmful in the latter. So I'd suggest the awards committee hold off a few years; see what happens.

Skepticus  | Wednesday, June 04, 2008 |  01:14 PM



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