An events search engine

Ever wonder what is going on in your local area or in a place you will be visiting on a certain date? Flurbit.com is a search engine that attempts to collect all activities in a certain area. You can search by area, designating the mile radius you are willing to travel and which categories you are interested in. Looking for all the sport activities or family activities or performing arts activities? Just check the appropriate box and select the category of time to search. You can decide to search daily, weekly or monthly. Give it a try, you might just discover something you'd love to do going on very close to you!

Great By Choice

Jim Collins wrote the widely acclaimed book Good to Great a little over 10 years ago. Now he has written a follow up book Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos and Luck -- why some thrive despite them all.
The basic premise of the book is that it is the choices we make, not chance, that determines a company's fate. This readable book with advice and excellent examples of enterprises that have been successful in uncertain times will help anyone interested in taking his/her organization to higher levels.
Contact MAGIC to have this book placed on reserve for you.

Try your hand at the federal budget!

So you think you could do a better job with the budget situation than our current leaders in Washington? Now's your chance. There's a computer game titled "Budget Hero 2.0" and according to a story in the Washington Post, you can play and see how your policies would work. The game was developed by the Woodrow Wilson Center along with American Public Media. Jane Harman is a former Representative from California who resigned this year to head the Center. She feels that this is a valuable teaching tool for the public. It gives insights into the "difficult choices involved in reducing the deficit and raising the debt limit." The game is an update of the original version from 2008. Among the first players of this new version was Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee and Senator Mark Udall (D) from Colorado. Udall feels the point of this game is to educate and empower. Players can choose policy cards and earn "badges" reflecting their political leanings. Before choosing a policy, the player can check out the pros and cons to see what effect their plan would have over time. If only it were that simple in real life!

Want to try your hand at being a "Budget Hero 2.0"? It's free.

Social Networking Survey

According to a recent Pew Research survey, the average age is getting older for those of us using social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The number of social networking sites users has doubled just since 2008.

The Pew Research survey has some very interesting statistics on the age of social network users, the frequency of use, and how trusting social network users are. Read the full report for an in-depth look at who are SNS users, what users do on SNS and how SNS are affecting relationships at pewinternet.org

Got goats?

Urban areas constantly have to work to manage the vines and shrubs that can overwhelm their green spaces. This usually requires lots of manpower, time, and equipment during the growing season. But there is another way---I found an article in Virginia Town and City, May 2011, that I loved. The City of Charlottesville is trying another approach--goats! This spring their new program was launched. They rented a few dozen livestock to graze on quickly growing invasive plants. The Dept. of Parks and Recreation used the goats for three weeks as an alternative to chemicals and to see how efficient and cost-effective the goats would be. The results were positive. The goats proved effective in keeping the invasive plants in check. They proved so succesful that the city is using them this summer to attack kudzu. The goats were managed without supervision by a clearly marked electric fence plus two herding dogs given temporary quarters in the enclosed area. The goats were obviously happy as well; seven kids were born during this experiment. Goats eat most type of vegetation except large trees, and they strip the bark off vines and smaller shrubs that are growing out of control. I like the idea of seeing those goats eating their way through to a neater and healthier urban forest.

Australia Innovates - You Can Too

Innovation involves change and change can be difficult to implement. For "practical advice on fostering innovation within your agency," use the Public Sector Innovation Toolkit as a guide. The toolkit helps you learn about the innovation process, evaluate your organization's capacity for innovation, assess the strengths of an idea, and get tips on putting together a business case. All the tools and approaches that will make innovation a reality are provided in this easy to use toolkit developed by the Australian Public Service.

End-user, IPad, Stream

Twenty-one new words for social media have been added to the 2011 print edition of the AP Stylebook. So are you an end-user or are you just having an enduser experience?

See the complete list of words added and their definitions for more details. And if by chance you need a mobile version of the AP Stylebook, apps are available for your Blackberry or IPhone, IPad, or IPod Touch.