An Experiment in Crowd Funding, Community, and Official Languages

While it's been years since I wrote Scheming Virtuously: A Handbook for Public Servants, interest in the document seems constant. Over the years I've invited people to contribute directly to the document on GCPEDIA, I've released an updated version myself, and even worked with my good friends at Govloop to spice it up visually. 

The only thing I haven't been able to do yet is have it translated. I've been asked repeatedly if the document is available in French and, sadly, it is not. It's something I've always wanted to do, but quite simply don't have the wherewithal to get done. 

Recently I was contacted by a Learning Advisor at the Canada School of Public Service who was keen to include Scheming in the orientation materials for new public servants. When I got the call I was flattered, it would, in my view, be a tremendous achievement.

Then, the obvious question came up, is it available in French? We chatted a bit more by email and it became clear that the school was unable to take on the cost of translation (which I completely understand given the estimated price tag of $3750 in times of austerity).

Besides, I don't have $3750 to spend on translation either, but the phone call got me thinking.  

Would the community be willing and able to chip in enough to get it done? Could crowd funding the translation be a viable option?

I wasn't sure (read: still am not sure), but I figured it was worth a try.

This is completely uncharted territory for me, and to be honest, I'm a bit uneasy about even trying this. I want to get the document translated but I'm hesitant to ask for help. 

Social capital has always been more important to me then physical capital, so if you can't contribute or don't want to, I completely understand. 

On the other hand if you can contribute or share the link to the campaign, I would sincerely appreciate it.

*** Link to the Campaign ***

Footnote

I will be participating in an Arm Chair at the Canada School of Public Service on Linguistic Duality day (September 13) to discuss the role of language in my home, in my workplace, and more generally in social media spaces. I plan on speaking about the results of this campaign in my presentation.

Originally published by Nick Charney at cpsrenewal.casubscribe/connect

Update: canada@150 Report to be Released Next Week!

I just wanted to write a quick update to let you know a bit about some key things going on next week. After much anticipation the canada@150 report will finally be officially released at an armchair discussion at the Canada School of Public Service.

You may recall that around this time last year I conducted an interview with one of the participants that was, and I quote (myself) "chocked full of successy-goodness".

Unfortunately I can't be at three places at once, so while the report is being released, I will be in Yellowknife presenting at the 2010 Northern Communicators' Forum; which also means I will be missing Govcamp Toronto.

Don't get me wrong I am very excited to be visiting the Canada's North for the first time, connect with some of the people in real life there (whom I have only ever met online) and to be on a panel with Jesse Brown.

All of that being said it pays to be a blogger (actually it doesn't =/) because it means that I am sitting on an advance copy of the canada@150 report and plan on sharing my thoughts in a blog post next Friday (June 18th).

Talk to you soon, have a great Public Service week next week. Oh, and if anyone has any suggestions on must do things while I am in Yellowknife, please let me know.

Cheers

Update: Armchair Discussion May 10th

Hi All - just wanted to blog this quick for those of you following the blog but not using twitter.

I will participating in an armchair discussion at the Canada School of Public Service on Monday, May the 10th from 1:00pm-3:30. Here are the details quoted verbatim from the School:

May 10, 2010 | 1:00 p.m to 3:30 p.m. (ET)

The Implications and Use of Social Media for Employee Engagement in Values and Ethics

Language: English Presentation; Bilingual Panel Discussion

Harnessing new technologies to enable the workplace presents both exciting opportunities and elements of risk. These tools create new possibilities for engaging employees and for renewing our workplace ethical culture. During this discussion, the speakers will talk about their approach and experience with incorporating social media into ethics programming for employees.

You are invited to attend this session at 65 Guigues Street (Ottawa) by clicking on "Register" below. If you cannot attend in person, tune in via Webcast (live video and audio feed) by clicking on "Register - Webcast".

Speakers:

Ms. Kathleen Edmond, Esq. is the Chief Ethics Officer.

Mr. Gil Dennis is the Senior Director of Organizational Effectiveness at Best Buy Corporation.

Colin McKay is the Director of Research, Education and Outreach at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Nicholas Charney is a Policy Analyst with Indian and Northern Affairs.

You can get more information and/or register here... if you ask me the real draw of this event will be my friend and colleague Colin McKay - that guy cracks me up.

EAVB_NQYLDTDKIA

Round-Up: January 7th

Blogs

Etienne has posted a small series of posts that you probably have already read:

1. In response to the comments ...
2. There is something happening here
3. New Year's Resolution

Krishna Kumar has a good post on today's knowledge worker [h/t to Chamika]. Here is a snippet:

... a knowledge worker’s productivity is not a function of how many hours they work or how much they earn. And this is completely the opposite of how most managements think. They have fine-grained rules about work hours and holidays, polished after decades of dealing with manual workers. Sometimes, these rules actually allow management to set a floor for low-performing knowledge workers, but they prevent high-performing individuals from achieving their true potential.

While Seth Godin makes some good points about boundaries in this post.

@ CSPS

Mike Kujawski has his rescheduled armchair disuccussion on Government Blogging Best Practices on January 15th.

Also Doug Bastien has informed us that the CSPS he has created a Facebook group where users can join and receive regular invites to upcoming CSPS armchairs. Doug has been very active with his use of GCPEDIA (including maintaining stats). You can check out his user page here.


Social Media

1. 7 ways to get your next job via social media
2. The Top 10 Reasons I Will Not Follow You in Return on Twitter
2. Twitter Squatters are the latest online threat

Other

The Public Policy Forum (PPF) welcomed it's new President, David Mitchell.

Public works has put out a call for more office space in the city, Kanata is apparently the spot. There was a great discussion with an Urban planner about it on CBC radio one's Ottawa Morning this morning.

Round-Up: November 24th

Things inside the GoC

1. PCO put up a power point presentation from a PS Recruitment fair.
2. The fall edition of Its my day is up and running.
3. You probably want to read the speech from the throne if you haven't already. Here is the relevant snippet on Public Service Renewal:

The Public Service of Canada is a key national institution. Public servants inspect our food and police our borders. They deliver programs and services to millions of Canadians in every region of this country, from our largest cities to the most remote Arctic communities. Drawing on the recommendations of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee on the Public Service, our Government is committed to the continued renewal of the Public Service.

News

1. Don't ignore value of digital generation
2. PS faces forced wage controls
3. Ottawa public servants face stagnant wages, fewer colleagues
4. Unions need to wake up to the reality of today's economy
5. How clerk's job moved to the centre of power
6. Federal public service faces challenge of renewal
7. Civil service hiring outlook remains healthy

Blogs

1. What's the Fuss Over Leadership? c/o Etienne
2. On-the-Spot Job Offers: Real Solution or Quick Fix? (c/o Etienne - we really like this one!)
3. For What it's Worth c/o Paul Crookall @ CGEM. (I was also @ the Osbaldeston Lecture, I hope to provide my reaction in the future, but in the interim you can get the flavour of the lecture from Paul's blog posting.)

Interesting Armchairs being offered @ CSPS

1. Depression Was Not Part of my Career plan (EN/FR)
2. Bottom Up Change: It Starts with an Individual (EN/FR) (by our Friend Etienne Laliberté)
3. Government Blogging - Best Practices and Tips for Success (by our friend Mike Kujawski)

Other things of interest

1. 10 Ways to Make Office Slacker Pull His Weight

Round-Up October 6

Here is a small editorial from the Sault Star entitled, No need to clam up.

Jessica McDonald, BC's Premier Gordon Campbell's deputy minister and head of the public service gave an interview to the Vancouver Sun. Here is a great excerpt:

"The new generation of workers is less interested in a career with one organization for their whole career than they have been in the past," she said.

"We need to grab hold of these employees in their first year and let them design their career path, rather than just assuming -- the way it was in the past -- that where they started is where they want to be out into the long term."

To really change, she said, the public service needs to shift its attitude from within.

"We want people to feel like their jobs are rewarding, like they actually have some influence over their own work environment and how they can do their job the best," she said.

Frustrated federal prosecutors across Canada are quitting over poor pay coupled with increased work loads.

The National Post came out in favour of less government regulation citing the recent listeriosis outbreak while referencing the CFIA employee who sent a classified document to his union.

Meanwhile, a bureaucrat fighting the Public Service Commission has won the right to remain anonymous.

... and, PSAC has [an] opportunity to elect '[their] employer says Fitzpatrick (c/o Hill Times so a subscrption is required) [Aside: Given, how the party that assumes power will approach its relationship with the public service matters (to both public servants and Canadians in general) but union involvment in this issue makes me a bit uneasy. Does anyone else see this as a potential conflict of interest issue? I assume their is an official policy somewhere on this, if anyone could provide us with a link on we would be happy to share it.]

Government of Canada Offerings

Armchair discussions at the CSPS have resumed. Click here to see their Calendar.

PCO just released a great page on their website, The Role and Structure of the Privy Council Office 2008 -- one stop shop for understanding everything PCO does.


Finally - thanks for all your comments (on the blog) and your emails. It is great to hear from you, keep it up.

Round-Up August 25

News

I came across an article entitled, Stop Blaming Your Blackberry and this follow up response to it; both address the issue of Blackberries and their impact on work-life balance.

Here is another letter responding to the Kathryn May's article last week (PS ordered to hire more minorities).

There is still a lot of (negative) buzz around the raises for Senior Public Servants in BC. Here is one letter in particular that I found interesting.

A PS worker pleaded no contest in a 2.4 million dollar fraud case.

Kathryn May is usually a good read but this isn't even newsworthy.

'Strengthening' the Act respecting the Public Service of Saskatchewan has become the subject of a news article. I am not fully in tune with Saskatchewan's provincial politics but I think it has something to do with the firing (and subsequent successful litigation) of a senior provincial official.

News on Blogs/Blogging

Here are a couple of interesting tidbits on blogging and journalism and blogging in the Public Service (sort of).

CSPS

The CSPS is rebroadcasting (still waiting for podcasts ...) an armchair discussion on Public Service Renewal done by Nicole Jauvin, President president of the Canada Public Service Agency on August 28th from 1:00 to 2:15 pm.

CPSRenewal.ca

[ncharney]: FYI - I will be a discussant at an HRSDC Knowledge Talks event also being held on August 28th, the topic of discussion is Governance as Leadership. Unfortunately the event is only open to HRSDC staff, but don't worry I am looking to blog on the experience the following week.

Round Up July 26 - August 5th

Here we go ... time to hit the ground running post vacation.

First of all we got a response from Philip Lillies, a union activist and president of a union local out in Moncton, to our second column on the role of unions. We would like to thank Philip for his contribution and encourage you all to check it out.

Barring some unfortunate incident, weekly columns will resume this Friday, with an editorial on the use of technology in the workplace.

In the News

Senator Hugh Segal, a member if the standing committee on agriculture and forestry wrote a special to the Sun on the Senate report, Beyond Freefall: Halting Rural Poverty. Among the report's recommendations is moving federal government jobs to rural areas. The National Post subsequently published this letter from a reader.

David Zussman published this piece on public service delivery and innovation.

While the E.X. files shared a story called Seeking Guidance.

The July 28th edition of the Hill Times has two articles in it that are of interest. The first is by Jack Cole, entitled Want to know the best place to work in Canada’s federal public service? Here is an excerpt:

"Do you know someone looking for a career in Canada’s federal public service? Do you want to know which agency is the best one to work for? Or are you a public servant already working in Canada’s public service? Are you looking for a change, perhaps to a better place within the federal public service? Do you just want to know the best place to work there, where the employees are the most engaged? These are good questions and with a little research, you might find answers, at least partial answers. You can readily find the best companies to work for in Canada through a few different sources as the private sector gives up its “who is best” secrets rather easily. But the public sector seems to want to keep this information hidden away, even though it’s publicly available with a little digging. That digging is what I did a few years ago along with a few other colleagues, when I worked in the federal public service."

While Cythnia Munster's column contains some great quotations from James Lahey (PCO) on renewal:

"[G]iven that it takes ten years or so, even in the most ambitious cases, for people to become executives, and longer than that to become deputy ministers, we can reasonable expect that virtually all of the people who will be executives and deputy ministers of the federal government in 2015 and beyond are already here, which says to me that the most important thing to do with renewal is how do we deal with the people who are already here? How do we challenge them, how do we develop them, what kind of workplaces, what kind of work do we have? Do they feel inspired and challenged and eager to come to work in the morning? Or do they feel frustrated, suppressed, unable to act on their best ideas?”

Remember - you can probably find a copy of the Hill Times in any senior office.

In the Blogs

The New Zealand Minister of Labour, Hon Trevor Mallard, gave this speech on improving workplace productivity (thanks Etienne for the link).

Colin McKay asked the question, Is a Bad Blog Better than No Blog?

Jim Mintz posted a guide to Common Sense Communications.

Peter Smith wrote on the calamity of old versus new technologies in a post on RSS Feeds vs. Email Updates.

Conference Board of Canada

The CBoC dropped two reports that may be on interest:

1. Bridging the Gaps: How to Transfer Knowledge in Today's Multigenerational Workplace
2. Workforce Renewal: New Opportunities to Transform Health and Safety Culture

You will need to register in order to access these documents but registration is free for employees of most government departments.

Canada School of Public Service

Armchair Discussion – National Capital Region
Ottawa - Wednesday, August 6, 2008
1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. (ET)

National Managers Community Focus Group

Bilingual Presentation

The National Managers Community (NMC) would like to hear from you!

As a follow up to the electronic polling (e-polling) survey conducted at the National Managers’ Community Professional Development Forum held from April 20-23, 2008 in Vancouver, the NMC are conducting focus group sessions with Managers throughout the country to get their thoughts on the results captured from this survey. This will be an opportunity for Managers to provide feedback and suggestions for action.

You are invited to attend one of three focus group sessions taking place in the National Capital Region (August 6, 13 and 20, 2008).

We hope you will take the opportunity to participate and have your voices heard.

You are invited to attend this Armchair Discussion on-site at 65 Guigues Street (Ottawa).

To register, please visit the School’s Web site:

http://www.csps-efpc.gc.ca/events/armchair/program_e.html

Discussion informelle – Région de la Capitale nationale
Ottawa – Mercredi 6 août 2008
13 h 00 à 16 h 00 (HE)

Séance de discussion de la Communauté national des gestionnaires

Présentation bilingue

La Communauté nationale des gestionnaires (CNG) veut connaître votre opinion!

Un sondage électronique a été effectué lors du Forum de développement professionnel de la communauté nationale des gestionnaires, qui a lieu du 20 au 23 avril 2008, à Vancouver. Pour y donner suite, la CNG organise des séances de discussion avec des gestionnaires de tout le pays en vue d’obtenir leurs opinions sur les résultats du sondage. Les gestionnaires auront alors l’occasion de fournir de la rétroaction ainsi que de faire des suggestions quant aux mesures à prendre.

Nous vous invitons donc à assister à l’une des trois séances de discussion qui auront lieu dans la région de la capitale nationale (6, 13 et 20 août 2008).

Vous êtes invités à assister à cette Discussion informelle en personne au 65, rue Guigues (Ottawa).

Pour vous inscrire, veuillez consulter le site Web de l’École :

http://www.csps-efpc.gc.ca/events/armchair/program_f.html

Round-Up: July 23

Weekly Column

This week's column will share some great career advice given by an ADM to a group of new public servants in an informal discussion organized by yours truly in conjunction with my esteemed colleagues in my departmental youth group.

There will likely be no weekly column or any activity on the blog next week as I am on vacation and taking the family on a road trip. So rather then engaging in discussions on renewal with new public servants I will packing two children under 3 into the car for an 8 hour car ride...

Blogs

Last week Peter Smith blogged, Making Sense of Government, where he examined Egger's book Government 2.0 and the use of sense-making technologies. Sorry for pointing out so late, I meant to link to it sooner.

Etienne Laliberté updated his blog post on Staffing under the New PSEA on July 17... again forgive the lateness but updates to older posts don't show up on RSS feeds.

CSPS

I got an email from the CSPS this week about a re-broadcast of an armchair discussion (info below). Here is the problem, I will be on vacation next week so I will miss the re-broadcast. This leads me to the logical question of why aren't we just making armchairs perptually available on podcast immediately after they take place? This is not a new question, Doug Demos asked it a while ago.

Armchair Discussion - Rebroadcast
Thursday, July 29, 2008
1:00 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. (ET)

Web 2.0, Web 3.0, Podcast, Mashup, Vlog, Blog...Enough with the Buzzwords!

Speaker :
Mike Kujawski

Digital Marketing Strategist for the Centre of Excellence for Public Sector Marketing, and Business Professor at Heritage College

English Presentation

Web 2.0, podcast, blog...enough with the buzzwords! What is all this and how can it benefit my marketing and communications efforts? We live a time where the communication and marketing landscape has completely turned upside down. Organizations and governments are no longer in full control of their messages/brands; the consumer/citizen is. The Web 2.0 revolution is essentially synonymous with the democratization of the web. It's about engagement and dialogue as opposed to one-way communication. The technological barriers that have restricted the "one-2-many" model of communication are no longer present. Now anyone can start a blog, post a video, write a review, join a social network, start a podcast, and have their content viewed or heard by millions at virtually no cost.

The questions organizations should be asking themselves (and know the answers to) are: "What are people saying about us?" and "How can we get engaged to make a favourable impact?"

Please note that this discussion is a video rebroadcast of the April 24, 2008 Armchair Discussion.

You are welcome to attend this session via Webcast (live video and audio feed offered online).

To register, please visit the School’s Web site:

http://www.csps-efpc.gc.ca/events/armchair/program_e.html


Discussion informelle – Rediffusion
Jeudi 29 juillet 2008
13 h 00 à 14 h 15 (HE)

Web 2.0, Web 3.0, balado, mixage, vidéoblogue, blogue... Ça suffit les mots à la mode!

Conférencier :
Mike Kujawski

Stratège en matière de marketing numérique au Centre d'excellence en marketing gouvernemental et professeur en études commerciales au Heritage College

Présentation en anglais

Web 2.0, Web 3.0, balado, mixage, vidéoblogue, blogue... Ça suffit les mots à la mode! Que désignent tous ces termes et comment peuvent-ils soutenir mes efforts de commercialisation et de communication? De nos jours, le monde des communications et du marketing connaît un profond bouleversement. Les organismes et les gouvernements n'ont plus la pleine maîtrise de leurs messages et de leurs marques; ce sont les citoyens qui les contrôlent. La révolution du Web 2.0 est essentiellement synonyme de démocratisation du Web. Elle est axée sur la participation et le dialogue plutôt que sur la communication unidirectionnelle. Les obstacles technologiques qui permettaient uniquement la communication d'une personne à de nombreuses personnes n'existent plus. Aujourd'hui, n'importe qui peut créer un blogue, diffuser une vidéo, rédiger une critique, joindre les rangs d'un réseau social, mettre en ligne un fichier balado, et être vu ou entendu par des millions de personnes, et ce, pratiquement sans frais.

Voici les questions que les organisations devraient se poser (et auxquelles elles devraient savoir répondre) : « Que disent les gens à notre sujet? » et « De quelle façon pouvons-nous participer de manière à produire un effet positif? »

Veuillez prendre note que cette discussion est une rediffusion vidéo de la Discussion informelle du 24 avril 2008.

Les participants peuvent assister à cet événement au moyen de la webdiffusion (couverture vidéo et audio en direct offerte en ligne).

Pour vous inscrire, veuillez consulter le site Web de l’École :

http://www.csps-efpc.gc.ca/events/armchair/program_f.html

Round-Up: July 16

In the News

The Globe and Mail posted a book review that has some lessons we can learn from service delivery models in the private sector.

CSPS

Armchair Discussion – National Capital Region: Post-Secondary Recruitment
Ottawa - Thursday, July 24, 2008
1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. (ET)

Speakers :

Cindy Clark
Program Manager - Post Secondary Recruitment. Public Service Commission, Central Recruitment Programs

Sylvain Chrétien
Program Officer, Public Service Commission, Central Recruitment Programs

Bilingual Presentation

Post-Secondary Recruitment (PSR) is a key component of the public service renewal initiative. Annually, the Public Service Commission (PSC) conducts a post-secondary recruitment campaign to assist departments in recruiting post-secondary graduates.

Any manager who would like to know more about the campaign is invited to attend. This session will be especially beneficial to those managers who have identified a need to recruit post-secondary graduates in their HR plan, and for those managers who indicated they plan to utilize the PSC’s program as a post-secondary recruitment mechanism in their 2008-2009 plans.

You are invited to attend this Armchair Discussion on-site at 65 Guigues Street (Ottawa).

To register, please visit the School’s Web site:

http://www.csps-efpc.gc.ca/events/armchair/program_e.html


Discussion informelle – Région de la Capitale nationale: Le recrutement postsecondaire
Ottawa - Jeudi 24 juillet 2008
13 h 00 à 15 h 00 (HE)

Conférenciers :

Cindy Clark
Chef du programme - Recrutement Post Secondaire, Commission de la fonction publique, Programmes de recrutement centraux

Sylvain Chrétien
Agent de programmes, Commission de la fonction publique, Programmes de recrutement centraux

Présentation bilingue

Le recrutement postsecondaire (RPS) est un élément clé de l’initiative de renouvellement de la fonction publique. Chaque année, la Commission de la fonction publique (CFP) mène une campagne de recrutement postsecondaire pour aider les ministères avec le recrutement des diplômés.

Les gestionnaires qui veulent recevoir plus de renseignements au sujet de la campagne sont invités à y assister. La séance va être utile pour les gestionnaires qui ont identifié un besoin de recruter les diplômés au niveau postsecondaire dans leurs plans RH, et pour les gestionnaires qui ont indiqué qu’ils vont utiliser le programme de la CFP comme un des mécanismes dans leurs plans de recrutement pour l’année financier 2008-2009.

Vous êtes invités à assister à cette Discussion informelle en personne au 65, rue Guigues (Ottawa).

Pour vous inscrire, veuillez consulter le site Web de l’École :

http://www.csps-efpc.gc.ca/events/armchair/program_f.html

Round-Up July 14

In the News

Still nothing relevant in the news ...

Blogs Picking up the Slack as Usual

Last week Peter Smith blogged on Web 2.0, Who Cares? Digital Natives and Wikinomics, which made some great points about inter-generational views on technology.

Colin McKay has provided a much needed update on barcampOttawaGov and a scary example of a Welsh Civil servant getting the axe for blogging.

We also got a couple of examples of union communications from the comments on last Friday's column.

CSPS - Armchair Rebroadcast: The Immigration Paradigm

Thursday, July 17, 2008
1:00 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. (ET)

Speaker : Randall Hansen
Canada Research Chair in Governance at the University of Toronto
English Presentation

The Armchair Discussion program was pleased to welcome Randall Hansen, the Canada Research Chair in Governance at the University of Toronto as a presenter in our partnership with Metropolis, an international network for comparative research and public policy development on migration, diversity, and immigrant integration in cities in Canada and around the world.

Are Canada's immigration and citizenship policies truly benefiting Canada or have we reached the point where they are just holding us back? Perhaps it's time to really explore the implications for our policies as they relate to multiculturalism and citizenship.

This is what Randall Hansen, the Canada Research Chair in Governance at the University of Toronto, is going to do in this upcoming armchair discussion, entitled The Immigration Paradigm. Drawing on research in Canada and abroad, Mr. Hansen will make a case for a revised immigration paradigm based on a generous entry policy supported by a dominant economy and grounded in a confident sense of Canadian Citizenship. Doing so will involve reconsidering Canada's citizenship policy, its understanding of reasonable accommodation, and the expectations placed on new immigrants to this country.

Mr. Hansen's presentation will provide deeper insight into Canada's immigration and citizenship policies and their ramifications, as well as some potential changes that could be made to update Canadian policies.

Please note that this discussion is a video rebroadcast of the April 10, 2008 Armchair Discussion.

To register, please visit the School’s Web site:

http://www.csps-efpc.gc.ca/events/armchair/program_e.html


Happy Monday!

Reloaded: Daily Round-Up

We are experimenting with the format of how we deliver information. We are going to try posting links (possibly with comments) rather then posting complete articles hosted elsewhere.

Let us know what you think.


Media Search

Not much in the media today:

1. Beefed-up rules put lobbying aspirations on hold
2. Some will be working hard, some will be hardly working

Blogs

Etienne Laliberté published this piece on his blog last week.

CSPS

There is an upcoming armchair discussion (web re-broadcast) on July 3rd entitled Digital Disorder: The Internet and the Public Sector.


Conference Board of Canada

I got an email this morning from the Conference Board with a link to its Report Card on Canada


Ps - Have a good Canada Day tomorrow.