Patent office snubs Seattle, picks Silicon Valley, Denver and Dallas for new branches

USPTO director David Kappos speaking at the University of Washington. Photo: Debbie Woo

First, we lost our bid to win one of the NASA Space Shuttles (though we did pick up the consolation prize delivered this weekend). Now, another federal agency is snubbing Seattle. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office today announced three new satellite offices, choosing Dallas, Denver and Silicon Valley. Seattle put on the hard sell earlier… Read More…

Firm files protest over Concur’s $1.4B government contract, dubs it an unfair 15-year monopoly

concur

Shares of Concur Technologies soared earlier this month after the Redmond company was awarded a $1.4 billion contract to provide travel and entertainment expense management services to the government, with CEO Steve Singh saying at the time that they were “thrilled” with the decision. But not everyone is happy about it. In a protest filed June… Read More…

Concur’s stock soars after landing huge government contract

concur

Shares of Concur Technologies jumped nearly seven percent in heavy trading Monday after the Redmond maker of travel and entertainment expense management software announced a long-term deal with the U.S. General Services Administration. As part of the deal, Concur will manage online bookings, travel authorizations and vouchers across various U.S. government agencies. The contract has a… Read More…

Seattle’s ‘chief geek’ Bill Schrier to step down May 2

Mayor Mike McGinn discusses the Pioneer Square broadband project with City of Seattle CTO Bill Schrier

Chief Technology Officer Bill Schrier announced his retirement today after more than 30 years of service to the city. “Bill Schrier has been an effective and innovative leader in helping Seattle use technology to support our residents, our businesses, and an open government,” said Mayor McGinn in a statement. “Under his leadership Seattle has begun… Read More…

City of Seattle ties for first in web, social media savvy study

SeattleCitylogo

A study from the University of Illinois at Chicago is giving top marks to the City of Seattle for its use of the web for civic engagement — and calling it a tie for the top spot with New York City. The report from UIC’s College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs checked out local government… Read More…

Next up for Startup Weekend: Making government move at Internet speed

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn

You might say it is a bit of an oxymoron. But Startup Weekend is introducing a new event next month in Seattle designed to bring the fast-paced world of startups to the slow-moving world of city government. Dubbed Startup Weekend GOV, the event will follow the typical 54-hour brain and coding jam associated with other Startup Weekend… Read More…

AT&T exec blasts FCC over T-Mobile call center closures

att_horiz_color_lrg

AT&T appears to still be smarting over its failed $39 billion bid for T-Mobile USA, a deal that fell apart last December under intense government scrutiny. Now, some of those feelings are being aired via a blog post from AT&T’s Jim Cicconi, senior executive vice president of external and legislative affairs. And the reason for… Read More…

How technology should be used to spur open government

opengovernment-featured

The Washington Coalition for Open Government organized a conference this weekend to commemorate the 40th anniversary of our state’s landmark Initiative 276 and the Open Public Meetings Act (and to discuss the past, present and future of open government). I was one of the speakers at the conference and spoke about using technology to promote open… Read More…

U.S. Patent chief: New patent reforms are like an ‘intricate Swiss watch’

USPTO director David Kappos speaking at the University of Washington. Photo: Debbie Woo

At the GeekWire Summit on Wednesday, former Swype CEO Mike McSherry received the loudest applause of the day when he strongly suggested that the best way to fix the mobile industry would be to abolish the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Obviously, when you have the entrepreneurs and innovators who are supposed to be benefiting… Read More…

Tech lessons from the Seattle snowstorm

seattle-eoc1

The Seattle area and I just went through a four day snow/ice storm event.  The City of Seattle’s emergency operations center (EOC) was activated and coordinated the City government’s response.  That response received high marks from the public and media for a variety of reasons (see Seattle Times editorial here), including the leadership of Mayor Michael McGinn…. Read More…