government | Fast Company

After The U.K. Censors It, Pirate Bay Site Sees Traffic Boom

BY Kit Eaton | 05-03-2012 | 5:50 AM | INNOVATION

News updates all day from your Fast Company editors.READ MORE›

Votizen Brings The Empowerment Of The Internet To Elections

BY David D. Burstein | 02-03-2012 | 12:10 PM | ETHONOMICS

David Binetti's new venture is a Silicon Valley tech startup called Votizen, an online social network where voters can campaign for a candidate or a cause. With the 2012 campaign heating up, we spoke with Binetti about the disruptive impact of technology on the political landscape and the challenges of innovating in the federal government.READ MORE›

NASA Wants Your Help Finding Asteroids, Tracking Weather

BY Ariel Schwartz | 01-09-2012 | 8:03 AM | OPEN SOURCE

Faced with budget cuts but armed with the knowledge that legions of space nerds are standing by to help them out, the space agency is making many of its projects open source. READ MORE›

Beyond SOPA: Rep. Darrell Issa's Big Plans For Digitizing Democracy

BY Gregory Ferenstein | 12-19-2011 | 9:27 PM | INNOVATION

Over the past six months, Issa's launched an interactive subcommittee livestream, produced a new form of online polling, and sponsored a bill to make government spending trackable. READ MORE›

In The Future, We Will All Live In Ecodistricts

BY Boyd Cohen | 11-07-2011 | 8:51 AM | ROOFTOP FARMS

International bodies, national governments, and even cities move at too glacial a pace to keep up with the latest innovations. But small groups in neighborhoods can start transforming where they live without outside help. It might be ... READ MORE›

What Governments Don’t Understand About Startups

BY Steve Blank | 09-06-2011 | 3:13 PM | LEADERSHIP

Unless the people who actually make policy understand the difference between the types of startups and the ecosystem necessary to support their growth, the chance that any government policies will have a substantive effect on innovation, jobs, or the gross domestic product is low.READ MORE›

Global Military Dominance Through Health Care And Solar Panels

BY Neal Ungerleider | 05-05-2011 | 5:40 PM | ETHONOMICS

Two prominent advisers to the Joint Chiefs of Staff think adopting social and environmental change is the best path to maintaining America's global hegemony. READ MORE›

How Design Thinking Can Help Prevent Another Mortgage Bubble

BY Continuum Innovation | 04-02-2011 | 12:20 AM | FORMS

Three years after the financial meltdown, housing prices are still in free fall while foreclosures keep rising. Many American homeowners, burned by the home-buying system, are defaulting on their mortgages, taking the hit to their ... READ MORE›

Government Tech Innovation Would Come to a Screeching Halt Under New Budget Proposals

BY Morgan Clendaniel | 03-29-2011 | 10:26 AM | ETHONOMICS

Funding for projects like Data.gov and mobile apps for agencies is in danger of being almost fully slashed.READ MORE›

Infographic of the Day: Google Charts What Your Taxes Pay For

BY Cliff Kuang | 02-23-2011 | 8:12 AM | WHATWEPAYFOR.COM

Do you really know what your taxes are paying for? Google and Eyebeam gallery want you to figure out the answer, in their very first Data Visualization Challenge, which offers $10,000 in prizes. And as fodder for inspiration, they've ... READ MORE›

CIA's Revamped Website Has Flickr Stream, New Kids' Games, YouTube Puppy-Cam Vids!

BY Jenara Nerenberg | 02-08-2011 | 11:58 AM | ETHONOMICS

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) wants the world to know that it loves social media--and just re-vamped its site to prove it. The K-9 cam video is the cutest thing since Keyboard Cat.READ MORE›

Infographics: Internet Censorship Is Rampant Around the World

BY John Pavlus | 02-04-2011 | 6:18 PM | INFOGRAPHIC

Egypt's Internet may be back on, but that country's weeklong web blackout was a wake-up call to the rest of the world about just how fragile the intertubes really are. Ars Technica has a detailed technical breakdown of how Internet ... READ MORE›

Kenneth Cole's Tone-Deaf Tweet! Vodafone's Coerced Texts! Salad Dressing Drug Charges! Business Misadventures in Egypt Multiply

BY Jenara Nerenberg | 02-04-2011 | 7:47 AM | ETHONOMICS

As a revolution unfolds, the forwardly fashionable, mobile operators, and even a purveyor of health foods have been caught up in Egypt's current chaos.READ MORE›

Government Social Media: Five Questions for 2011

BY Mark Drapeau | 01-31-2011 | 2:23 PM | LEADERSHIP

I ask five "big questions" about government social media use to put technology, government, social engagement, citizens, and business together in a larger perspective: Who are the public faces of government agencies online?READ MORE›

We Do Big Things. Really?

BY Marc Stoiber | 01-26-2011 | 2:31 AM | ETHONOMICS

President Obama's State Of the Union speech gave some important cues to green innovators. So is it a message of hope, or a signal to pack your bags and head to China?READ MORE›

A 10-Minute Guide to the U.S. Constitution

BY JD Rucker | 01-20-2011 | 5:44 PM | WORK/LIFE

The Constitution has been in the news lately on several fronts. Health care, WikiLeaks, and gun rights have become central pieces of discussion with the U.S. Constitution as the focus. Who has time to read it?READ MORE›

iFive: Google TV Delays, U.K. Blocks All Porn, Facebook's E-Commerce Plans, Apple's Holiday Sales Push, HTML5 Beats Flash Again

BY Kit Eaton | 12-20-2010 | 6:50 AM | INNOVATION

Monday's here, bringing with it snow, an impending lunar eclipse, imminent holidays, and the week's early tech news in lovely, bite-sized chunks:READ MORE›

Scientists Prepare for Asia's Massive Aging Population Imbalance

BY Jenara Nerenberg | 12-09-2010 | 1:44 AM | ETHONOMICS

Asia's leading scientific bodies meet in Beijing this week, trying to tackle the scale of Asia's elderly population, set to triple in some countries by 2050. READ MORE›

FCC Adopts Its Fighting Stance: Net Neutrality Is the Future

BY Kit Eaton | 12-01-2010 | 12:46 PM | INNOVATION

We've been waiting for this, given some teasing leaks earlier this week, but now it's here: The FCC, via its chairman Julius Genachowsky, has officially staked its claim on the future of the Webs. Net Neutrality all the way. READ MORE›

Patent Reform, Still Pending

BY David Zax | 12-01-2010 | 10:46 AM | ETHONOMICS

It has taken tentative steps in the right direction, with new ambitions to streamline the process and reduce backlog. But until legislation liberates the patent office, its mismanagement continues to amount to a tax on small businesses, say critics.READ MORE›