Mark Stencel

Recent Articles

• Not-So-High-Speed Rail
• Apr 19, 2009
• One of the most expensive flops in television history was "Supertrain", a show about a 200-mile-per-hour, nuclear-powered locomotive -- a landlocked "Love Boat" with celebrity...

• Dot-Gov'ing Life: Three Little Words
• Mar 27, 2009
• Lots of state and local techies are gathering with their federal brethren here in Washington for Government 2.0 Camp, an "unconference" on using technology ...

• Stimulating Technology: The Award For Best Special Effects Goes to... (updated)
• Feb 22, 2009
• Forget the Hollywood red carpet at tonight's Oscars ceremony. The best spot for political star gazing today was the J.W. Marriott on Pennsylvania ...

• Speaking of Speakers
• Dec 8, 2008
• Governing recognized Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff as a Public Official of the Year last month for his "unflagging commitment to bipartisan comity," ...
• 1 Comments

• Gov. O'Malley's "Omni-partisan" Approach
• Oct 6, 2008
• Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley's "intensely statistics-based approach to governance" was the subject of the latest article in Jonathan Walters's ongoing Citizens and Performance ...
• 1 Comments

• Life Is Tweet
• Sep 29, 2008
• Some imaginative government offices across the country --  from the L.A. Fire Department to the U.S. Senate -- are experimenting with ways ...
• 1 Comments

• Can E-Government Increase Crime?
• Aug 28, 2008
• Fairfax County is experiencing what amounts to a crime wave for this generally affluent Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C. But is it an actual ...
• 2 Comments

• Spinning the Web
• Aug 19, 2008
• Ric Cantrell, chief deputy of the Utah state Senate, offered his take last month during a panel I moderated at the National Conference of State Legislatures' annual meeting in New Orleans.

• Where to Get "Grande" Ideas for Government
• Jul 11, 2008
• I have a big idea for Starbucks. OK, it's at least a "tall" idea: a drink-to-own policy. Instead of the frequent-drinker cards offered ...
• 3 Comments

• That and a Cup of Coffee Gets You... Wi-Fi?
• Jun 11, 2008
• A visit to the cafe at Portland's famous Powell's Books last week gave me a chance to log on to MetroFi's free wireless Internet service. ...
• 1 Comments

• Building a Better Mouse Trap
• May 28, 2008
• from Governing's Managing Technology Conference in Seattle Making Web sites and other electronic interfaces easier to use needs to be more than an aesthetic afterthought. ...

• Untangling Philadelphia's Wireless Mess
• May 14, 2008
• Philadelphia got plenty of attention when former Mayor John F. Street launched his city's ambitious efforts to provide low-cost wireless Internet access to its citizens. ...
• 5 Comments