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Linda E. Brooks Rix
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Linda E. Brooks Rix is President and Co-CEO of Avue Technologies, which was founded in 1983 and pioneered smart technology for better government. The company provides the public sector with integrated technology and service solutions that dramatically increase enterprise-wide visibility and management effectiveness, workforce productivity, and manager and worker satisfaction. In the fight against "business-as-usual" in Washington, Avue helps power "business-as-unusual." Avue is a privately held company headquartered in Tacoma, Wash., and with offices in Washington, D.C.

Blog Entries by Linda E. Brooks Rix

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Federal Jobs Galaxy

Posted February 29, 2012 | 02/29/12 02:21 PM ET

Let's say you're a Millennial -- otherwise known as a 20-something young adult -- and you're trying to get a job and start paying off those student loans. You're in the Washington, D.C. metro area and you know a lot of folks that work for the federal government, so you...

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We Paid Dead People Using Paper, Pencil and a Whole Lot of Spit

Posted December 2, 2011 | 12/02/11 11:26 AM ET

Hide your wallet and suspend all reason, because here he comes again.

Expect Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry to make the rounds on Capitol Hill this month, hat in hand, begging for more dollars and resources to fix his agency's two-decades long inability to modernize the Federal Employees...

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USAJOBS 3.0 Jumps the Shark

Posted November 9, 2011 | 11/09/11 01:37 PM ET

The Obama administration was heavily criticized when its federal job posting website, USAJOBS 3.0, crashed upon launch. After all, the administration is all about jobs, jobs, jobs. Rather than go "cloud-first" -- in theory, an administration mandate since 2009 -- the Office of Personnel Management, the government's human...

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USAJobs: Help Not Wanted, But Desperately Needed

Posted October 13, 2011 | 10/13/11 10:18 AM ET

Who didn't see this coming? Certainly not applicants for jobs with the federal government.

One year behind schedule and nearly $20 million spent this year alone, the Office of Personnel Management couldn't come close to engineering a smooth launch of its USAJobs 3.0 platform update on Wednesday.

Users took to...

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The District of Cognitive Dissonance

Posted September 28, 2011 | 09/28/11 11:55 AM ET

There must be a parallel universe where no banks fail, Wall Street needs no oversight, all mortgages are secure, consumer rights rule the day, there's no federal deficit, and Republicans and Democrats agree on everything. It used to be that this parallel universe would bleed over into ours -- we...

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Low and Slow: The Process of Reforming Government

Posted September 23, 2011 | 09/23/11 11:24 AM ET

Barbequing is best done low and slow. Reforming government, on the other hand, is much more like cooking with a Chinese wok -- a hot fire, fearless execution, and constant mixing and scrambling ingredients in super-heated oil.

If you were asked to make a personal investment in an organization, that...

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When Words Aren't Enough, Numbers Help Define OPM's Conflict of Interest

Posted June 22, 2011 | 06/22/11 01:01 PM ET

Tell the average person that intragovernmental funds transfers are the root of an institutional conflict-of-interest problem in Washington, D.C., and you'll probably evoke a quizzical look.

Tell that same person that more than $1.7 billion in taxpayer dollars is being wasted by a federal agency? They get it.

Numbers are...

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The War on Ponzi-Style Government Waste

Posted May 10, 2011 | 05/10/11 09:44 AM ET

By Linda E. Brooks Rix

"It's unbelievable.... The whole government is a Ponzi scheme." ~ Bernie Madoff, as quoted in a New York magazine article, "The Madoff Tapes" (Feb. 27, 2011)


It takes one to know one.

In its Dec. 21, 2010 release,...

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The War on Utopian Waste: The Technology of Smaller, Better Government

Posted April 19, 2011 | 04/19/11 12:11 PM ET

Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry said in 2009 that he would work with the Department of the Interior and the General Services Administration to create a set of model programs for employees who work at the three agencies' headquarters to "turn the three workplaces into a...

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Cloud Illusions and Confusion: The Fog of Wasteful Government IT Spending

Posted April 13, 2011 | 04/13/11 01:21 PM ET

"I've looked at clouds from both sides now,
From up and down, and still somehow,
It's cloud illusions I recall,
I really don't know clouds at all."

~ Joni Mitchell, 1968, Both Sides Now, ©Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

While I've never looked to Joni Mitchell for technology...

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Conflict of Interest and Shakedowns at OPM

Posted March 21, 2011 | 03/21/11 09:23 PM ET

Very few private sector companies or government agencies have weathered the recession as well as the Office of Personnel Management, thanks to a business model built on conflict of interest, lack of accountability and anti-competitive practices.

In 2011, OPM estimates it will enjoy $1.7 billion from its "fee for service"...

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