Techno-File: Andrew Einhorn

2-28-11

Say what you will about social media, trends on Facebook and Twitter are “one of the best indicators we
have of what the public is thinking,” notes Andrew Einhorn, an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown
University and the CEO of OhMyGov.com, a transformative software platform.

This month, Einhorn launched an invitation-only beta test of OhMyGov.com at a number of federal
agencies, including the State Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the General Services
Administration. The platform allows government users to chart their performance in social media and to
correlate activity on Facebook and Twitter with “news mentions”—the frequency with which certain
keywords appear in the vast corpus of online news content.

“You can correlate the public’s reaction to particular news events by looking at the increase or decrease in
your social media following in the days after a big push for news,” he says.

When it comes to social media, the constellation of federal agencies—from the Children and Families
Administration to the Missile Defense Agency—are a mishmash of “leaders and laggards,” Einhorn says.
“Our system allows you to rank the best communications shops out there in various metrics.”

Some entities are encumbered by a profusion of Twitter handles and Facebook profiles. EPA, for example,
has 22 Twitter handles and 15 Facebook profiles. Others—such as the Defense and State departments—are
savvy social-media jockeys, but so large that implementing a coherent strategy has so far proved
impossible. (The State Department has well over 200 embassies and consulates worldwide.)

OhMyGov.com’s current round of beta testing is supported by a grant from the National Science
Foundation. The platform has obvious appeal to members of Congress—whose livelihood may very well
depend on the predilections of their Facebook friends. And the Obama administration has picked up a share
of the tab because it believes that social media could be a useful way to disseminate information in times of
crisis.

In the modern age, pitching stories to the Associated Press or The Washington Post “might not be the best
way [for agencies] to reach the desired audience,” Einhorn says. “Let’s say there’s another [outbreak] of
salmonella in peanut butter, and the Food and Drug Administration is charged with communicating that
information to the public.” OhMyGov.com would allow government users to track “the time it takes to
reach that tipping point where everybody knows about it.” The purpose is not to circumvent the media, he
insists, but to translate social-media statistics into a visual representation of a news item’s life on the Web.

Some of the results are surprising, as when a damning characterization in the news coincides with a spike in
popularity. “You can take a person like Sarah Palin and say, ‘Wow, she’s really being beat up in the media
today.’ But we’ll do an analysis and [find that] she’s getting nothing but bad publicity—and yet, her
Facebook friends, her Twitter followers, they’re all going through the roof.”

Einhorn, 31, grew up in Colchester, Conn., “a rural town next to Lyme, where Lyme disease is from.” He is
in the habit of introducing Colchester this way, he says, because “it paints the picture of deer and woods—
that’s pretty much what the town looks like.” His parents run a discount general store.
After graduating from Emory University with a degree in psychology and anthropology, Einhorn worked as
an epidemiologist for a public-health consulting firm in Boston, where he identified cancer clusters in
populations that had been exposed to noxious pollutants. During that time, he wrote Broke in Boston, a
guide for the city’s low-income epicureans.

After receiving a master’s in engineering management from George Washington University, Einhorn joined
ICF International, a publicly traded management-consulting firm based in Fairfax, Va. Among his clients
were the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, EPA, FDA, the Health and Human Services Department, the
Missile Defense Agency, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

At ICF, Einhorn observed “the same types of issues across the span of agencies,” most of which had not
embraced social media with as much enthusiasm as elected officials had. “We wanted to improve
government,” he says, “and didn’t always see the flexibility to do it inside the walls of government.”

Today, Einhorn and cofounders Richard Hartman and Mark Malseed have about a dozen “engineers”
translating their conceptual blueprint into computer code. In a few weeks, the trio will launch the second
round of beta testing, which may include a handful of journalists.

But even if OhMyGov.com expands to the private sector, Einhorn does not consider himself an
entrepreneur. “I make the joke that there are better ways to make money. We’re not doing it for that—we’re
doing it because we want to improve government.”

Christopher Snow Hopkins

Tech program gets short-term fix - POLITICO.com Print View http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=D24916BF-05D6-...

Tech program gets short-term fix

By: Eliza Krigman
February 1, 2011 04:39 AM EST

Despite President Obama’s recent call to invest in American innovation, Congress has
failed to permanently extend funding for a small business program that many tech
companies rely on.

The Small Business Innovation Research program, along with a sister initiative, funnels
roughly $2 billion a year in grants to companies that are “truly at the cutting edge,”
according to National Science Foundation spokesman Josh Chamot. NSF is one of eleven
agencies that administer the grants.

For example, the key technology behind Lasik, the eye surgery that has allowed many to
shed their glasses, is among successful SBIR grant recipients.

But the funding could run out this year without congressional action.

President Barack Obama on Monday signed into law a stop-gap measure that will continue
funding through the end of May. SBIR funding would have expired Monday without the bill,
which Congress passed last week.

The program has been temporarily reauthorized half a dozen times over the past two years.
Despite having bipartisan backing, efforts to ensure long-term funding for the program have
stalled as Congress has focused on larger issues.

The House and Senate last year passed similar bills that would have made a longer-term
commitment to SBIR, but they were hijacked by “don’t ask, don’t tell” legislation during
conference. Lawmakers ultimately used the small business research bill as a vehicle to
repeal the DADT military policy.

Sam Graves (R-Mo), Chairman of the Small Business Committee, is committed to the
program.

“I’m pleased that we have taken the first step toward providing entrepreneurs with some
much-needed certainty by passing legislation to temporarily extend the SBIR program and
other SBA programs,” Graves said. “I am now eager to get to work with my colleagues on
both sides of the aisle to ensure a more permanent solution is signed into law.”

Beneficiaries of the program say their businesses depend on it.

The SBIR grant “was a life saver for a small business like ours,” said Andrew Einhorn,
co-founder of OhMyGov, a media company working to develop visual analytics software that
will improve government communication. OhMyGov needed the federal money to “bridge
between having nothing to having some kind of pilot project” that could attract other
investors, Einhorn said.

This program “funds technology to solve problems that might not otherwise be pursued by a

1 of 2 2/1/11 12:04 PM
Tech program gets short-term fix - POLITICO.com Print View http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=D24916BF-05D6-...

bigger company,” said Kevin O’Handley, vice president of business development at Ferro
Solutions, a high-tech energy company. Ferro received an SBIR grant to create a
magnetic-based communication system to be used in mines. The company received a call
from Chile’s government after the mine disaster, but the new technology was not yet ready.

© 2011 Capitol News Company, LLC

2 of 2 2/1/11 12:04 PM
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July 29, 2008 August 2008

Advanced Search
Get a Life!: Get in the Loop Su Mo T u We T h Fr Sa

Some of you may be checking Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter or chatting on gmail. And some of you 1 2
may not. But chances are that few will chat about working for government on those social networks. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Connecting the government community in conversation is the purpose of a new social network, 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
GovLoop. GovLoop’s founder, Steve Ressler, is also one of the founders of Young Government
Leaders and an information technology professional. 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

31
“Conversations on other online sites don’t continue very much and are not a great resource for diving
in and really talking with another one. Facebook walks a fine line between personal and work space. Search this blog:
Not a great place to have a conversation about government,” Ressler said.
Go
Ressler is hoping that thought leaders join the conversation at GovLoop as it becomes a hub for people
to get helpful information and share ideas. “There’s a ton of brilliant people in government, academia,
Categories
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Subscribe Now! have skillsets to share with the older generation and vice versa,” he said. Business/industry
Community
Among those blogging on the site is his dad, John Ressler, who retired as senior executive from IRS E-government
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operations. He is sharing some of the 50 rules of management he’s learned during his career. Federal Government
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Among perceptive topics initiated by members is one asking how a transition to a new Administration Industry
Management
works. That’s a great question for mentoring. Those who have lived and worked through past Off-topic
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In a way, GovLoop is so government – wonkish (providing research and resources), reflective, serious Workforce
in intent and all to the good. If something a bit more irreverent is what you need, another Web site
Oh My Gov! is a humorous place to blog, catch some news, and if you are so inclined, tell all about Archives
government.
July 2008
OhMyGov! describes its mission as “cultivating change through the spread of information and ideas, June 2008
May 2008
the use of innovative online tools, and the strategic deployment of satire and wit.” A fed, government April 2008
contractor, and journalist founded it. March 2008
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IPv6
LOB Get a Life: Where do employee suggestions go?
Management Recent Entries
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Privacy Get a Life!: Get in the Loop
A suggestion
Policy Get a Life: Where do employee
Program Management Whew, government has not yet refined the art of suggestion programs. Last week I blogged on the suggestions go?
State and Local topic and asked how well suggestion programs are working. Get a Life!: Any suggestions?
Security Get a Life!: Tech advances
Technology bring distractions -- and flexibility
Telework Based on comments, it seems that 1) if there are programs, suggestions may be falling into black
Workforce holes because no one knows what happens to them; 2) if suggestions go to managers, who may claim
them as their own and there is potential for abuse; 3) if suggestions go to a box, an employee may
More Topics
never hear about rewards (boxes are like black holes); 4) some agencies are wisely abandoning
suggestion programs; 5) maybe we need some suggestions about effective ways to stimulate and
reward suggestions.
Any other suggestions?

Dog days
Maybe the dog days aren’t so bad after all. As you may recall, the dog days are when, going back to
the days of the Roman calendar, the “dog star” Sirius rises in the sky. That star still rises and now
Home the dog days are technically from early July to the end of August.
Letters to the Editor
Current Issue/Download These are the months when it is usually blazing hot and, with people taking vacations, time seems to
Print/Online Archives
Editorial Calendar slow down. But this year the month of August seems busier than usual. That could be an illusion, but
there are signs that people are staying busy.

Some workers, doing some belt-tightening in a slow economy, are taking shorter vacations or staying
closer to home. With gas prices high, there are fewer backups on highways, suggesting that fewer

1 of 4 8/1/08 6:08 PM
FCW.com Blogs - Get a Life! http://www.fcw.com/blogs/getalife/

cars are on the road. More people are cramming into public transportation, again giving that feeling that
this is a busy time.

Symbolically on 08-08-08, the Olympics will start in China. And near the end of the month, on Aug. 25,
Democrats will gather in Denver for their Presidential Convention. The Republicans follow a week later
with their convention on Sept. 1 in Minneapolis.

At the same time, at the end of an administration, legislation is piling in the Congress. Whether there
Sprint Communications will be action on some of the bills remains to be seen. Now, if my two loving canines will pardon me,
for Continuity of
Operations that’s dog days.
Oracle Resource Center

NEW! SEWP IV Contract

Guide
NEW! Priority Report:
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Service Agency
Government Leadership
Survey July 15, 2008
Green Solutions Guide
Report: Information Get a Life!: Any suggestions?
Sharing
DISA IT Strategy & Vision Some Internal Revenue Service employees will be receiving cash for suggestions that were not
Emergency Preparedness
Report previously rewarded. In a recent arbitration decision, the IRS was faulted for not linking all suggestion
Report: Green Computing programs to the National Treasury Employees Union negotiated Employee Suggestion Program. The
PEO EIS Guidebook ESP involves monetary rewards for as much as 25 percent of any first-year savings.
Content Library

More >> IRS had been encouraging suggestions for efficiencies and improvements through various channels.
The decision means that employees who submitted ideas between May 26, 2006 and the present will
now be eligible for monetary awards for their suggestions regardless of how the suggestions were
initially submitted.

Employees who made suggestions during that time period will have six months to resubmit those ideas
through the formal ESP suggestion program. Suggestions that range from cost-savings measures to
ways to close the tax gap must be above and beyond the employee’s normal job responsibilities.

In some agencies, suggestions are rewarded through the performance evaluation process. I can also
recall a suggestion “program” in a government agency that once involved a box in the human resources
office with a slot for suggestions. I don’t recall any rewards.

How well do you think suggestion programs work?

Comments (4)

July 8, 2008

Get a Life!: Tech advances bring distractions -- and flexibility

In recent posts, I pointed out some of the concerns about the information glut that comes with
technology. Too many e-mails, too many messages, too many interruptions all help to distract and
impede productivity. But employees tell me there is another side of the equation.

A worker in the Justice Department is thankful to have a government-issued BlackBerry. While her
office does not provide flextime or part-time options, management is tolerant of employee needs if
workers are available by phone or e-mail. Hence, the BlackBerry takes on even more importance.

When the worker takes her child to a doctor’s appointment, she can check e-mail messages and
respond while she waits for the doctor. Her view is that technology is not the problem; what matters
is the management where you work.

A worker at the U.S. Patent Office finds that an iPod helps him focus at work by drowning out the
noises of other cubicles. While the iPod may tune out what is going on around you – such as a
world-class violinist performing at a subway station – it can also tune some workers in to their work if
management allows the practice.

Both of these examples tell us something about our changing workforce. An article in the
Washington Post highlighted what some of us already know about millennials, the youngest
generation in today’s workforce.

Technology gives them flexibility to work where, when and how they wish. Technology is also their
social connector. Even though multitasking is as simple as using a BlackBerry, and the BlackBerry
goes to dinner with some workers, they don’t feel burdened.

The challenge for management is to focus on results and try to overlook how workers such as
millennials get to them.

Baseball: The Partnership for Public Service has discount tickets available for Washington Nationals
vs. Houston Astros, Saturday, July 12 at 7:10 p.m. Go to www.ourpublicservice.org for the
discount. You do not need to be a government employee.

Judy Welles

Judy Welles
Comments (0)

2 of 4 8/1/08 6:08 PM
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July 2, 2008

Get a Life!: Fun facts for the Fourth of July

Thanks to the Census Bureau, the 4th of July 2008 has a number of fun facts.
Here are a few that you can find on the Web site:

2.5 million: In July 1776, the estimated number of people living in the new nation.
Source: Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970

304 million: The nation’s population on July 4, 2008.

Source: Population clock

More than 74 million: Number of Americans who took part in a barbecue during the previous year.
There’s a good chance that many will be at one this Independence Day.
Source: Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2008, Table 1213

Fireworks and Flags

$207 million: The value of fireworks imported from China in 2007. U.S. exports of fireworks came to
$14.9 million in 2007, with Japan purchasing more than any other country ($3.8 million).
Source: Foreign Trade Statistics

$4.7 million: In 2007, the dollar value of U.S. imports of American flags, with the vast majority made
in China.
Source: Foreign Trade Statistics

$2.4 million: Dollar value of U.S. flags exported in 2007 with Mexico was the leading customer.
Source: Foreign Trade Statistics

I didn’t do this research alone. It is compiled on USA.gov.

Judy Welles
Comments (0)

Feature: Technology: Op-ed:

Should a presidential candidate

be tech savvy?

Previous Polls' Results

A new management agenda?
Paul Light, longtime scholar
of government reform, offers
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SBA faulted on set-aside
GAO says ‘faith-based’
reporting can lead to
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Kelman: The impact of pay
disparities
A new book, ‘The Warping
of Government Work,’
explains the federal pay gap
and whom it benefits.

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Search The Week

ELECTION 2008

Top Stories
U.S. News and Opinion
World News and Opinion
Cartoons The war against droopy pants
What happened
U.S. Business
Florida’s Senate approved a bill that would prohibit
World Business
public school students from wearing their pants too
Personal Finance
low. If the House passes the rule, Florida will become
the first state with a “saggy pants” law, although several
Books cities have them. Last week, Riviera Beach, Fla.,
Film passed an ordinance that punishes repeat offenders
Music with up to 60 days in jail. (Reuters) The statewide
People and Gossip measure would require schools to warn, then suspend,
Saggy pants: worthy of Florida's
Consumer students whose pants are worn low enough to expose legislative attention?
Travel their buttocks or sexual organs. The bill’s sponsors (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
said it is needed to prepare kids for entry into the
workforce. “You will not get that job with your
April 4th, 2008
underwear hanging over your trousers,” said Sen.
Obama Larcenia Bullard, a co-sponsor of the measure. (The
Iraq Add to:
Miami Herald, free registration)

What the commentators said ADVERTISEMENT

This is "ludicrous," said George Diaz in the Orlando
Sentinel. We have enough problems educating our children without telling teachers they have to
run around "holding rulers" and catch students whose "pants are drooping too low." “Low-riding
pants” are just the latest “generational skirmish” in a war over clothing “that dates back for
ADVERTISEMENT
generations.” And history has shown that making a "fuss" won't work.

Florida's lawmakers “just want people to pull up their pants,” said Andrew Brett in an OhMyGov!
blog. “And they aren’t alone.” The “anti-sagging” laws are an increasingly popular way to try
legislating away the “defiant, ‘thuggish’” attitudes spread through “rap culture.” Critics say
"legislating fashion" is an unfair restriction of “self expression,” but elected officials make
rules all the time. It's true that in this case the "meddling" yields little "benefit," but are saggy
pants rules so different from other laws?

Well, for one thing, said the New Orleans Times-Picayune in an editorial, communities that
“insist on making the fad illegal make themselves look nearly as silly as the
underwear-flashing offenders.” Most fads lose their appeal “without any help from elected
officials,” and rebellious “fashion statements” will almost certainly "gain traction” if they
become “not only annoying but actually illegal.” Besides, “telling them to put on a belt” is “the
job of parents, not the City Council.”
FROM THE MAGAZINE

Good week for: People with piercings in their

private parts, after the Transportation Security
Name:
Administration said it would henceforth allow
such passengers to pass through metal
detectors with piercings in place if inspectors
could privately view them. The new policy was
Email Address: announced after a Texas woman complained
that agents forced her to remove her nipple
piercings with pliers in order to board a plane.

Comments: Bad week for: Campaign stunts, after Barack

Obama bowled a 37 while trying to impress
working-class Pennsylvanians at an alley in
Altoona. “My economic plan is better than my
bowling,” said Obama after throwing
Enter character string as shown below numerous gutter balls. “It has to be,” a
spectator called out.

PICK OF THE DAY'S CARTOONS

1 of 1 4/4/08 10:51 AM
Trivia Saves Lives! — Animated “Real or UnReal” Quiz Raises Money for Charity with Factoids that Make You Say “Oh My Gov!” | Business Wire 3/7/11 1:35 PM

February 15, 2011 06:00 AM Eastern Time

Trivia Saves Lives! — Animated “Real or UnReal” Quiz Raises Money for Charity with
Factoids that Make You Say “Oh My Gov!”

Every correct answer earns 1 day of safe drinking water for a child in Africa through charity partner Blood:Water Mission

ALEXANDRIA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A new, addictive trivia game from the Webby-honored government blog
OhMyGov.com gives people the power to save lives as they engage in one of America’s favorite pastimes: wasting
time on the Internet.

The “Real or UnReal” game (http://ohmygov.com/pages/realunreal.aspx) presents

“People get tremendous
factoids taken from breaking news, politics, science and technology, and strange-but-
satisfaction from
true government stories, and asks readers to cast their vote: Are they Real or UnReal?
For every correct guess, OhMyGov donates funds to its charity partner, Blood:Water helping those in need,
Mission, to provide one day’s worth of safe drinking water for a child in Africa. but let’s be honest, they
also love
Already, during the game’s pilot phase, over 10,000 days of safe drinking water have procrastinating on the
been earned — the equivalent of 23 years. Correct clicks turn into dollars donated by
Web — so we decided
OhMyGov, which go directly toward disease-reducing potable water projects by
to combine the two and
Blood:Water Mission, which was founded by the GRAMMY Award-winning band Jars of
Clay. make it easy to support
a good cause”
Real or UnReal can be played on a variety of devices, including iPads and iPhones —
perfect for spicing up commutes and dull office meetings. The animated game features a water truck that fills up with
every correct click, and a calendar marking off your progress toward a month of safe, clean water.

“People get tremendous satisfaction from helping those in need, but let’s be honest, they also love procrastinating on
the Web — so we decided to combine the two and make it easy to support a good cause,” said OhMyGov executive
editor Mark Malseed. “By playing Real or UnReal a few minutes a day and sharing the link with friends, anyone can
help to make safe drinking water a reality.”

About OhMyGov (http://ohmygov.com)

Founded in 2007, OhMyGov.com is the news arm of OhMyGov Inc., a media and technology firm that helps

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Trivia Saves Lives! — Animated “Real or UnReal” Quiz Raises Money for Charity with Factoids that Make You Say “Oh My Gov!” | Business Wire 3/7/11 1:35 PM

governments navigate the new media landscape through advanced analytics, tools and training. OhMyGov Inc. is
privately held, with backing from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the New Dominion Angels.

About Blood:Water Mission

Blood:Water Mission (http://bloodwatermission.com) is a non-profit organization founded in 2005 that empowers

communities to work together against the HIV/AIDS & water crises in sub-Saharan Africa through creative grassroots
efforts.

Contacts

OhMyGov Inc.
Mark Malseed, 202-360-2268
mark.malseed@ohmygov.com

Permalink: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110215005750/en/Trivia-Saves-Lives%21-%E2%80%94-Animated-%E2%80%9CReal-
UnReal%E2%80%9D

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 OhMyGov Inc. Wins Prestigious National Science Foundation Grant

Award marks second cash infusion this year for D.C.-area startup

ALEXANDRIA, VA., July 7, 2010 — OhMyGov Inc., the media and technology firm
behind the critically acclaimed political blog OhMyGov.com, today announced it has
been awarded a highly-competitive small business grant from the National Science
Foundation (NSF) to fund research and development of state-of-the-art media analysis
software.

The $150,000 grant was awarded under NSF’s Small Business Innovative Research
(SBIR) program. According to NSF, the program aims to “increase the incentive and
opportunity for small firms to undertake cutting-edge, high-risk, high-quality” scientific
or engineering research.

The grant to OhMyGov, Inc. will support development of next generation visual analytics
software that will make it easier for communicators to see and understand how their
messages are spreading across the Internet. As a grant recipient, the company will also
receive preferential treatment for federal contracts relating to its research and
development focus.

“We are incredibly excited to have the National Science Foundation’s support in building
our technology to improve government communications,” said Andrew Einhorn,
OhMyGov, Inc.’s CEO. “Only two percent of companies competing for these grants
actually obtain them. That makes NSF’s program five times more competitive than that
of Harvard Business School. Receiving the award speaks volumes about the strength of
our ideas and our team.”

OhMyGov, whose flagship government news website OhMyGov.com won recognition

this spring as an Official 2010 Webby Honoree alongside political blogs from the New
York Times, CNN and Politico, also recently secured private equity funding from the
Virginia-based investment group New Dominion Angels.

In addition, the company’s progress landed them a nomination in the Northern Virginia
Technology Council’s contest to find the “hottest” technology companies in Virginia at
their June 29th “Hot Ticket” award ceremony.

About OhMyGov!
OhMyGov Inc. provides communications analysis, training, support, and technology to
help government offices, elected officials and private organizations better understand and
navigate the dizzying world of 24-hour news cycles and social media. OhMyGov aims to
improve government communications by helping to interpret and expand the spread of
information in today’s digital world. Former federal senior executive Dr. Richard
Hartman, best-selling author Mark Malseed, and government consultant and Georgetown
University Adjunct Faculty member Andrew B. Einhorn, founded the Alexandria, VA
based company in 2007.

##