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Joseph Marks

Staff Correspondent Joseph Marks covers government technology issues, social media, Gov 2.0 and global Internet freedom for Nextgov. He previously reported on federal litigation and legal policy for Law360 and on local, state and regional issues for two Midwestern newspapers. He also interned for Congressional Quarterly’s Homeland Security section and the Associated Press’s Jerusalem Bureau. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s in international affairs from Georgetown.
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Technology Is the Key to Combatting Child Sex Trade, White House Says

May 1, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV arrow As child sex traffickers are increasingly relying on Internet and mobile tools to ply their trade, child advocates and police must use new Internet and data mining tools to combat the illicit market, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park said at a symposium Wednesday. Park and First Lady Michelle Obama’s ...

White House Responds to 19-Month-Old Palestine Petition

April 30, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV arrow The White House responded Friday to one of three remaining We the People petitions posted during the site’s first few days online in September 2011. The 19-month-old petition asked the United States to not veto Palestine’s then-pending application for full member-state status in the United Nations. While the United States ...

White House Petition Site Draws Venezuelan Crowds

April 30, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV arrow The petition website designed to give citizens “a direct line to the White House on the issues and concerns that matter most” is proving popular outside the U.S. as well. An April 15 We the People petition asking the Obama administration to urge a recount in the Venezuelan presidential election ...

G-8 Seeks Apps for Agriculture

April 29, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV arrow The U.S. government launched a new agriculture data community on Monday during a special Group of 8 conference in Washington aimed at using open data to produce better crops and more efficient markets. The two day G-8 Conference is focused on better sharing of information that can improve agricultural performance ...

Open Source Tech is Driving Big Changes in Government

April 26, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV arrow Open source technology is now visible everywhere in government from the basic operating systems that federal computers run on to the blogs, websites and social media tools they use to communicate with the public. Red Hat, which helps companies manage, maintain and secure open source tools, including the operating system ...

DARPA Chief: Budget Cuts Will Erode Cyber Mission

April 25, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV arrow The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s offensive cybersecurity initiative known as Plan X is a “great example of the negative effects of sequestration,” agency Director Arati Prabhakar told reporters Wednesday. DARPA has had to delay Plan X, which aims to lay the groundwork for offensive cyber operations, for several months, ...

Social Media Activists Are Wealthy, Educated and on the Rise

April 25, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV arrow The percentage of Americans talking politics on social media has skyrocketed since the 2008 elections but politically active people continue to be disproportionately wealthier and better educated, both on social media and in the offline world, a new report shows. About 17 percent of all adults posted links to political ...

The Power of a Nudge

April 25, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV arrow Federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel has cited innovations from a British government group, informally known as the “nudge unit,” as part of his inspiration for a plan to launch evidence-based innovation projects in non-tech sectors of the executive branch. The CIO would receive about $6 million for such projects ...

Get Ready for Mobile Only

April 25, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV arrow If 2011 and 2012 brought the concept of "mobile first" to government, 2013 may mark the beginning of a trend toward "mobile only," Deloitte Consulting Chief Technology Officer Mark White said Wednesday. There are already some government-built native mobile apps that don’t have a browser-based equivalent, such as EyeNote, a ...

Federal Web Visitors are Coming Via Mobile

April 23, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV arrow Nearly one-third of federal website visitors surveyed during the past three months said they’d gone to a government site at some point in the past using a smartphone or tablet. Another 16 percent of government Web visitors said they’d never been to federal website on a mobile device but planned ...