Apps and Profiles

Federal employees traveling on business can now look up per diem reimbursement rates for lodging, meals and incidentals from anywhere, thanks to a new smart phone app created by the General Services Administration.

The app -- Per Diem for Continental U.S. -- is available for free download on iPhone and Blackberry devices. It allows federal travelers to look up the daily allowance for meals and lodging by location or zip code throughout the country and U.S. territories. Travelers can look up rates for fiscal years 2010 and 2011, with 2012 rates coming online later this summer.

I downloaded and tested out the iPhone app. It downloaded quickly and is easy to use. I know I'll be recommending it to my active-duty military husband, who is often making calls to learn of per diem rates before booking travel for training or other events.

Still, one user review on the iTunes App Store noted that the app would be more useful if GSA allowed users to search per diem rates for military installations. "Not very useful if you have to know which county a military installation is in," the user noted.

Click here to download the app.

Government Meets eHarmony

Ever imagine creating an online profile in hopes of meeting another fed with similar interests, challenges and skills?

It's not another dating website, but rather a new social network launched last week by Young Government Leaders and social networking website GovLoop. The website -- the GovLoop Mentors Program -- allows government workers of all generations to meet and learn from each other. Launch of the website was announced at last week's Next Generation of Government Summit.

GovLoop Founder Steve Ressler told Wired Workplace on Tuesday that the website is now running as a three-month pilot that brings retired federal workers, Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y employees together for mentoring opportunities.

"It's a little like eHarmony," Ressler said. "What we saw is that the generations are looking for mentoring opportunities. So they can create a profile, get matches and accept the match."

Matches are made based on user interests, skill sets and other areas, Ressler said. After a match is made, participants commit to meeting on Skype or in-person twice a month for the duration of the three-month pilot.

"We'll learn from it and see what people like and what they don't," Ressler said. "If people like it, we'll do even more of it."

Wired Workplace is a daily look at issues facing the federal information technology workforce. It is published on Nextgov.com. Click here to read the latest entries.