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Bad choices, good reasons
Sometimes government make poor technology decisions for good and entirely rational reasons. Understand this dynamic is important for those of us working to make government adoption of technology more successful.
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Back to the 90’s, the Hard Way
If you need an object lesson to demonstrate how inextricably linked technology is to the basic functioning of government, just look at the municipal governments that have been hit with cyber attacks recently and forced to shut down their digital systems. For these governments it’s like a bumpy trip back to the way they used to operate decades ago.
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Ethics and Algorithms
Who do we hold accountable for decisions that get made or actions that are taken by government when some part of the decision making has been ceded to an algorithm? And because the consequences of algorithm use in government are now much more immediate for specific individuals, how do we ensure that their use is being applied fairly and without prejudice or bias?
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Crisis-driven Technology Investment
It has never been more important for people in the civic tech community to understand the public budgeting process, to know the actors and the influencers, and have tactics for influencing budget outcomes, then it is right now.
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Mashed Potatoes and Digital Modernization
So much of the work we do to improve government digital services involves breaking big things down into smaller pieces.
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More Writing, Less Words
More posts. Shorter words. It’s time to leave the bird site and all the bad habits I picked up there behind.
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PFC: A Cautionary Tale for Civic Tech
In a month of chaotic vaccine distribution rollouts, no government’s effort has been more dysfunctional, or controversial, than that of Philadelphia. To spearhead delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to city residents, the City of Philadelphia decided to partner with a young startup called Philly Fighting COVID (PFC).
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On Unbecoming a Hotshot
My four-year anniversary at my current job snuck up on me a few weeks back. It’s not an anniversary I have a lot of experience with — it’s been a while since I worked somewhere for four years in a row. My professional career has taken me on an interesting journey, and I’ve bounced around […]
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Virtuous Roadblocks and Digital Service Delivery
If Men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and […]
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Filling up the Civic Tech Toolbox
It’s sort of a cliche to say it these days, but digital transformation in government is largely not about technology. It seems like this is an idea that has broad consensus, but much of the work that gets done in and around government technology modernization still views problems solely through the lens of technology. What […]
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Civic Innovations 