innovation
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Revisiting an Old Idea: Building a Rules Engine with CouchDB
Recently, I decided to dust off this old project and give it the attention it deserves. Using CouchDB’to build a sophisticated, scalable, easily managed rules engine. Continue reading
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Searching For Patterns in Digital Modernization
We need to find new patterns to guide the work of digital service teams in government to lay the foundation for the next generation of public services Continue reading
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Two clear signs that you might be under-investing in your software delivery platform
As agencies use platforms to support these efforts, issues occasionally crop up. In this post, I talk about two common issues, what they mean, and how they can be fixed. Continue reading
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Parking Signs and Possible Futures for LLMs in Government
Government agencies adopting generative AI tools seems inevitable at this point. But there is more than one possible future for how agencies use generative AI to simplify complex government information. Continue reading
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Preparing for an AI Future in Government Service Delivery
When we hear industry observers and AI experts tell us today that governments can reap the benefits of the latest wave of AI innovation if they organize and prepare their data, they are right – but this is not a new insight. This has always been true. Continue reading
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Government Agencies Need AI Laboratories
Governments need ways to safely experiment with new generative AI tools to discover for themselves what works best for those they serve. Continue reading
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Embracing Blamelessness to Improve Government Services
Understanding the root cause of complex system failures can be tricky, and our desire for accountability may sometimes be at odds with learning the root cause. Incorporating blameless postmortems to help identify issues in their own systems, could help government agencies provide better services to those who need them. Continue reading
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What Old Airplanes Can Teach Government About Adopting Artificial Intelligence
Though more than 100 years separates the inception of the U.S. Airmail Service and the launch of AI tools like ChatGPT, we can learn many lessons from the former when deciding how to use the latter. Continue reading
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How DevOps Improves the Customer Experience
DevOps is an approach that agencies can use to deliver high-quality, secure software to their customers. In the end, this is what matters most for government agencies and those they serve. Continue reading
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How AI and LLMs will change government websites
With the rise of AI and large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, government websites will need to change again in response to these new technologies. Continue reading
About Me
I am the former Chief Data Officer for the City of Philadelphia. I also served as Director of Government Relations at Code for America, and as Director of the State of Delaware’s Government Information Center. For about six years, I served in the General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Services (TTS), and helped pioneer their work with state and local governments. I also led platform evangelism efforts for TTS’ cloud platform, which supports over 30 critical federal agency systems.
Civic Innovations 