Procurement Reform
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The Third Wave of Government Disruption
It’s both inaccurate and potentially dangerous to view AI’s rise in government as an isolated phenomenon. What we’re witnessing is the latest wave in a historical pattern with profound implications for the way that governments operate and how they serve those in need. Continue reading
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JavaScript for Policy Makers
This is a highly technical talk focused on the tradeoffs facing front-end developers as they make decisions around how to use JavaScript in their applications. I think it is a perfect talk for government policy makers to watch – even those that don’t have a clue about building web apps. Continue reading
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Requiem for Procurement Reform
Much of the work that is done to build, deliver, and support government digital services comes from private vendors. It’s naive to think that we’ll ever improve these services as much as we hope without changing the outcomes that are possible through existing procurement rules and practices. Continue reading
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Finding Balance In How We Budget for Government IT
When we talk about the government budgeting process, we almost always talk about the first three phases. But the often overlooked fourth phase of the budget process is one reason why cross-agency funding for things like a better customer experience is so hard. Continue reading
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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. Continue reading
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What Lies Beneath
Procurement challenges don’t end when a government agency selects a vendor to fulfill a contract. In many ways, they are just beginning. If you’ve been paying any attention at all to the world of civic tech for the last 5–10 years then you don’t need to be told that one of the major challenges to Continue reading
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No Assembly Required
When we think about all of the work being done in the civic technology and open government communities over the last several years, it’s easy to see the impact. Evaluated just in terms of the number of datasets that have been released by governments it is clear that the impact of those advocating for more Continue reading
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Why 18F’s New Approach to Procurement Reform Matters
In another recent post, I talked about how public sector technology procurement was not well suited for the digital age. But there are some efforts underway that seek to identify new methods of procuring technology solutions for government. As these ideas start to take hold, there is hope that those in the govtech community will create a Continue reading
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Enabling the Enterprise
Its not often that I run across posts about enterprise architecture that get me excited. This one – by Tariq Rashid – did. Very much so. This issue interests me because its one that, as a former state IT executive and policy advisor, I have personal history with. I also believe its an issue that Continue reading
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Pursuing Change by Finding Balance
The recent crash of a quadcopter drone on the grounds of the White House has drawn attention to the absence of final rules from the FAA governing unmanned aircraft – rules that have now been in the works for years. This one incident almost perfectly encapsulates the difficulty that governments have with keeping pace with 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 