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AI Agents aren’t as radical as they sound
People think AI agents and delegation-based digital services are a radical idea. But people delegate all kinds of interactions with government to third parties today. It’s way more common than you might think. Understanding the kinds of services that people delegate, and the reasons that they choose to delegate are critical to inform how we… Continue reading
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Designing for delegation
Agentic, delegation-based services could reshape how people access government, cutting administrative burden – if agencies start building the right design patterns now. Continue reading
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AI instructions as platform infrastructure
Software delivery platforms provide reusable building blocks that reduce complexity. AI accelerates custom software development. The next evolution? Treating AI coding agent instructions as core platform infrastructure. Continue reading
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Design and Delivery: Two Sides of the Same Coin
What makes it hard to deliver good digital services in government? It’s not just a lack of design talent, it’s the difficulty of getting good designs into the hands of users quickly and learning from them. Continue reading
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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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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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The end of civic tech’s interface era
We are at an inflection point in civic technology. The same AI capabilities transforming other sectors will revolutionize how people interact with their government. It’s time to rethink the way we think about interfaces. Continue reading
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Letting Go: A Retrospective on Without81
As Syracuse’s I-81 transformation continues to advance, it’s time to retire the tool that once helped residents envision life without the viaduct. Continue reading
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The Quiet Crisis in Legacy System Modernization
AI offers some new hope for tackling government legacy systems—but we can’t afford to focus only on the biggest, flashiest ones. The real crisis is quieter, deeper, and much more widespread. Continue reading
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The Great Flavorless Web
We are entering an era where a huge and growing percentage of what we read is engineered to be palatable at scale. And that’s a problem. 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 