A look back at the last decade — Governments have taken various approaches to reorganization for the digital age. The particular names and focus areas of the leadership teams/positions in each jurisdiction varies; however, these models suggest a common theme: elevate the position of the IT department — not merging it with others, but instead emphasizing its unique…

I have long been, and continue to be a staunch supporter of SaaS in government. The experiences too common, the budgets too tight, and the track record too poor to expect a custom solution to always work. (In fact less that 70% do.) That said, it’s worth noting that there’s…

Idea for enabling better choices as we reopen businesses in a COVID world — I’ve been asking this question about once a week on Twitter to no avail: So I figured I must not be being clear enough… and will explain it here. Here’s the idea: cities and counties already rigorously inspect local businesses on a whole host of things, ranging from fire…

I recently was asked to give a talk to Code for Milwaukee on their first anniversary. This happened to also by my 10th anniversary in civic and government tech. In honor of both, I put together my 5 top learnings from the last decade in the areas of technology, open…

(Given the recent discussions of a declaration of a national emergency in the United States, I have decided to publish an old essay I wrote about the historic Indian Emergency of 1975.) “Let us endeavor to make the best of that which is allotted to us and, by finding out…

Back in 2012, while at Code for America and we were thinking about how to build out the government technology industry, we had this crazy idea: let’s get all the best GovTech startups together, and try to help them out. Let’s try to help them scale, and in doing so…

Over the last ten years, I have seen firsthand the leaps and strides governments have taken to catch up to the private sector’s pace of innovation. It started with digital engagement: websites and social media. Then we moved forward to providing greater digital access through open data and digital services…

A “101” Overview of Technology and Innovation at the Local Level — What does a 21st century city look like? That’s a question I’m asked fairly often. Indeed, I’m often tasked with giving an introduction on local government innovation — to new mayors, potential investors, etc — and after a couple dozen hacked together presentations, I decided to put some effort into…

Instead of building new platforms for expression, could we listen more closely to those upon which citizens are already standing? I believe that 311 call centers hold immense promise to develop a richer understanding of citizens’ needs, concerns, and ideas. Historically, innovators have focused on the issue-reporting functionality of 311…