ODNI and CIA named new leaders of their respective privacy, civil liberty units.
New GovPress update
After a long hiatus, GovPress — the WordPress theme for government — has been updated.
A playbook for government as a platform
There seems to be a playbook for all things digital government, and now there’s the “Government as a Platform Playbook” that provides deeper insight into the wonky word technologists often use to describe a more exponential approach to government service delivery.
Democracy and ‘The Great Hack’
The new Netflix documentary, The Great Hack, is an eye-opening account of how voter and social media profile data, particularly from Facebook, combined with a sophisticated, incendiary digital media campaign, can undermine democracy, as we saw happen with Brexit and the 2016 presidential campaign.
In-Q-Tel explains explainable artificial intelligence
The intelligence community’s venture capital arm, In-Q-Tel, published a helpful primer on explainable artificial intelligence.
Bringing more diversity to elected office
The Government We Need talks with Run for Something’s Sarah Horvitz about the changing face of local politics and how we can bring more diversity into elected office.
Pineapple or pepperoni? Homeland Security’s pizza analogy hopes to educate the public on foreign interference of elections
Because “responding to foreign interference requires a whole of society approach,” the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has published resources that help educate the public on ways hackers can impact U.S. elections.
Government-funded report on government-funded research not accessible to the people who funded it
A federally-funded grant that researched the impact of government-funded research on innovation, such as private-sector intellectual property and inventions, is inaccessible to most of the people who funded it.
Intelligence community creates executive role to lead U.S. election security efforts
The Director of National Intelligence announced the creation of a new DNI executive position focused specifically on election threats. The new position will be led by Shelby Pierson, who previously served as DNI election security crisis manager during the 2018 midterm elections.
CivStart wants to help government leverage technology that serves the needs of vulnerable, underserved communities
CivStart is a new government-focused start-up accelerator that wants to ensure civic technology products “don’t get made in a vacuum — that they serve the needs of our most vulnerable and underserved communities.”
Register for the 2019 DKAN Open Data Summit
For those interested in government open source and open data, registration for the 2019 DKAN Open Data Summit is now open.
What went wrong with the open data movement
Kin Lane offers insightful commentary on what went wrong with the open data movement, and why it failed to live up to initial exuberance and expectations.
NSF to governments: Science must be open, transparent, collaborative
The National Science Foundation issued a statement admonishing governments that “endeavor to benefit from the global research ecosystem” and fail to uphold the agency’s values of openness, transparency and collaboration.
Is the cloud saving government money?
The U.S. Government Accountability Office published a bullish report on the impact cloud services has had on federal government agency technology savings.
Coast Guard alert shows that even commercial vessel security is just basic government security
Based on recent cyber incidents aboard commercial vessels, the U.S. Coast Guard issued a security alert to vessel and facility owners and operators that is essentially basic security practices, even ones that could potentially save governments from the ransomware attacks we see happening more frequently.
Find the truth. Tell the truth.
“Find the truth. Tell the truth.” is a core value of the U.S. Digital Service, and Ben Damman uses the mantra to share his sentiments on how it applies to California technology projects, particularly related to the nascent Office of Digital Innovation.
Code.gov gets a U.S. Web Design System refresh
Code.gov — the platform that makes it easier to find open source code developed by the U.S. Government — announced updates that includes aesthetics aligned with the U.S. Web Design System and better adherence to accessibility standards.
Government open innovation labs
The United Kingdom and Argentina governments are working on what they call the Policy Innovation Exchange that creates the potential for a much-needed, broad-scale government-to-government open collaboration organization that addresses common issues each — and others — have.
Introducing The Government We Need
After my earlier call for collaboration, The Government We Need, a podcast exploring the government of the future and how it can best serve everyone, is officially live.
California levels up on digital, seeks director for new innovation office
California is officially for looking for its first director of the newly-established Office of Digital Innovation.
Idea: Procurementeers, an open, collaborative government procurement community
It’s cliche to say that government procurement needs to be fixed, but much of the conversation around this topic happens randomly on social media, in a vacuum through exclusive or elusive groups, or through traditional organizations that operate in a closed, dated mindset with respect to broader inclusion or true innovation.
Digital government transformation at scale
While several books have contributed to the knowledge share of the digital government narrative, few have effectively addressed transformation holistically from firsthand experience, and Digital Transformation at Scale: Why the Strategy Is Delivery does just this.
Podcast idea (call for collaboration): The Government We Need
Two years ago, I had an idea for a podcast that focused on the whole of government, and how big thinkers are re-imagining and changing how civil society operates along the civic spectrum.
Golden State dot-gov
California is on the cusp of ushering in a new era of government digital services, one that our elected leaders can finally align, prioritize and execute on, and prove to the people of the Golden State that our representatives are ready to innovate just as other industries here have done.
Part 2: Re-imagining the California DMV website
It’s been a week since I published my thoughts on re-imagining the California Department of Motor Vehicles website. During that time, the issues I had with not receiving my REAL ID were resolved and the process inspired me to think and prototype a little more on the first iteration.
Re-imagining the California DMV website
I recently visited my local California Department of Motor Vehicles field office to renew my driver license and, because I scheduled an appointment ahead of time, my experience wasn’t the nightmare it’s traditionally made out to be. However, the designer in me couldn’t help but think about how the entire DMV process could be re-imagined, offline and online.
We want you: Recruiting and hiring for government digital services
If government truly wants to transform digital services and effectively serve the public at scale, it must start with how it attracts and retains top technology talent.
For and with the people: An introduction to government digital service
As the general public increasingly expects the civic user experience to be as refined as the ones we have with our consumer electronics, digital service delivery has become a priority for governments locally and globally.
Liquid democracy: Blockchains and governance in the post nation-state era
Intrigued by what Democracy Earth Foundation is doing to leverage the power of blockchain to empower a different approach to democracy, I asked the team to share more about its work.
GovFresh Q&A: New Accela CEO Gary Kovacs
Gary Kovacs is the new chief executive officer of Accela, a provider of cloud-based government productivity solutions. We asked Kovacs to share his perspective on various aspects of the government technology landscape, and where he sees Accela’s role in all this.