The U.S. Defense Department is escalating its commitment to open source software with a proactive push for agency participation to publicly share custom-developed code.
The Red Queen Problem: Innovation in the DoD and intelligence community
Innovation, disruption, accelerators, have all become urgent buzzwords in the Department of Defense and Intelligence community. They are a reaction to the “red queen problem” but aren’t actually solving the problem. Here’s why.
Office of Naval Research goes lean
The Office of Naval Research has been one of the largest supporters of innovation in the U.S. Now they are starting to use the Lean Innovation process to turn ideas into solutions. The result will be defense innovation with speed and urgency.
Hacking for Defense lessons learned
We just finished our second Hacking for Defense class at Stanford. Eight teams presented their Lessons Learned presentations.
DOD advisory board approves innovation recommendations
The U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Advisory Board approved 11 recommendations “aimed at keeping the Defense Department on the cutting edge in technology, culture, operations and processes.”
Ash Carter wants to keep DOD weird
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced the DOD will open its third technology innovation “outpost” in Austin, expanding the reach of the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental that serves as a “bridge between those in the U.S. military executing on some of our nation’s toughest security challenges and companies operating at the cutting edge of technology.”
DISA kicks off overhaul of federal background checks
The Defense Information Systems Agency has released a series of videos and request for information for the National Background Investigation System, created in the wake of security incidents that lead to data breaches of millions of federal government employees and contractors.
Hacking for Defense (Week 7)
We just held our seventh week of the Hacking for Defense class. Now with over 750 interviews of beneficiaries (users, program managers, stakeholders, etc.) almost all the teams are beginning to pivot from their original understanding of their sponsor’s problem and their hypotheses about how to solve them.
Government ‘Originals’
Grant cites two government originals, Central Intelligence Agency analyst Carmen Medina and U.S. Navy lieutenant Josh Steinman, who both worked to change traditional thinking within two large bureaucracies.
The Freakonomics of ‘Government Employees Gone Wild’
I’ve been on a podcast kick lately and stumbled on an old Freakonomics Radio episode highlighting the U.S. Department of Defense ethics guide, “The Encyclopedia of Ethical Failure.”
Build an ‘open source value creation model’ for your agency
Great FedTalks presentation from David Dejewski of the Department of Defense Business Transformation Agency where he discusses Web 2.0, MilSuite including MilBook, MilWiki, MilBlog and MilTube.
HITECH Act and government access to private health records
When the Electronic Freedom of Information Act was passed into law, ordinary citizens were allowed access to previously secret government data. With the new Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (the HITECH Act) the government is now attempting to view and organize our country’s private health records. It’s quite a project.
Open source headlines from the Open Government plans
The Obama Administration’s Open Government Directive ordered Federal agencies to produce open government plans by April 7th, and while some advocates are disappointed, we have before us a bewildering number of initiatives to improve transparency, collaboration, and participation across the Government. It will not surprise you to learn that I spent some time looking for places where open source is being used in these plans.
Quick links: Federal agency open government plans
Put down the best-seller and cancel the rest of Spring Break, the White House announced today federal agencies have released their open government plans. The plans are part of the Administration’s Open Government Initiative and should make for great beach reading.
Cabinet members brief Amercan citizens in Year One videos
President Obama’s Cabinet taped ‘Year One’ videos to highlight their respective department or agency’s 2009 accomplishments and or goals for the next year.
What do you think? Which are most informative? Authentic? Is this an effective way to familiarize citizens to public servants and put a face on government?
DoD and citizen feedback
Defense Department Public Affairs chief Price Floyd talks about changing the DoD’s communications operations and getting feedback from the American public.