Angie Quirarte is a behind-the-scenes hero for the state of California, leading on issues such as public sector workforce recruitment and retention, public data, creating a user-friendly government, improving internal government processes and more.
A few ways to fix a government
IBM Research Manager Charity Wayua’s “A few ways to fix a government” talk is an inspirational example of how government (and its partners) can — when tasked with goals and measurable results — leverage user and data analytics research to successfully create better results for those it serves.
Telling Detroit’s stories
Aaron Foley is Detroit’s first chief storyteller, appointed by Mayor Mike Duggan in April 2017, to help the city go beyond formalized bureaucratic communications and public relations and share the stories that don’t always get heard.
San Luis Obispo Mayor Heidi Harmon on dresses, roses and personal empowerment
San Luis Obispo Mayor Heidi Harmon has an inspiring interview with the The California Report on her personal style, what it re-enforces and the sense of empowerment it gives her.
Neighborly inspiration from CEO Jase Wilson
Neighborly CEO Jase Wilson is an inspiring entrepreneur working to change how public projects are funded.
The long tail of political mail
Danielle Winterhalter, SpeakEasy co-founder and director of strategic partnerships, shares how they’re addressing a fundamental aspect of lowering the barrier to entry, especially when it comes to political (snail) mail, which is still more relevant than you might think.
Phaedra Chrousos retrospects federal government digital service
After two years of helping lay a new foundation for how the federal government buys, builds and delivers government digital services, Technology Transformation Service Commissioner Phaedra Chrousos announced she is stepping down. I asked Chrousos to share some parting thoughts.
Superpublic wants to supercharge municipal government innovation
The 5,000 sq. ft. lab Superpublic unites under the same roof for the first time innovation teams from the private industry, federal, state and city government agencies and from universities.
Funding government technology
I’m always inspired talking and working with entrepreneurs trying to solve big civic problems, especially those who realize much of the challenge lies within modernizing and empowering internal government operations, so it was great to finally meet with Govtech Fund Founder and Managing Partner Ron Bouganim this week.
Elon Musk as government innovator
After reading Ashlee Vance’s new Elon Musk biography, I find myself wondering whether we should really worry about bad government websites, and instead chalk them up as inspiration for those who will change the world.
Thank you, Jake
There have been countless, beautiful anecdotes on Jake’s compassion, humility and contributions, and there’s nothing I can add that would do justice to honor the influence he’s had on me other than to say, Jake, I miss you so much, and you will be with me always as I try to live up to the standards you set for those of us still here.
Thank you, Ellen Miller
Today, Sunlight Foundation announced Chris Gates will take over as its new president in October after co-founder and executive director Ellen Miller said she would step down from eight years at the helm.
Pete Peterson on public engagement and, literally, a platform for civic innovation
Davenport Institute’s Pete Peterson has spent the last seven years working with local governments on improving their approach to public engagement. Now, he’s running for California secretary of state on a platform centered around civic innovation.
.gov designer: Lou Huang
Meet Streetmix creator and Code for America fellow Lou Huang.
.gov designer: Danny Chapman
Meet Danny Chapman, director of design, NIC.
Captricity frees government data from paper captivity
Captricity solves the “paper problem,” unlocking digital, machine-readable data from paper.
Brian Solis interviews SF innovation chief
Watch San Francisco Chief Innovation Officer Jay Nath being interviewed by Brian Solis.
My civic #one4one: Hillary Hartley
#one4one is the latest Twitter meme making the rounds encouraging digital influencers to “name someone whose identity has a radically different trait as their One. If you’re a dude, name a woman. If you’re white, name a person of color. If you’re straight, name an LGBTQ person.”
Fostering civic innovation in California
Alissa Black joined the New America Foundation in April to lead the newly-formed California Civic Innovation Project, focused on building “communities of practice within California’s local governments and identifies best practices to improving service delivery, opening new channels for public voices, and bridging the state’s digital divides.”
Gov 2.0 strikes a pose
Congratulations to New York City Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne on her Vogue magazine profile.
On this day one year ago, Alex Howard published his first GovFresh post
On this day one year ago, Alex Howard published his first GovFresh post. Since then, he has written a total of 302 on his OpenGovFresh blog.
Celebrating International Women’s Day with 100+ women in government technology
Today is International Women’s Day. Women’s organizations around the world will be celebrating and talking about all kinds of women’s issues, including our Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who launched a bold new initiative.
Group hug and Gov 2.0 Hero Day
Thank you to everyone who took the time to participate in Gov 2.0 Hero Day. I hope you got as much inspiration and enthusiasm as I did, watching so many people get excited about acknowledging the work of others.
My Gov 2.0 Hero: Gabe Klein
I want to nominate Gabe Klein, our Director here at the District Department of Transportation (DDOT). I know, very self-serving, but Gabe is still very deserving of recognition as a Gov 2.0 Hero. He has made it a priority to make the agency more transparent and to improve communications with our customers, and he has pushed us to utilize every tool at our disposal to do that.
Gov 2.0 Hero: Wayne Moses Burke
Wayne Moses Burke ( Twitter · LinkedIn) is Executive Director of Open Forum Foundation, operator of projects such as Twitter citizen app GovLuv, Open Model for Citizen Engagement and CongressCamp.
My Gov 2.0 Hero: Phil Tate
Manor, Texas has received lots of recognition for the innovative technologies that have come out of it, but many people don’t know all the individuals that are responsible. My role as Assistant City Manager and CIO is to steer the development of emerging technologies in Manor, but the real hero is our City Manager, Phil Tate.
My Gov 2.0 Hero: Luke Fretwell
One of the first people that came to mind as a Gov 2.0 Hero doesn’t even work for the government. With this said, this individual has had a profound impact on government through his immense drive and passion to make the government a better place. Luke Fretwell is the creator of GovFresh, which has become a very important resource for agencies and citizens interested in how technology is reshaping government of all levels. Luke recognizes individuals making their mark in government as Gov 2.0 Heros, but I think it’s time that his efforts get recognized. Luke, thank you for being a real Gov 2.0 Hero, and inspiring me to press forward no matter how difficult the challenge may be.
My Gov 2.0 Hero: Lucas Cioffi
Lucas Cioffi is the CEO of Online Townhalls, Inc., and founder of the Open Government Directive Workshop Series. The OGD Workshop Series is an inter-agency collaborative event hosted by a different federal agency each month. These self-organizing workshops help the public sector’s OpenGov community coordinate from the bottom up and make the critical transition from good to great.
My Gov 2.0 Hero: Ted Hsieh
It’s easy for one to say “Hey, on this website, wouldn’t it be cool if X?” where X is any given outcome of random neuronal firing in the brain of someone that might call themselves a New Media Strategist.
It’s a whole other thing altogether to make X a reality, to turn that idea into a tangible product. At HHS, that’s where Ted Hsieh (sounds like Shay) comes in. You won’t find him on Twitter nor GovLoop nor many meet-ups, but Ted has been called a ninja and a Jedi Knight. That’s right: He’s a Ninjedi Knight. As the lead developer for the US Department of Health & Human services, he takes all the crazy ideas that push and challenge our technological infrastructure, talks them out, adds a little magic and pumps out technical solutions to meet the needs of HHS web communicators. And he does it quickly. Like really quickly. (That’s where the magic comes in.)
My Gov 2.0 Hero: Dr. Nicholas Gruen
I’d like to nominate Dr. Nicholas Gruen (@nicholasgruen) for the stunning work he carried out on our Gov 2.0 Taskforce Report (see also Government response).