The U.S. Government Accountability Office launched a new Center for Strategic Foresight to help Congress better understand issues related to emerging notorious technologies, such as deep space and deep fakes, that impact a well-functioning democracy.
“The Center for Strategic Foresight helps to keep us agile by encouraging creative and critical thinking on the latest trends facing government and society. Our goal is to stay focused on Congress’ top policy priorities and to help prepare policymakers for future challenges.”
GAO created the Center to enhance its ability to identify, monitor, and analyze emerging issues. Located in GAO’s Office of Strategic Planning and External Liaison, the Center is a unique entity in the federal government, one that reflects the non-partisan independent watchdog agency’s broad mandate to provide Congress with reliable, fact-based information for overseeing federal agencies and programs.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report assessing the lackluster status of the Defense Department’s open source pilot program, saying that until the agency effectively implements this, “the department will not be positioned to take advantage of significant cost savings and efficiencies.”
The Office of Management and Budget issued its federal source code policy in August 2016 requiring federal agencies to improve the way they buy, build, and deliver software solutions through the use of open source code. Part of the policy includes implementing agency-specific open source software pilot programs. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 mandated that DOD initiate its pilot by June 2018.
Key excerpts:
A program manager from the Defense Information Systems Agency reported that the agency had identified an OSS solution that provided more functionality at less cost than the commercial solution provided through a vendor. The program manager explained that when the agency implemented the new OSS solution, it realized $20 million in annual savings over the commercial solution that had been maintained by a vendor.
…
A program manager from the Defense Information Systems Agency reported that the selection of an OSS solution rather than a COTS solution contracted through a vendor had resulted in increased efficiency. The official explained that the use of the OSS solution allowed the agency to develop and maintain in-house skills that would not have been available had they opted to contract with a vendor providing a skilled workforce.
In interviews with GAO, DOD personnel expressed mixed views on open source software with respect to security, however, “an official in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics reported that, as long as OSS is properly vetted to ensure it is secure and free from malware, it offers an opportunity for the department to achieve cost savings and efficiencies.”
According to GAO, DOD says it will “update its OSS memorandum by the end of the 2019 calendar year and issue it as policy.”
The United Nations published its 2019 Digital Economy Report that is a comprehensive must-read for civic leaders who want to understand how emerging technologies will impact the global labor market, security, privacy, economy and more.
Digital trends addressed include blockchain, three-dimensional printing, Internet of things, 5G mobile broadband, cloud computing, automation and robotics, and rtificial intelligence and data analytics.
From Secretary-General António Guterres:
Digital advances have generated enormous wealth in record time, but that wealth has been concentrated around a small number of individuals, companies and countries. Under current policies and regulations, this trajectory is likely to continue, further contributing to rising inequality. We must work to close the digital divide, where more than half the world has limited or no access to the Internet. Inclusivity is essential to building a digital economy that delivers for all.
A policy hackathon will be held in San Francisco on September 24 to “tackle problems brought by cities from the U.S. and Europe.” The event is part of Startup Europe Comes to Silicon Valley.
Details below:
What: Policy Hackathon addressing challenges brought by cities
Who: Government leaders, including from Spain, Italy and Norway, bring real challenges. Policy hackers will include entrepreneurs from Europe and the United States, investors, policy makers, and academics.
When: Tuesday afternoon, September 24, followed by a reception and light dinner.
Where: Headquarters of Mind the Bridge, 450 Townsend St, San Francisco, CA
Roles: government representatives with a specific challenge to be hacked; policy hackers to develop and present possible responses to the challenge; judges to determine the best response.
The Policy Hack brings together experts from across the startup ecosystem to design solutions to policy challenges faced by local governments and is part of Startup Europe Comes to Silicon Valley.
Several teams composed by entrepreneurs, investors, corporate executives, academics, and policy makers will be discussing challenges in these areas.
After a couple of hours of brainstorming (“hacking”) within each team, the solutions are then pitched to a panel of judges, who select the most convincing one.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles has experienced its fair share of criticism lately, which caused Governor Gavin Newsom to set up a DMV Strike Team to focus on reviewing and recommending “new long-term leadership and reform at DMV.” The team released a report in July.
Part of that effort focused on improving DMV’s digital experience, which has a long way to go.
Earlier this year, I worked on a prototype and wrote up my ideas (here and here) of how DMV should think about digital transformation, including working outwardly with the community.
Subsequently, the strike team collaborated with the Code for America Brigade Network on a series of state-wide series of user experience tests, which ultimately confirmed what everyone already knew, that “the end-user experience of the DMV website was not a priority.”
DMV Strike Team member Jacob Roper has a great post on the Code California blog about how my work, CivicDMV and the Brigades helped inspire DMV to “unlock” California’s DMV Web Services.
This is an inspiring story of how government can work with the community in gathering ideas, cultivating expertise and insights from those beyond the bureaucracy to contribute meaningful contributions to government in their own ways. In this case, it drove the momentum for change in ways we don’t often see with government.
Hopefully, DMV will continue this effort, and other agencies — inside and outside California — take this case study and build frameworks for engagement to help them get out of their own boxes.
The future of government is one that is a culture of open, and this is a small example of the possibilities.
From Jacob’s post:
By late July, the Strike Team worked with DMV to fix bugs, refresh content on the most commonly-viewed pages and restructure the homepage by creating clear navigational channels for users, emphasizing what CAN be done online. The team and staff also improved access to translation services, which jumped by 300 percent only a week after the change was made.
These were the first iterations of a larger redesign, with many more to come. As a result of this effort, we sensed the shift of energy within the team behind the DMV website. They were empowered, and are now driving forward their own ideas like streamlining content and improving customer service with a Chatbot (and eventually live chat services) to the department’s website.
Government has historically been challenged in effectively leveraging technology to best serve the people. There are numerous, well-documented cases of public sector mishandling of technology projects, from the very public failed launch of Healthcare.gov to the many unseen, ineffective IT implementations that occur on a daily basis.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and U.S Central Intelligence Agency named new leaders of their respective privacy, civil liberty units.
ODNI named Benjamin Huebner the chief of the Office of Civil Liberties, Privacy, and Transparency. Huebner previously worked as the privacy and civil liberties officer at the CIA. The CIA named Kristi Scott to replace Huebner.
From ODNI:
CLPT leads the integration of civil liberties and privacy protections into the policies, procedures, programs, and activities of the IC. Its overarching goal is to ensure that the IC operates within the full scope of its authorities in a manner that protects civil liberties and privacy, provides appropriate transparency, and earns and retains the trust of the American people.
And CIA:
The PCLO serves as an independent, primary advisor to the CIA Director and other senior Agency officials to ensure that privacy and civil liberties are integrated into the day-to-day conduct of the Agency’s mission. Ms. Scott serves as CIA’s primary liaison with the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) and as the lead Agency officer for implementing the Principals of Intelligence Transparency for the Intelligence Community. In addition, Ms. Scott will serve as the designated CIA Senior Agency Official for Privacy.
After a long hiatus, GovPress — the WordPress theme for government — has been updated. The theme currently has more than two thousand active installations.
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.
The playbook is helpful for anyone — particularly government leaders who need a primer on the platform analogy — interested in building scalable, sustainable government.
Government as a Platform holds out the promise of radically better services for the public. And to do so in a way that makes it simpler and faster for both civil servants and politicians, the private sector and non-profits, to meet people’s needs. A world of government reorganized around shared components, APIs, standards and canonical datasets.
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.
As Vice writes, the fundamental issue is the surveillance capitalism business model, where the users — and their personal data — are the product. It’s also the general public’s willingness to forgo their privacy to engage with others online, as well as its ignorance of how their political opinions can be swayed or inflamed. It’s becoming more difficult to escape unfavorable terms and conditions, but the willingness for social media users to provide their data — via polls, likes, shares — is alarming and ripe for political opportunists to target them during elections or active social movements.
The Great Hack is a must-watch for anyone active on social media or cares about how democracy can be influenced by foreign interference, especially those who expect to vote in the next elections.
As The Great Hack gets at, data rights is the new human rights.
