Outgoing Federal CIO Vivek Kundra had an impressive legacy advancing the open government movement both at the national and local levels. He ended his tenure as U.S. Chief Technology Officer last Friday, and will be transitioning to a teaching position at Harvard University. Today, he posted a thoughtful piece, reflecting on his time in publicRead… Read more »
By Scott Silverman, 2011 CfA Fellow As the debt ceiling gets a little higher, and schools around the country continue to struggle with budget cuts, Chrystia Freeland has proclaimed that 2011 will be “The Year We Gave Up On Government.” Her piece furthers economist Albert O. Hirschman’s conclusion that as frustration with a firm, organization,Read… Read more »
I love getting my fruit and veggies from my local Farmer’ Market. Unfortunately, as a recent SF transplant I wasn’t sure how to find my local Farmers’ Market. A quick search led me to a USDA website which seemed to contain most of the markets in the country. Being an open data geek, I lookedRead… Read more »
The very first post on this blog, published almost two years ago now, led with “Give us your hands, not just your voices.” I thought of that as I read a Reuters piece this morning entitled The Year We Gave Up on Government. It’s a fascinating piece, with a number of really thought-provoking observations andRead… Read more »
Last year, we got through 362 applications for the fellowship without printing out one application. (And yes, that was also because last year, at this point, we didn’t own a printer that could have handle that; still don’t actually.) This year, we’ve gotten even more applications, and to handle them, we decided to automate theRead… Read more »
During WWII, a broad national effort was mounted to foster a sense of patriotic duty for the war, and part of that effort were strong visual images that communicated the need for participation. So strong, in fact that the images of Uncle Sam and Rosie the Riveter continue to resonate today. Those iconic wartime postersRead… Read more »
Some experiments in collecting images + location from mobile devices Over the last couple of years I’ve been fascinated with technology that collects and aggregates mappable information. Specifically I have been searching for or creating tools that have these properties: Lets users discover things near them, allows submission of location, photos and text Built onRead… Read more »
The Iconathon events are catching on. Since we launched the Iconathon project two weeks ago, we have had overwhelming support from the design & UX communities and many amazing people in cities across the country. We are excited to announce 4 confirmed events in cities across the country (with more in the works.) Cities AugustRead… Read more »
Yesterday, co-founder of Indy Hall Alex Hillman (@alexknowshtml) wrote up a terrific article about Code for America and its effect on Philadelphia on his blog dangerouslyawesome. Here’s an excerpt of “A Hall Pass for Bureaucracy – Code for America Philadelphia”: When I first heard about Code for America, what intrigued me the most was theRead… Read more »
Today, the TechAmerica Foundation released its report, Commission on the Leadership Opportunity in U.S. Deployment of the Cloud. It is a guide for the Obama Administration on “how government should deploy cloud technologies and for public policies that will help drive U.S. innovation in the cloud.” This continues a series of pushes for government toRead… Read more »