The Federal Coach: Spurring Innovation in Your Government Agency

As I listened to President Obama’s State of the Union address last week, my ears perked up on a number of fronts, not the least of which was his call for the government to spur American innovation through promising new federal investments in education, biomedical research, information technology and clean energy. Also causing me toRead… Read more »

An Early Win for CfA’s DC Project: SF Addressing System Open-Sourced

We at Code for America are excited to celebrate an early win for open government and our DC project. A multimillion dollar IT project, developed for the the City and County of San Francisco, is now available at no cost to any government that needs it. It’s an important step towards a new model ofRead… Read more »

Stop the Meter – A Campaign against internet metering @ http://openmedia.ca/

Dear Internet Supporters, Last week the CRTC made a decision that, while disappointing, was nevertheless a small a step in the right direction. It rolled back 15% of the usage fee profits big telecom wanted to extract from indie ISPs. This is a big deal, and it shows that we’re turning the tides on thisRead… Read more »

States set to receive more money for health IT

In an announcement made last week, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology will provide $32 million in funding to accelerate health IT through Regional Extension Centers (RECs). ONC head Dr. David Blumenthal also announced additional money for health information exchanges and community college HIT programs. In a message posted on Dr.Read… Read more »

The stone wall of optimism: Local by Social

This is a picture of a largely blank wall in Bristol’s town hall. And it’s an image that strikes me as incredibly forward focused and hugely optimistic. The other two interior walls have the names of the Lord Mayor’s of Bristol engraved in block letters and their dates of service. The dates stretch back overRead… Read more »

Renewable Energy Investment in 2010 – Are We Half-Way There?

On January 19, Bloomberg New Energy Finance released a report on the renewable energy investment of 2010. The report contained many encouraging facts: $243 billion in total investment Small-scale project investment up 91% Venture capital investment up 29% from 2009 Solar power saw a 49% increase in investment Wind power saw a 31% increase inRead… Read more »

How Yelp Could Help Save Millions in Health Care Costs

Okay, before I dive in, a few things. 1) Sorry for the lack of posts last week. Life’s been hectic. Between Code for America, a number of projects and a few articles I’m trying to get through, the blogging slipped. Sorry. 2) I’m presenting on Open Data and Open Government to the Canadian Parliament AccessRead… Read more »

CMS Opens the Door to Innovation

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently launched the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. Armed with $10 billion to fund pilot projects, the Center aims to support innovative ideas in a few specific areas: Better Care for Individuals: How can innovation make healthcare more patient-focused and more efficient? Also included is howRead… Read more »

February’s Theme – Design Thinking for Wicked Problems Enabling Learning Experiences

As the first month of the Future Learning Experience Project comes to a close, so too does our explicit focus on definitions. Let me take a few sentences to recap what exactly we defined in the last month: We offered a definition of what a learning experience is, and some contexts to consider how learningRead… Read more »