Government Technology

A Q&A with General Services Administration Administrator Dan Tangherlini

Only a couple years old now and the federal digital consultancy 18F has a lot to deal with. The innovation group, which helps agencies build, buy and share modern tech, is under fire from sources within and outside of government. Externally, 18F is defending itself from IT lobbyists, representing companies like IBM, Deloitte, Cisco Systems and others, that allege 18F is hindering revenues as a competing government tech provider — a message they shared at a recent hearing evaluating 18F's effectiveness. Internally, the group has met resistance from CIOs unsure of its private-sector development practices, and within the General Services Administration (GSA), 18F's parent agency, insiders say that the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) that funds 18F is actively working to terminate the group. Tangherlini said 18F, one of the contributors responsible for saving Healthcare.gov, should be allowed to innovate, especially considering the federal government’s nearly $90 billion in IT spending, 75 percent of which is spent on outdated technology, according to a recent 18F oversight report by the Government Accountability Office.

In Austin (TX), population 885,000, some 55,000 residents say they don't use the Internet — at all. But the City Council refuses to accept this. “It is critical that every one of our residents has access to digital and communications technology, and understands technology and its relevancy to their daily lives, whether for helping with their kids’ homework, or looking for jobs, getting access to health information or accessing online government information,” the council writes. And the city’s Office of Digital Inclusion is charged with making that vision a reality by working with a range of private-sector and nonprofit providers to ensure connectivity and encourage Internet use.

Austin’s effort has drawn kudos as a model of how municipalities can help to narrow the broadband gap, recently winning a Digital Inclusion Leadership Award from the National League of Cities. “To have a city office dedicated to this, that is a pretty strong indication of the seriousness that they are giving to it,” said Colin Rhinesmith, author of [The Benton Foundation's] Digital Inclusion and Meaningful Broadband Adoption Initiatives and a senior lecturer at Boston's Simmons College.

It’s hard to find anyone who hasn’t heard of open data by now, and yet the state and local governments working to expose their data are vastly outnumbered by those that are waiting for a solid business case to support the idea before they try it.

Open data, by its nature, does not guarantee specific cost savings, service improvements or more efficiency. The uncertainty that wards off so many is the same trait that makes open data alluring to those who were willing to make the leap of faith.

Three open data advocates in Pasadena and Riverside (CA) and in Chicago shared what it takes to get started on open data, why it’s worth it, and the arguments they use when faced with opposition.

Just like physical documents and emails, government social media conversations and interactions are considered public data.

But while many agencies have invested in automated tools to help them mine platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to fulfill Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, there haven’t been a high volume of them. Seattle and Austin, Texas, both use services to archive digital activity and communications. Yet, representatives from both cities said that they rarely receive any public information requests for social media postings.

The city of Philadelphia (PA) has signed a new deal with the IT services company Unisys to provide a comprehensive 311 system for residents. City officials say the new system will give citizens instant access to ask a question or lodge a complaint by landline, text, mobile device or on the Web.

Philadelphia receives between 1.2 million and 1.5 million calls to its existing 311 line, according to the service’s Executive Director, Rosetta Lue. To handle the expected growth in 311 calls, the city did an open request for proposals, and ultimately chose Unisys. Part of the appeal of going with the company, Lue said, is that it is offering cloud-based hosting, in partnership with cloud platform company Salesforce.

Attracting talented technology professionals to public service continues to be a challenge for government employers. But state and local governments are using some interesting retainment strategies that may eventually turn the tide in government’s IT workforce battle with the private sector.

Harris County, Texas, and the state of Utah have developed new job classifications and evaluation procedures that enable skilled IT technicians to advance their careers and make more money without moving into management roles. The hope is that as IT employees gain experience, they’ll feel enticed to rise up the ranks internally, instead of looking to the private sector for a new -- and more lucrative -- challenge.

Estella Geraghty, the deputy director for California’s Department of Public Health and the portal’s project leader, met with public officials on Aug 7 to announce the official launch of the site at health.data.ca.gov and to elaborate on next steps.

Geraghty said the initial sets of data tables will include birth profiles, popular baby names, poverty rates, and locations of vendors who accept vouchers from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH)’s Women, Infants and Children program (WIC). It will also contain health-care facilities data, a mapped timeline of West Nile virus incidents and asthma statistics.

Though all initial data stems from the CDPH, eventually the portal will serve as a hub for open data from other California HHS departments.

Nextdoor, a neighbor-to-neighbor social media platform, is growing at breakneck pace: from 176 neighborhoods to more than 38,000 today -- that number represents one in four neighborhoods throughout the US.

With such an upswell, cities have taken note and have already green-lighted departments to leverage Nextdoor for neighborhood notification purposes and dialogues.

Most are using the service for police and other emergency management agencies: 212 and counting. For government, the emerging startup raises questions about sustainability, its business strategies and -- integrated into workflows -- how best to apply Nextdoor’s high-touch access to citizens.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-NYC) has signed two bills that improve government transparency.

The first, Introductory 363-A, requires online posting of the City Record -- NYC’s daily list of procurement notices, bid solicitations and awards -- within 24 hours of the print edition publishing.

The second, Introductory 149-A, mandates that New York City laws and its Charter be published on the Web.

Any changes to the rules must be updated online within 30 days. Mayor De Blasio called the Aug 7 bill signings an advancement of his administration’s goal of being the “most technology-friendly and innovation-driven city in the world."

Americans in most states have paid no taxes on Internet access for 16 years, thanks to a federal law banning states and local governments from collecting such taxes.

Now, with the Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA) set to expire on Nov 1, state and local governments are watching closely to see if Congress will once again extend the tax moratorium, which was first enacted in 1998 and since renewed three times.

The online sales tax could reap $23 billion in revenue for the states.