gtec: government as a platform

Government as a Platform Tim O’Reilly

O’Reilly Media, Inc.www.oreilly.com

GTECOttawa, CanadaOctober 7, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

I’m perhaps best known as a computer book publisher

covering topics from the frontiers of emerging technologies.


What We Really Do at O’Reilly

•Find interesting technologies and people innovating from the edge

•Amplify their effectiveness by spreading the information needed for others to follow them.

•Books, Conferences, Online Publishing, Investing, Research and Consulting


4

Watch the Alpha Geeks

Rob Flickenger and his potato chip can antenna

• New technologies first exploited by enthusiasts, then entrepreneurs, then platform players

• Two examples– Wireless community networks

predict universal Wi-Fi– Screen scraping predicts web services and the internet as platform


"The future is here. It's just not evenly distributed yet."

--William Gibson


The "Killer Apps” of the New Millennium


The network as platform

•Software delivered as an online service•Driven by huge databases that literally get better the more people use them

•“Harnessing collective intelligence”•“Data is the Intel Inside”


The smart phone plus local search. Today pizza, tomorrow news?


Now hold that thought.


11

Remember What I Said Earlier?

Hackers are “lead users” who tell us where the future is going.

Companies apply their insights in new contexts to build next-generation products.


Making government data accessible to ordinary citizens?


There’s got to be more to it than that.


theyworkforyou.com


New tools for government transparency and accountability?


A vision of technology in government"We need to connect citizens with each other to engage them more fully and directly in solving the problems that face us. We must use all available technologies and methods to open up the federal government, creating a new level of transparency to change the way business is conducted in Washington and giving Americans the chance to participate in government deliberations and decision-making in ways that were not possible only a few years ago."

– From Barack Obama's campaign platform on technology


Use of Social Media by Government?


Use of Mashups by Government?


Gov 2.0

•Citizen contribution and collaboration•Use of social media•Transparency•Rapid application development•New methods of procurement•Cloud computing


Gov 2.0

•Citizen contribution and collaboration•Use of social media•Transparency•Rapid application development•New methods of procurement•Cloud computing

•Government as a platform


Government is a vehicle for collective action

Frank DiGiammarino, recovery.gov:

–Convener first, problem solver second

–Pull the right people together–Enable action through knowledge, resources and visibility


This is not a new idea

“We must all hang together or we will assuredly all hang separately.”

—Ben Franklin


The most important lesson of Web 2.0


Build a platform. Let users add value.


Customer self-service


Let your citizens help you to do more with less


Top Sites on the Internet - 2005Rank Company # Employees

1 Yahoo 9,000

2 TimeWarner 85,000

3 Microsoft 61,000

4 Google 5,000

5 eBay 11,000

6 News Corp 38,000

7 Craigslist 18

8 Disney 129,000

9 BBC 60,000

10 IAC 26,000Saturday, October 10, 2009

The Craigslist Philosophy

“If most people are good and their needs are simple, all you have to do to serve them well is build a minimal infrastructure allowing them to get together and work things out for themselves. Any additional features are almost certainly superfluous and could even be damaging.” --Gary Wolf, Wired Magazine, Sept 2009


Vending Machine Government

Vending Machine Gov concept from Donald Kettl: The Next Government of the United States


The consequence


An alternative model - throw open the doors to partners

More than 50,000 iPhone applications in less than a year!


“Cities today are like an Amazon that only allows in the #1 best-seller from each category”


Preferred application partners

•Struggling to catch up in the application marketplace


So why do governments still make deals like these?•No bid contracts•Preferred providers•Earmarks•Sole source licensing of government data to single-source providers


Government as a platform means an end to the design of only complete, closed “applications.” Instead the government should provide fundamental services on which we, the people, (also known as “the market”) build the applications.


The Three Laws of Open Government Data

1. If it can’t be spidered or indexed, it doesn’t exist.2. If it isn’t available in open and machine readable format, it can’t engage.3. If a legal framework doesn’t allow it to be repurposed, it doesn’t empower


•Government to Citizen (G2C)•Citizen to Government (C2G)•Citizen to Citizen (C2C)•Government to Government (G2G)


Citizens, Give Us Your Hands, Not Just Your Voices!


We Need to Do More Than Shake the Vending Machine!

http://image06.webshots.com/6/2/57/50/190125750NgQXwu_ph.jpg


http://ininethumb23.webshots.com/44950/1190125733059613732S600x600Q85.jpg

http://ininethumb23.webshots.com/44950/1190125733059613732S600x600Q85.jpg

civic meetups - 19000 cleanups


“When the best leader leads, the people say ‘we did it ourselves.’”

--Lao Tzu


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