My talk to the Senate System Administration Association. How to think about government as a platform.

1. Government 2.0
Tim O’Reilly
O’Reilly Media, Inc.
www.oreilly.com
Senate System Administrators
February 24, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009

2. How many of you have O’Reilly books?
Monday, March 9, 2009

3. Monday, March 9, 2009

4. What might that entail?
Monday, March 9, 2009

5. A vision of technology in government
quot;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.quot;
– From Barack Obama's campaign platform on technology
Monday, March 9, 2009

6. Monday, March 9, 2009

7. Google, Walmart &
mybarackobama.com - Obama’s
Monday, March 9, 2009

8. how good collective sensor data is
getting - flickr geotagged photos
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9. Instedd
Monday, March 9, 2009

10. Global Virus Forecasting Initiative
Monday, March 9, 2009

11. The smart phone plus local search.
Today pizza, tomorrow news?
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12. Monday, March 9, 2009

13. 13
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14. 14
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15. Stimuluswatch.org
Monday, March 9, 2009

16. The power of transparency
•Open source: “Many eyes make all bugs
shallow”
•Gov 2.0: “Many eyes make all pork visible”
Monday, March 9, 2009

17. Monday, March 9, 2009

18. Rapid Application Development
$whois stimuluswatch.org
...
Domain ID:D155066373-LROR
Domain Name:STIMULUSWATCH.ORG
Created On:09-Jan-2009 22:00:26 UTC
Last Updated On:28-Jan-2009 23:33:43 UTC
Expiration Date:09-Jan-2010 22:00:26 UTC
18
Monday, March 9, 2009

19. What are the technical and social
factors making it harder to do this
inside government?
•Security requirements?
•Technology mandates?
•Limited list of approved vendors?
•Institutional resistance?
•Antiquated infrastructure?
•Laws that no longer make sense?
Monday, March 9, 2009

20. 20
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21. http://www.globalnerdy.com/2008/12/30/the-air-forces-rules-of-engagement-for-blogging/
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22. A new model of private/public
partnership?
Monday, March 9, 2009

23. USAspending.gov
23
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24. 24
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25. 25
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26. Virtual Alabama
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27. Outside-in innovation
27
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28. 28
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29. 29
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30. 30
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31. 31
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32. 32
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33. 33
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34. Moving from government web sites
to government web services
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35. 35
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36. Now let’s take this to APIs. Google
Maps king of the hill, per
Monday, March 9, 2009

37. housingmaps.com - the very first
Google maps mashup
•It was a “hack.” Google learned from it,
quickly, and turned it into a supported feature
Monday, March 9, 2009

38. Apple brings geotagging to iPhoto via
Gmaps
Monday, March 9, 2009

39. Monday, March 9, 2009

40. Google maps as a model
•Mashups were invented by users - the API
came later to support them
•It’s open
•It’s two-way: innovations outside Google can
be brought onto Google
Monday, March 9, 2009

41. If you’re really building a platform,
your customers and partners build
new features before you do
Monday, March 9, 2009

42. Twitter hashtags and news - both
hashtags and the real time search
Monday, March 9, 2009

43. What would the equivalent platform
for government data innovation be?
Monday, March 9, 2009

44. What would the equivalent platform
for government data innovation be?
•Government data and web services
•Private sector innovation in consumer-facing
services
Monday, March 9, 2009

45. • To bring the innovators and pioneers in this space together to compare
and contrast tools, best practices, and ideas
• To create a community of Gov2 leaders who can push change forward
and outward year-round
• To highlight the importance of Web 2.0 technologies in governance
and transparency
• To help technology professionals within the government leverage the
Web as a platform
• To better connect the technology-political eco-system
• To demonstrate that disruption and agility can be beneficial for our
political system
• To provide a platform for vendors to lay out their vision and
demonstrate leadership
45
Monday, March 9, 2009

46. Just some of the many technologies
we need to bring to bear
Rapid application development
Collaboration and crowdsourcing
New rules for social media engagement
Communication with constituents
Security & Privacy in the world of government transparency
Database driven web services - quot;bulk dataquot; and mashups
Cloud computing
Interoperability
Open source software
Open data
Citizen journalism
Aggregating and learning from data
46
Monday, March 9, 2009

47. It’s Time to Reinvent Government
•My goal:
–Bring the best of technology to Washington
–Imbue technologists and entrepreneurs with a
spirit of public service
–Highlight the great work that’s already begun
Monday, March 9, 2009