With all the structural problems in government IT, Michal Migurski dives into the history of how we got to this point and suggests some ways to rethink procurement and technology in local government.

1. I.T.: Baby or
Bathwater?
Michal Migurski, CfA
CityCamp Oakland 2013
@michalmigurski

2. Information
technology used
to mean paper.

3. http://teczno.com/s/yq5
Oxford Filing Co. Speed Index:

4. Brazil, 1985
Paper is easy to mock.

5. Daily Show, 2013

6. http://teczno.com/s/yq5
But! Communities of Practice.

7. With the web,
the “webmaster”
did everything.

8. • “Please
describe the details
of the accident. You may not use
any of the characters <, >, %, *,
(, ), ^, <, |, ~, / or =
in your responses.”

9. With the web,
I.T. became difficult and
procurement was born.

10. Pace of technological change

11. ~2010
Pace of technological change
90’s

12. Civic technology:
90’s that never ended

13. Two steps to
help rebalance…

14. Let’s fast-forward
civic tech to 2010.
Programming got easier, servers got easier,
data got easier, and web design got easier.

15. ~2010
Pace of technological change
90’s

16. e
d
o
c
r
e
t
s
p
i
h
~2010
Pace of technological change
90’s

17. Let’s get the good
stuff back in-house.
The communities, the learning, the deep local
knowledge of places and their histories.

18. http://teczno.com/s/88wv

19. OpenOakland and
Code for America:
3 years of progress

20. 1) Adopt-a-Hydrant
“What if you felt about your government
the way you felt about your iPhone?”
Fixing potholes and paying attention
to basics got civic hackers to the table.

21. 2) Oakland Answers
Write-a-thons! Social events for non-coders!
Repeating things that worked elsewhere!

22. “If animals don’t want
to be eaten they should
learn to code”
—Paul Ford, @ftrain

23. 3) RecordTrac
Getting closer to the actual core
functions of local government.

24. Recap:
Choose 2010,
In-house the good stuff.

25. Three bonus
outcomes…

26. http://teczno.com/s/yq5
Be good at information again.

27. http://teczno.com/s/7bz
Fix procurement along the way.

28. Refocus on helping
solve people’s needs.

29. Thank You.
Michal Migurski
mike@codeforamerica.org
@michalmigurski