Hacking 101
When US Navy warplanes returned to base after bombing missions during World War 2, engineers would use hacksaws to cut pieces off broken aircraft and apply them to good planes to get them to fly again. Thus, it is purported, the word “hacking” was born.
As of early 2013, there are over a billion active monthly users of Facebook and almost 700 million daily users. People from across the world use this social network to share and exchange stories, pictures, ideas, and more. These numbers suggest a compelling platform that is engaging humanity in a manner without precedent. Facebook and its competitors have convincingly demonstrated that people will share and collaborate with each other, and with strangers, in an inclusive manner not just for fun, but to make things happen. And yet, when most of the working population of those users goes to their places of employment, they use technologies that reinforce barriers to collaboration. Email—albeit an important business technology—primarily facilitates sequential and non-inclusive collaboration. Up until recently, the merits of social networking has had the hardest time successfully penetrating the enterprise.
California Forward first reported on the city of Palo Alto’s Open Data Platform in August. The city is using technology to create a more inclusive form of local government. Months after its launch, we wanted to find out how if citizens are answering the call to become more engaged.
Antonio Savarese, journalist for the Italian magazine Data Manager, on a recent trip to Silicon Valley, joined me at City Hall to discuss a wide range of items. His published interview with me is available here. In addition, he recorded an interview which can be found here. His questions allowed me to elaborate on some of the work my team and I are doing at the City of Palo Alto and also for me to provide my thoughts on the future of technology. It is a short 14 minute video.
Data Innovation Day was held on Thursday, January 24, 2013. The purpose of Data Innovation Day is to raise awareness about the benefits and opportunities that come from increased use of information by individuals and the public and private sector. Events were held across the U.S. The following is my lecture at UC Berkeley on that day.
Posted in Huffington Post on January 16, 2013.
The city of Palo Alto, Calif., is stealing an idea from the commercial technology industry to improve services for its residents. In this video, city CIO Jonathan Reichental offers lessons learned from Palo Alto’s use of Lean Startup principles during several recent technology projects. The Lean Startup approach — which lets users test unfinished versions of new apps and websites — is routine in the commercial space. Now it’s catching on in government.
Making your agency’s data easily accessible to community members and computer applications has the potential to be a public sector game-changer. We call this process and capability: open data. In addition to increasing transparency and accountability–which can lead to greater trust with constituents–open data can enable innovators to build useful applications; analysts to find helpful insights; and innovators to create derivative value. Done right, there is little downside and a high-value upside. Looking across the U.S. today, we’re seeing an increasing number of federal, state, and local agencies embrace an open data future.
In his second guest column for EfficientGov, Palo Alto CIO Jonathan Reichental looks at the Open Data movement, and the criticality of “open government” in the 21st century.
This post first appeared on September 13, 2012 on EfficientGov as part of a guest column called Reichental’s Digital City.
