In his current role as the Mayor’s Chief Innovation Officer, Jay Nath is working with the tech community and the public to help reinvent government in the digital age. Read more
In the world of software the barriers to entry are so low that nearly anyone can create apps. You can go from idea to product in days or weeks. But if you take a look at our public spaces, only experts are involved; the rate of change is on the scale of years; and innovation [...]
Today more than ever government must be good stewards of tax payer dollars; ensuring that we only procure goods and services when needed, and being wise about what and how we purchase. At $500B, the US government is the largest purchaser of goods and services in the world, and yet we can do more to leverage [...]
Well I’m not sure if it’s definitive but it has most everything that you’ll probably need. The first table is just the most common shortcuts that I use and the 2nd is the complete list. If you want to add to this list I’ve set up a Google spreadsheet. Command Outlook 2011 Go to Mail [...]
Open311 is disrupting the 311/CRM space in government. Traditional players are facing increasing competition from more nimble web 2.0 companies. These companies are using Open311 and cloud computing to challenge the traditional client-server and costly model. It opens the door for experimentation on the edges: voice recognition, vehicles sensing potholes, and disaster response. Voice Recognition [...]
The inspiration for many of my side projects is my wife asking me “why can’t I…” In this case, it was “why can’t I listen to our music library on TV.” So I decided to make SubsonicTV which lets you stream your personal music & video library to the Roku. This little black box allows you [...]
While the growth of open data continues here in the US and internationally, we should begin making our government systems more transparent. By systems I mean the process, technology and people that make up a service. That service could be constituent facing like sending out property tax notices or an internal one such as procurement. [...]
Use the automated SQL generator above to update your WordPress site to a new URL address. Of course you’ve already checked out the tutorial from WordPress and know how to use MySQL. Enjoy!
We all know the challenges facing local government, but how do we go about fixing it? One simple option is for cities to share their challenges and ask their community for help. It can be that simple. I’ve seen it work in the City of SF numerous times. One example is we needed help with [...]
I’ve been a big fan of Vivek Wadhwa and Eric Ries for a couple of years now. When they spoke to nearly a hundred City of SF staff through our Innovation @Work series, both of them made a huge impression on me. It was during our subsequent conversations that I was surprised by the similarities between lean [...]
Local government leaders often get public records request for their calendar. In the City of SF this is a manual effort – wasting time and driving up costs. With easy to use technology tools, government has little excuse not to share. MS Outlook A better way is what the San Jose Mayor and Council are [...]
