Government as a Platform

Government as a Platform
Tim O’Reilly
@timoreilly
Puerto Rico Tech Summit
May 13, 2015

@timoreilly #TechSummitPR
2008: Change We Can Believe In
Technology helped President Obama get
elected.
Could technology also help the nation do
a better job of actually helping deliver
services to its residents?
2

Would it make a
difference if we could
bring together
government innovators
and tech innovators to
work together on
finding solutions to big
problems?
3

Rockstar tech talent in government

Modern Technology Best Practices
• User centered design
• Agile, data-driven development
• Cloud deployment and modern technology stacks
• Open source software
• Open data
• Citizen engagement

Government as a Platform
8
Government as a platform means an
end to the design of only complete,
closed “applications.” The
government should provide
fundamental applications, and
services on which we, the people,
can build additional applications.

9
Source: http://www.statista.com/statistics/263795/number-of-available-apps-in-the-apple-app-store/

Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956
11
Dwight Eisenhower

High speed broadband
12
Laying fiber under the streets is the 21st century equivalent of
building superhighways, electric grids, and modern sanitation
infrastructure

Weather Data
13
Up to date weather info?
A marvel from Google?
Actually, by way of government
institutions such as NOAA (US)and
other government agencies around
the world.

GPS: A 21st century platform launched in 1973
Massive investment for uncertain return
Policy decisions can have enormous impact
Marketplaces take time to develop, and go in
unexpected directions
14

“We’ve opened up huge amounts of
government data to the American people,
and put it on the Internet for free.... And
what’s happening is entrepreneurs and
business owners are now using that data
-- the people’s data --to create jobs and
solve problems that government can’t
solve by itself or can’t do as efficiently.”
15
President Barack Obama

Open Data

What Went Wrong
Clay Shirky
“The preferred method for implementing large
technology projects in Washington is to write the
plans up front, break them into increasingly detailed
specifications, then build what the specifications call
for. It’s often called the waterfall method, because
on a timeline the project cascades from planning, at
the top left of the chart, down to implementation, on
the bottom right. …the waterfall method amounts to
a pledge by all parties not to learn anything while
doing the actual work.”

How Modern Technology Companies Work
Break massive projects into smaller pieces
Release them iteratively and learn as you go
Focus relentlessly on user experience

What’s Still Missing?
30

Some of what that entails
Low level “infrastructure as a service”
Storage
Computation
Internal “Housekeeping” services
Security
Performance monitoring
Connection to other services
Insurance providers
State exchanges
Data as a service
Identity
Location
Employment status
Income verification
User Interface
Web site
Email
Call Center

Do we do all that just for healthcare.gov,
and then do it all over again for immigration reform?

I’m not saying changing the way government
contracts for and manages major technology
programs will be easy.
36

39
“A platform beats an application every time.”
Tim O’Reilly and Jeff Bezos
Photo: Duncan Davidson

Jeff’s Memo
40
• “All teams will henceforth expose their data and functionality through service
interfaces.
• Teams must communicate with each other through these interfaces.
• There will be no other form of inter-process communication allowed: no direct linking,
no direct reads of another team’s data store, no shared memory model, no back-doors
whatsoever. The only communication allowed is via service interface calls over the
network.
• It doesn’t matter what technology they use.
• All service interfaces, without exception, must be designed from the ground up to be
externalizable. That is to say, the team must plan and design to be able to expose the
interface to developers in the outside world. No exceptions.
• Anyone who doesn’t do this will be fired.”

Create a modular set of fundamental services
that can be used like building blocks
41

You must build on them yourselves.
42

And only then open them up to the world.
43

Write RFPs to require government sites to be built
on top of internal APIs that can also be used to
support external 3rd party sites.
44

Wholesale Retail

Language from the recreation.gov RFP
5.3. Public Interface Support Services
The system shall be designed in such a way that it is easy for third parties to
access the data and information contained within the Recreation.gov system in
machine-readable formats, so that third parties may easily integrate this information
into their applications, websites, products and services.
All elements of Section 5.3. shall be included in the R1S system at “Go-Live”.
The Contractor shall make it easy for a user of a third party application or website
that has chosen to integrate with Recreation.gov to search for inventory and real
time availability, and complete a reservation.
48

5.3.1. Information Sharing
Objective: Third parties and members of the public shall be easily able to receive
access to the sharing service following Government and industry best practices,
such as self-provisioning. The information will play key roles in attracting new and
returning site visitors, informing and educating visitors on a wide-range of topics
and providing the basis of end-to-end travel planning experience.
The Contractor shall deliver automated and manual services in machine-readable
formats for the sharing of the consolidated recreation information described herein.
49

5.3.1. Information Sharing (continued)
The Contractor shall ensure the data available via the sharing service represent the
most current data available on Recreation.gov, including (but not limited to)
recreation area information, maps, photos, activities, links to additional resources,
specific reservable inventory availability, and – when available – information about
specific pieces of inventory (i.e. campsite descriptions). In general, all of the
information available to users of Recreation.gov itself shall be made available to
third parties via the sharing service.
The sharing service shall provide a method for third parties to search available
inventory using common search criteria such as date range, location, site type, and
other attributes. In general, the same search capabilities provided to users of
Recreation.gov itself shall be made available to third parties via the sharing service.
.
50

5.3.1. Information Sharing (continued)
The Contractor shall ensure the following information / data is not available via the
sharing service:
Personally-Identifiable-Information from individual users, such as name, address,
and birth date
User financial information such as credit card or bank account number
51

5.3.2. Third Party Sales Strategy
Objective: Users of the third party applications, websites and services shall be able
to easily initiate transactions and complete reservations in the R1S system with a
minimum of hassle or complications following travel and hospitality industry best
practices.
In order to provide the best experience for the user and insure a clear path for
future innovation, the Contractor shall offer technology that facilitates the
ability for users to initiate and complete reservations from within third party
services.
52

The Government has identified interest by commercial travel and recreation
planning companies that help facilitate Recreation.gov transactions as a part of a
commercial endeavor in which they could earn commissions on the inventory they
help sell. This indicates that such an arrangement could benefit both the
Government and the Contractor, by creating an additional sales & marketing
channel for increasing the number of reservations processed using the system.
The travel and hospitality industry, where such third-party sales channels and
commission systems are the norm, provides numerous examples of how such a
commission system could work. Most of these systems involve some sort of “per-
transaction” fixed or percentage-driven commission paid to participating third
parties that originate reservations.
53

Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos has one big advantage
54

"No exceptions.
Anyone who doesn’t do this will be fired."
55

“You never want a serious crisis to go to
waste. And what I mean by that is an
opportunity to do things that you think you
could not do before.”
56
Rahm Emanuel

“The legitimate object of government is to
do for the people what needs to be done,
but which they cannot, by individual
effort, do at all, or do so well, for
themselves.”
-Abraham Lincoln, July 1, 1854
60

Data is the 21st Century Platform
We need standards for:
• Identity
• Payment
• Location
• Credit history
• Health history
• Privacy
• …
61

Who sets the gauge rules the world
Sixty per cent of the world's
railways use 4 ft 8 1⁄2 inch
standard gauge, developed by
George Stephenson in 1822.
63
http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/lnwrns305.htm

You standardize railroads by building tracks
“The strategy is delivery!”
64
UK GDS Director
Mike Bracken

Government as a Platform

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Tendances

Tendances (18)

En vedette

En vedette (20)

Similaire à Government as a Platform

Similaire à Government as a Platform (20)

Plus de Tim O'Reilly

Plus de Tim O'Reilly (10)

Dernier

Dernier (20)

Government as a Platform

Notes de l'éditeur