Open Gov Ninja 101

transcript

Open Government Ninja 101:Skills, Strategies, and StealthDavid HaleNational Library of MedicineNational Institutes of Health

david.hale@nih.govtwitter.com\lostonroute66

Open Gov Ninja 101: Syllabus

• Introduction• Pillbox and apps demo• What is an Open Gov Ninja?• Skills• Strategies• Stealth• Exam

pillbox.nlm.nih.gov

dailymed.nlm.nih.gov

druginfo.nlm.nih.gov

Application programming interface (API)

Drive traffic to your data,not your website.

Applications currently in development using Pillbox’s API

Pillbox by Phone

Voice-activated pill identification

• Thank you for calling Pillbox by Phone. Tell me one attribute you know about the pill.

• Shape• Do you know anything else about the pill?• Color• Do you know anything else about the pill?• No• What shape is the pill?• Diamond• What color is the pill?• Grey• Your search matched one pill. Shall I list these

results?• Yes• Epivir 300 MG oral tablet. Physical attributes: grey,

diamond, 17.00 mm. Imprint: GX EJ7

Pillbox by Phone

• Created by a student at George Washington University, School of Business

• Also developed instant message (IM) text-based version

iPhone pill discovery app

PharmvilleRx

Open source code

Health organizations expressing interest in utilizing Pillbox

• State Poison Control Centers• State Departments of Health• State and private hospitals• Regional health systems• Insurance providers• University medical programs• Libraries• International health and pharmacy orgs

And…we’re still in beta.

Become anOpen Government Ninja

1162 A.D. Honshu, Japan

January 21, 2009 Washington, DC

What is anOpen Government Ninja?

Ninja myth:

Ninja were mercenaries, with no concern for the greater effect of their actions.

Skill:Innovation

Ninja myth:

Ninja used magic.

Andrew Wilson, Web and New Media Strategist, SAMHSA

andrew.wilson@hhs.gov

Skill:Innovation

Activity:Restructure data

transparentopen

useful

How many federal employees does it take to create a pill identification

table?

9(at 2 agencies))

table?• 2 Pharmacists (FDA)• 2 Regulatory experts (FDA)• 2 Computer scientists (NLM)• 2 Database administrators (NLM)• 1 Project manager (NLM)

On the exam

• In order to create value, data must be structured in a way that is contextually relevant to communities. This form may be different from the one in which it is used by government.

Skill:Collective learning

Ninja myth:

Ninja learned from secret texts.

Vivek KundraChief Information Officer (CIO) of the United States

Aneesh ChopraChief Technology Officer (CTO) of the United States

Skill:Collective learning

Activity:Share experience &

exchange information

Mission, Tool, Metrics, Teach

Jeffrey Levy, Director Web Communications, EPAlevy.jeffrey@epa.gov

Strategy:Ethnography

You/your agency are the CONTENT experts.

Your citizens are the CONTEXT experts.

Michael Wesch, ProfessorKansas State UniversityDigital Ethnography

Understand how individuals and communities use technology to ascribe meaning in their lives.

Kelly Goto, authorDesign Ethnography

“Understand how real people integrate products and services into their daily lives”

Activity:Get out of the office

and into the lives of your citizens

Activity:Create user personas

User-centered design

Strategy:Community engagement

On the exam

• It is critical to work with communities, prior to the release of data, in specifying its structure and developing systems that enable open access and promote application development

Activity:Ask for help

Activity:Let your champions carry

your banner

Activity:Build an open system

Ninja myth:

Ninja created Linux.

Richard StallmanCreator of the GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation

Linus TorvaldsCreator of the Linux kernal

“free as in speech” not “free as in beer”

Strategy:Give up ownership

Activity:Listen to your citizens take the wheel.

(They know where they are going)

Pillbox APIPharmaceutical data as a web

service

API directory for data.gov?

Strategy:Give up ownership

Activity:Pay it forward

On the exam

• Engaging communities and promoting participation in the processes leading up to the release of data leads to a virtuous circle where even competing groups can work together to solve challenges

Strategy:Stealth

Overrated

Strategy:Stealth

Activity:Run a stealth project

Mission aligned

Small and iterative

Fail fast

Have cover

Management buy-in

Review

• Innovation• Collective learning• Ethnography• Community engagement• Giving up ownership• Stealth

What is the single most important aspect of Pillbox’s success?

Collaboration

BE anOpen Government Ninja

Open Government Ninja 101:Skills, Strategies, and StealthDavid HaleNational Library of MedicineNational Institutes of Health

david.hale@nih.govtwitter.com\lostonroute66

Open Gov Ninja 101

Health & Medicine