Planning for life after CodeForAmericaCollaborative Innovation in Local Gov

Who are we ?

Nigel JacobCo-Chair, BostonNigel.Jacob@boston.gov@nsjacob

Chris OsgoodCo-Chair, BostonChris.Osgood@boston.gov@newurbanmechs

Jeff FriedmanCo-Chair, PhiladelphiaJeff.Friedman@phila.gov@urbanmechanics

Story BellowsCo-Chair, PhiladelphiaStory.Bellows@phila.gov@urbanmechanics

What are we going to talk about ?

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Thinking long-term about how to sustain and evolve allThe effort that have gone into the CFA engagement

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Dealing with the near-term, logistical aspects of rollingOut the CFA technologies

The Challenge and the Opportunity

2 The Opportunity: You will have the experience and skillsTo contribute to how this new field evolves

1 The Challenge: the civic tech world is a developing space and as such, best practices are still in the early phases

Longer term: keeping the spirit of innovation alive

2 Expanding from CIO to CTO

1 Open data is just the first step:

3 Changing how we hire / How to hire a CFA fellow (!)

4 Partnering with other cities:- CFA Peer Network- G7- New Urban Mechanics

Local gov is a mission-oriented organization; pitch the mission

We need to develop a human-centered engineering culture in local gov

Since you’re here you already get this; this is really about Open Innovation

There are many different angles here, including….

How to (quickly) extend the CFA technology

Approaching the procurement questions

Dealing with the roll-out of the CFA-developed tech

Near-term questions and issues

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Dealing with different technology cultures3

Near-term issue: Rolling out the tech

2 Commit to thinking like a product manager

3 Thinking clearly about goals

1 Setting expectations

Building trust is often easier than focusing on efficiency, eg: Citizens Connect

Adopting an “agile” approach can help enforce a Product-discipline; Find the natural product managers in your organization, eg: Justin Holmes

Framing the CFA tech as experiments or proofs-of-concept can beA powerful way to manage expectations

Near-term issue: Extending the tech

3 Contracting with a team/startup of fellows

4 Contracting with a third party developer

2 Contracting with individual fellows

1 Doing the work yourselfDepending on your skillset, this could be a great confidence-buildingExercise; however, maintaining a focus on the value proposition can beChallenging

This can work really well for specific features and/or fixes; however, Challenges with sustainability tend to arise

This can work very well for both city and fellows/startup; however, This also requires true collaboration and discipline

A natural starting point, but finding the right partner (ie: not IBM) Requires a thoughtful approach

Near-term issue: Dealing with different Technology cultures

2 Thinking about opensource

3 Dealing with very different vendors

1 Getting comfortable with the tools: GitHub, Heroku, etcThese tools are remaking the collaborative tech development world; theySpeed deployment but also require a thoughtful approach to building A community around your code

If your project is successful you may well see other cities interested inLearning from you; opensource enables this but needs a certain “community manager” approach, eg: MBTA

If your intend to spend much time in civic tech, you need to get Comfortable with startups and their cultures; outreach is key!!!

Embrace (and enable) your local Civic Hackers!!! 4Civic hackers can be an incredible resource; The CFA Brigade is a greatWay to get the local community engaged; relationships need care andfeeding

Near-term issue: Approaching the procurement question

2 If we are going to innovate sustainably we need to re-think how we work with vendors (and who those vendors are)

3 A quick story: Boston and ConnectedBits

1 Local gov often has an adversarial relationship with vendors

Near-term issue: Approaching the procurement question (cont’d)

2 For example in Massachusetts:• < $5,000 : “Sound business judgment”

• We can just write a contract (within standard contract limits)• Usage: smaller, immediate feature changes/fixes

• < $25,000 : Verbal bids• We must solicit 3 bids but must take the lowest bid• Usage: Proof-of-concept development

• > $25,000 : RFPUsage: Scaling successful POC’s

1 Each state’s procurement laws and rules vary, but they all generally seems to provide a few procurement options

Near-term issue: Approaching the procurement question (cont’d)

2 By digging in we discovered that this route, while somewhat onerous in terms of writing and the process, actually provides a fair bit of flexibility

1 RFP’s aren’t as scary as we once thought

3 The real issue is the "usability" of RFP's; their length tends to preference larger institutions; this can be addressed by thinking in terms of design.

4 Some potential options: RFP EZ, City of Boston’s legislative tweak…

SECTION 1. Subsection (b) of Section 1 of Chapter 30B of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after clause (34), the following clause:-(35) a contract of less than $100,000 for open source deliverables. Within sixty days of entering into such a contract, the governmental body shall provide public notice of the contract on its website for at least two weeks. The public notice shall specify the dollar amount, contractor, and subject matter of the contract and identify the manner in which open source deliverables will be made available to the public.

Near-term issue: Procurement reform in MA (baby steps):

Pause

Questions?

We want to help!

Nigel JacobCo-Chair, BostonNigel.Jacob@boston.gov@nsjacob

Chris OsgoodCo-Chair, BostonChris.Osgood@boston.gov@newurbanmechs

Jeff FriedmanCo-Chair, PhiladelphiaJeff.Friedman@phila.gov@urbanmechs

Story BellowsCo-Chair, PhiladelphiaStory.Bellows@phila.gov@urbanmechs