Tara Dawson McGuinness, founder of the New Practice Lab at the New America Foundation and co-author of the newly re-released book, Power to the Public: The Promise of Public Interest Technology, joined Paul Taylor, Noelle Knell and new permanent co-host Ashley Silver for a discussion of the state of our digital union.The discussion centers on the evolution of digital government, not merely as a technological shift but as a nuanced change in systems and problem-solving methodologies that prioritize citizens.

Show Notes

The episode provides eight essential takeaways:

• Tara Dawson McGuiness discusses the future of digital government, emphasizing it should be citizen-centered, rather than purely technological.
• McGuiness has experience in the Obama White House and founded the New Practice Lab to foster cross-sector collaborations.
• The pandemic highlighted the importance of implementation in government services, such as the vaccine rollout, making citizen experience a key focus.
• McGuiness identifies a "renaissance" in local and state governments enabled by federal funding but notes challenges such as underinvestment and workforce retention.
• Local governments are often more in touch with human-centered design due to their closeness to the communities they serve.
• Technology alone is not a solution for complex social problems; it should be part of a broader, problem-solving approach.
• Visibility is critical; a working policy or system is irrelevant if it's not easily accessible and experienced by citizens.
• McGuiness's New Practice Lab provides "sprint teams" to government bodies to help them rapidly implement solutions, with the aim to inform and improve future policies.

Our editors used ChatGPT 4.0 to summarize the episode in bullet form to create the show notes.

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The Center for Digital Education's Aaron Gifford and Andrew Westrope unpack the special education issue of Government Technology magazine with particular emphasis on the rise of Generative AI (artificial intelligence) in the classroom.

Here are links to the stories mentioned in this episode:

• Generative AI Hits Education, Ushering in a Sea Change for Schools
• Will AI in Schools Widen the Digital Divide? 
• Programs Nationwide Aim to Build Pipeline of STEM Experts
• Back to School Inches Earlier as Schools Confront Disruptive Tech Like Generative AI
• How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love AI
• The Problem of Portability

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Additional audio from ITSE and YouTube.

A 14-year-old self-taught coder is doing for government what it did not do for itself. His dad helped but he learned how to hack alongside friends at a venerable but sometimes overlooked public institution – the library.

Civic hacking is generational. It still carries some of the old school hackathon vibe but people coming of age today expect to be able to get data, use it for their purposes, add some value and give it back for benefit of the wider community. That generational shift offers some interesting possibilities for redefining government digital services – and who makes them so. It could also radically change our understanding of volunteering when outsiders do more than just run fundraisers. 

On this episode - the 100th for TFIC - meet Elias Fretwell and his dad, Luke, who together are out to use public data to improve things for people who use government services. You can see and use some of the apps they built online - including their National Survey Marker map and their take on CDC Disease Surveillance.

Historian and humanities scholar Clay Jenkinson offers some final thoughts on putting the First Amendment, national security and America’s most (in)famous leakers -- Daniel Ellsberg, Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, and Chelsea Manning – in context.

Clay's efforts to put things in a historical context resulted in 150 essays since March 27, 2021, 93 of which had companion podcast episodes.

He moves on to a new adventure at Listening to America with our thanks.

                                                                          - 30 -

Our resident humanities scholar Clay Jenkinson remembers Daniel Ellesberg, the war planner turned whistleblower after Vietnam.

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Additional audio courtesy from the CBS Archives and YouTube.

Our resident humanities scholar Clay Jenkinson laments a country divided, again.

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Additional audio courtesy from YouTube.

Our resident humanities scholar Clay Jenkinson has been a little perplexed by the growing number of people throwing their hat in the ring for the 2024 Republication nomination for president. Stripped to the underlying essential question, Clay asks, who would actually want that job? History tells us the journey is fraught, and once elected, the term in office, is ofen worse.

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Additional audio courtesy from YouTube.

Our resident humanities scholar Clay Jenkinson returns to our occasional series on some of the less well-known presidents of the United States. Perhaps best remembered for the dam and institute named for him, the 31st president was known as a great humanitarian but had a low view of the role of government in improving peoples’ lives.

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Additional audio courtesy of PublicDomainFootage and YouTube.

Our resident humanities scholar Clay Jenkinson reminds us that the hands of the Doomsday Clock now stand at 90 seconds to midnight — the closest to global nuclear catastrophe it has ever been. Against that backdrop, the United States still struggles with its own nuclear history.

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Additional audio courtesy of Network 18, BBC and YouTube.

Our resident humanities scholar Clay Jenkinson takes us back to the origins of the sixth president’s pathetic quest for greatness and his sacrifice of happiness during a lifetime of service.

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Additional audio courtesy of Movieclips and YouTube.