Data + Digital
The Data + Digital portfolio brings together digital service professionals and data experts from government, civil society, industry, academia, and all communities to inform our research, collaborate on solutions, and generally build a broader sense of community in the industry.
Our Vision
Building capacity, credibility and community — and getting work done.
Projects in the Data + Digital portfolio aim to build capacity for the individuals and teams working on data and government service delivery, support the relationships and responsiveness between governments and the people they serve, and scale efforts across governments.
The Digital Service Collaborative is building a body of research around government digital services, creating tangible resources for practitioners, cultivating the community of digital service leaders in governments to share and scale efforts, and exploring policy considerations including ethics and privacy. We are also supporting efforts in the public and private sectors to responsibly share and use data to address some of society’s most challenging issues and to support civic engagement with public institutions.
Our Impact
Technology alone is never the answer.
We’ve heard that individuals leveraging data and technology want to be better connected with one another and have more communications and transparency around what works and what doesn’t. We’ve heard that concrete tools like checklists and playbooks are essential for building capacity, credibility and community — and to getting work done. The data + digital team is leveraging all of these insights in ongoing efforts to help policy-makers and civil servants use data and technology to increase their impact, maximize their efficiency, and strengthen ties to the communities they serve.
The Data + Digital portfolio builds on the Beeck Center’s previous experience providing support and guidance to policy-makers and civil servants across a variety of formats. This includes flagship reports such as Modernizing Congress: Bringing Democracy into the 21st Century, identifying data standards and systemwide digital infrastructure changes needed on Capitol Hill, Setting the Stage for Transformation: Frontline Reflections on Technology in American Government and the Chief Data Officer in Government Playbook, offering a roadmap to strengthen the use of data for social good across government institutions.
Our Approach
Bringing all voices into the conversation.
We bring together digital service professionals and data experts from government, civil society, industry, academia, and all communities to inform our research, collaborate on solutions, and generally build a broader sense of community around this work.
Through large-scale convenings, smaller working groups, on-campus seminars, themed salons and partnerships with other organizations working on data + digital, we aim to bring all voices into the conversations around this work.
Georgetown University has a rich community working on issues facing tech and society and through the Beeck Center’s Data + Digital work, we partner with other campus programs and institutes to bring the practitioner’s voice to policy conversations and contribute applied experience to theoretical conversations.
Associated Projects
Scale
Responsible Data Practices
many government agencies are also experiencing the pains of governing how that data is shared, resulting in practices that are unsustainable, ineffective, and not forward-thinking. There is a fundamental need to evolve these practices into a governance approach that balances the need to protect people’s data with the need to uncover opportunities to better serve communities through data.
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Incubation
State Chief Data Officers Network
Data is a strategic asset and states have great potential to unlock it for public good. While several states have established Chief Data Officers (CDOs) to advance the use and management of data, many still lack the senior technical leadership to leverage the data they already have to better target services, and use ongoing data collection to test different strategies and scale what works. The State Chief Data Officer Network will provide expert support for state efforts to utilize data to deliver better outcomes.
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Scale
Digital Census Project
The Census provides our nation’s foundational dataset, the basis upon which so much other data is based. It is used in research, algorithms, journalism, business, and infrastructure planning among other things. In many ways it creates the reality upon which our institutions, our lives, and our futures are built. It is the people’s data: a shared public asset that is becoming increasingly important in a data-driven world.
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Incubation
Delivering Better Outcomes through User-Centered Policy Making
The future of improved service delivery requires a strategy that includes user-centered policy making and creates space for experimentation and piloting.
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Exploratory
Improving Child Welfare
This project has the ability to markedly improve the states’ processes, reducing the time it takes for foster families to be vetted and matched with children, and impacting the lives of thousands of foster children and serve as a national model.
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Exploratory
Digital Service Network
Government teams are pioneering new approaches and learning from their experiences and we have much to learn from those implementing innovative methods.
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Exploratory
Public Interest Tech Workforce
In recent years, governments have increasingly begun approaching service delivery through approaches with modern technology, software development, and service design principles. This has led to creation of digital service teams in government such as the U.S. Digital Service, Digital Services Georgia, and the San Francisco Digital Service, and the need to designate specialized technologists to fulfill the work of these teams, such as developers, human-centered designers, user-experience researchers, data scientists, and more.
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Exploratory
Social Safety Net Benefits
The need for assistance for core financial, housing, nutrition, healthcare, family care, and transportation support can lead to significant challenges for millions of American workers seeking to find and sustain employment that will offer upward mobility and economic security.
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Exploratory
State Software Collaborative
Government hasn’t kept pace with advances in technology. Only 13% of major government software projects succeed, and the successful and failed ones alike cost 5–10 times more than they should. When these projects fail, so too do the public policy initiatives that depend on them — unemployment insurance, DMVs, healthcare exchanges, paid family & medical leave, etc. — leaving behind the millions of Americans who rely on those programs. We’ve seen in the response to the COVID-19 crisis that even if lawmakers move quickly to pass legislation to get money to laid-off workers, small businesses, and hospitals, those policies can’t be implemented effectively when the technology tools used to apply for, distribute, and track funds can’t be easily modified or don’t work.
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Incubation
Data + Justice
Conducting innovative qualitative and quantitative research into prosecutorial decision-making with a goal of reducing incarceration and racial disparities and improving effectiveness and fairness of justice in their jurisdictions.
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Exploratory
Tech & Delivery with the American Rescue Plan
Convening state, local, tribal and territorial governments to best leverage funding from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) to strengthen government technology, data, and service delivery.
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Incubation
Digital Service Collaborative
The Beeck Center is working in partnership with The Rockefeller Foundation to provide expert support to government digital transformation efforts. As governments increasingly focus on delivery of public services, the Digital Service Collaborative will provide tangible resources to scale successful practices and will cultivate the community of digital service leaders.
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Exploratory
Modernizing Congress
Here at the Beeck Center, we envision a 21st century where Americans leverage technology and data to renew democracy. To that end, the Beeck Center has been conducting research on the potential for crowdsourcing expertise from communities to inform what happens in Congress.
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Exploratory
The Blockchain Ethical Design Framework for Social Impact
In June 2018, we launched the Blockchain Ethical Design Framework, a project funded by the Rockefeller Foundation to ensure that privacy and ethics are incorporated into blockchain applications. The Framework provides an actionable tool for decision makers and practitioners to drive positive social impact and ethical intentionality into the design and implementation of blockchain technologies.
View ProjectAssociated Reports
Software Co-ops and Digital Identity: How U.S. State and Local Governments are Adapting Login.gov to Verify Identity
Read MoreSharing Software Throughout the UK: A Case Study of LocalGov Drupal
Read MoreUsing Text Message Outreach to Reduce SNAP Churn
Read MoreThe New Government Appointee Guidebook
Read MoreThe Path to Creating A Chief Data Officer Role In States: Tips For Crafting an Effective CDO Position
Read MorePublic Interest Technology Workforce Survey Findings
Read MoreOpen Data for Economic Recovery: A Guidebook for States
Read MoreSharing Government Software: How Agencies are Cooperatively Building Mission-Critical Software
Read MorePush Forward Now: Congressional Modernization and the Future of Democracy
Read MoreNYC[x] Innovation Fellows: Catalyzing Digital-Era Transformation Using a 10-Week Sprint
Read MoreProcuring Differently: How Colorado Used User Research and Active Vendor Management for COVID-19 Technology
Read MoreResponsible Data Use Playbook for Data-Sharing Collectives
Read MoreTechnology, Data, and Design-Enabled Approaches for a More Responsive, Effective Social Safety Net
Read MoreRemote Identity Proofing, Race, and Credit History Across America
Read MoreBreaking Through the Noise: Building a Trusted Source of Information for COVID-19
Read MoreLeveraging Data for Economic Recovery: A Roadmap for States
Read MoreReimagining the Field for Emerging Government Digital Service Delivery Professionals
Read MoreCivic Voice During COVID-19: A SIDE Event Playbook for Members of Congress and Their Communities
Read MoreThe Evolving Role of the State Chief Data Officer: A Framework for Today
Read MoreUser-Centered Policy: Organization Assessment
Read More7 Ways to Boost Data Impact in Response to the Pandemic
Read MoreRemote Options for Congressional Continuity Amid the COVID-19 Outbreak – Briefing Book
Read MoreDigital Innovation in Latin America: Argentina’s Digital Drivers License
Read MoreDigital Innovation in Latin America: Mexico’s Online Birth Certificate
Read More2020 Census: Digital Preparedness Playbook
Read MoreSharing Data for Social Impact: Guidebook to Establishing Responsible Governance Practices
Read MoreSetting the Stage For Transformation: Frontline Reflections on Technology in American Government
Read MoreChief Data Officer Playbook
Read MoreHow to Get Started in Public Interest Tech
Read MoreAccelerating the Sharing of Data across Sectors to Advance the Common Good
Read MoreThe Blockchain Ethical Design Framework
Read MoreModernizing Congress: Bringing Democracy into the 21st Century
Read MoreThe Architecture of Innovation: Institutionalizing Innovation in Federal Policymaking
Read MoreAssociated Insights
Teaching Digital Fundamentals: What We Learned By Teaching Digital From A Technical Perspective
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The Power of Peer Networking: How ARP Can Transform Government Tech and Service Delivery if We Help Leaders Invest Wisely
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Leveraging Best Practices to Build New Initiatives for the Public Interest Technology Field
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The Discern and Digest Toolkit: How Beeck’s Dialogue Series Can Help Build Reflection into the Classroom Experience
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A New Kind of Collaboration: Breaking Through Traditional Roles to Create Co-Ownership Among Community, City, and Tech Partners
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How States Have Leveraged the Beeck Center’s Data Roadmap For Post-Pandemic Economic Recovery
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Putting People First: TOPcities Works to Co-Create Solutions to COVID-19 Challenges by Centering Residents and Local Data
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MEDIA RELEASE: USApportionment.org Tracks House Size in Time for 2020 Apportionment Results
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San Francisco Human Services Agency Prototypes to Connect Newly-sheltered Clients During COVID-19
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Helping Policy Makers Put People First: A Step-by-Step Tool for User-Centered Policy Making
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Beeck Center + U.S. Digital Response Supporting Electronic Payment to get Food to School Kids
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Protecting Data Privacy and Rights During a Crisis are Key to Helping the Most Vulnerable in Our Community
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Data and Digital for Social Good: Social Impact Leaders Engage with the Georgetown Community
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How to Get Started in Public Interest Tech: Recommendations for Recruiting Early-Career Tech Talent
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Recommendation to Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress: Establish “Bulk Purchase” Accounts for App Ecosystems
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Solving Social Problems with AI is Possible – But We Need Better Data Infrastructure First
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Associated People
