GovTech
Highlights
- Identifying critical challenges and opportunities for intervention and improvement in the government services technology market, both in the U.S. and globally.
- Promoting openness, collaboration, and shareability to foster innovation and enhance the quality of public services.
- Provide robust, evidence-based guidance that can be utilized in efforts to deliver public services at the state, tribal, and territorial government level.
State, local, and federal governments face significant challenges in acquiring and implementing technology solutions to modernize outdated systems and deliver high-quality services to citizens. These failures undermine public trust and leave millions of Americans without the support they need and expect.
Governments use technology to provide and improve public services, operations, and citizen engagement. The various marketplaces for such technology (colloquially “GovTech”)are commonly dominated by a few large vendors.
Historically, GovTech implementations face high failure rates, resulting in substantial financial losses and the inability to properly deliver crucial services like unemployment insurance, SNAP benefits, healthcare, and more.
We seek a deeper understanding of the emerging conditions shaping the delivery of public services in government. This project aims to transform the GovTech landscape by promoting solutions that optimize the design, development, and procurement of technology for public service resulting in:
- A vibrant and competitive market to leverage when acquiring technology for public services.
- Shared resources among practitioners to procure and develop technology, reducing redundant spending, increasing speed, and meeting citizens’ needs for public services.
- Reliable standards of quality irrespective of where the technology is deployed.
Team
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Aaron Snow
Aaron Snow
Fellow
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Eve Elie
Eve Elie
Project Researcher, GovTech
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Orit Avichezer
Orit Avichezer
Student Analyst
Project Updates
What We've Learned So Far
Published a catalog of digital public goods used in governments that seeks to promote discourse around adoption for modernization efforts at the state, tribal, and territorial level.
Advised and presented observations and findings in the first phase of the U.S Department of Labor’s Open UI Initiative, which seeks to change how U.S. states and territories build and buy the technology that supports their unemployment insurance systems.