TFIC: Making Good on the Mistakes of Digital Government

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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.


The episode provides eight essential takeaways:

• Tara Dawson McGuinness discusses the future of digital government, emphasizing that it should be citizen-centered, rather than purely technological.
• McGuinness 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.
• McGuinness 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.
• McGuinness' 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. The main image for this story was created using DALL-E 3.