A Better Way to Buy IT: Lessons in Modular Contracting
LED BY: Alla Seiffert, Jessie Posilkin, and Robin Carnahan, 18F Half day
You can do great tech procurements without changing procurement policy. 18F, the State of California, and other municipalities have shown us that you break up monolithic, waterfall RFPs and recraft them for success. Come learn how to make acquisition joyful with modular contracting. You will leave with both a thorough understanding of best practices, procurement strategies, and sample language you can take home and use tomorrow.
Design Research 101 LED BY: Elizabeth Goodman, Acting Director of Design at 18F. and Amber Reed, Chief Service Designer, Whole Person Care SF Department of Public Health Half day
Maybe this whole “design research” thing is new to you. Maybe you just want a refresher on the basics. Maybe you’ve done usability testing before, but aren’t sure how it works in government.
In all cases, this workshop is for you. It will cover the essentials of discovery research and usability testing within state and local government. We’ll start with basic principles and methods, then move quickly into hands-on practice. Our goal is have every participant leave this workshop feeling confident that they are ready for a crucial activity in public service.
Safety in the Storm: Economical Defense from Existential Security Threats
LED BY: Matthew Weaver, Partner, Layer Aleph, Former Rogue Leader, United States Digital Service
DESCRIPTION: The expensive & inflexible defensive strategies of increasing oversight, data "zones," multiple firewalls, and certified image/software releases have broadly failed to protect systems, users, or citizens. The speaker will share his experience responding to massive, public security failures at the largest government organizations, their partners, and Fortune 50 companies. Come hear the surprising message of hope: the most effective changes for meaningful defense can be easy on the budget and beneficial for administrators, civil servants, support staff, developers, users & citizens. Be relieved, as you learn that your most valuable help can come from a larger, less constrained talent pool than you expected. Be surprised, as you learn that the heretical truths necessary for the of security your organization, or program, number only five.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND: Government and business executives, program or project leadership, contractor or government development or operations management, developers or operators of any stripe, community organizers, and NGO executives, management, or staff.
The Legacy Infrastructure is Dead, Long Live the Legacy Infrastructure
LED BY: Sam Kitajima-Kimbrel, Principal Engineer, Nuna Inc Alex Lawerence, Director of Special Projects, City of Boston Department of Innovation and Technology Kay Ashaolu Susanna Ronalds-Hannon DESCRIPTION: Interfacing with legacy IT systems is a fact of life for most Government entities — you don’t always have the time, resources, or authority to rip everything up and start from scratch. How, then, do you design and implement systems using modern languages and design principles while weighed down by decades of acquired habit and vintage infrastructure? We don’t have all the answers to this challenging question, but we need to have the conversation. Join the City of Boston and Nuna, a health-tech startup working with Medicare and Medicaid, in a panel discussion on technical, organizational, and cultural approaches to solving these challenges. We’ll start with a few brief case studies of ways to successfully work alongside or evolve away from legacy systems, and will then open up the discussion to broader themes.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND: Software engineers, project/product managers, procurement, anyone in strategy or anyone else responsible for technical delivery when legacy tech is involved.
Using Discovery Sprints to Change Policy with People-Centered Policymaking
LED BY: Crystal Yan, Experience Designer, United States Digital Service - HHS Liz Odar, Digital Services Expert, United States Digital Service - DHS Jessica Weeden, Digital Services Expert, United States Digital Service - DHS Judy Siegel, Digital Service Expert, United States Digital Service - VA
DESCRIPTION: Beyond changing interfaces, user research can be used to influence big decisions. In this panel, we'll go over a few case studies that will illustrate how and when to use user research to work with lawmakers on people-centered policy making in the public sector, methods that comprise of using user research and paper prototyping to change how government leaders view current processes, and inspiring them to change the law. Attendees will learn how to use different communication techniques for presenting user research to senior government officials (as opposed to product and engineering stakeholders) through examples from several projects in the United States Digital Service portfolio.
Using Hyperledger Blockchain Technologies to Deliver Government Services
LED BY: Tracy Kuhrt, Community Architect, Hyperledger Ry Jones, Community Architect, Hyperledger David Boswell, Director of Ecosystem, Hyperledger DESCRIPTION: Learn how governments use blockchain technologies and permissioned ledgers to deliver services. This session will introduce Hyperledger, The Linux Foundation's open source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies. We will also present a number of existing use case tutorials that showcase service delivery using Hyperledger projects. The session will conclude with an interactive discussion with the audience about how they consider using blockchain technologies and common challenges to overcome.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND: Anyone interested in learning more about blockchain at either a technical or business level is encouraged to attend. This talk will have technical elements, although it will be accessible to any skill level. More technical discussions can continue at the Technology Fair.
