A Community for Digital Innovation at the State of California
Or, why we’re excited about the AGL Summit on May 23 in Sacramento!
The modernization of government services represents an inevitable trend — as digital and mobile have transformed countless sectors of our economy, from media to mobility, so will they transform our government. With this as a given, many of us in the govtech movement have moved past the “What?” stage and are now asking the deeper questions of “How?” and “Why?” this transformation will occur.
There is no better place to explore these questions than the State of California. California has always been a forward-thinking leader of change, from social justice to sustainability.
And there is no better time than now. This is a moment within a movement — with a new, tech-forward administration coupled with some true innovation and leadership already happening within state agencies and locally across the state. This moment offers the chance to push the envelope of possibility and develop a model for public sector innovation that can be adopted across the country.
This is why the Agile Government Leadership Association and CivicMakers are organizing the AGL Summit in Sacramento on Thursday, May 23. Both of our organizations have been convening the govtech and civic innovation communities for some time, and celebrating the hard work that’s already being done. And we both deeply believe in the potential for innovation and digital transformation to deliver more effective, efficient and downright delightful public services to more people in need. Ultimately, we see the potential to grow a new collaborative, responsive, resilient culture in government agencies.
Whether you sit inside or outside of State Government, no matter if you are a true believer or skeptical observer, this event is for you. We want to learn from your perspective about the challenges and opportunities that digital services present for the State of California. That’s why we’ve designed this event to be part inspiring, educational conversations on the main stage, and part skill-sharing and collaboration sessions with your peers.
We’re really excited about the topics that will be covered by leaders from across the State, topics we think should be at the forefront of the conversation about how modernization should happen in California:
- User-Centered Design — An iterative design process in which designers focus on the users and their needs in each phase of the design process.¹
- Agile Development — An iterative method of making software that focuses on delivering valuable software to users early and often.²
- Modular Procurement — Breaking up large, monolithic procurements into smaller modules to reduce risk.³
- Open Data — Data that can be freely used, re-used and redistributed by anyone — subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and sharealike.⁴
- Free and Open Source Software — Software for which anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source code is openly shared so that people are encouraged to voluntarily improve the design of the software.⁵
- Resilient Culture — An organization’s capacity to anticipate and react to change, not only to survive, but also to evolve.⁶
Our greatest hope for this event is that a community begins to develop around a shared vision of why the push for statewide digital services efforts are important. The values we share for digital services include a commitment to being: Inclusive; Transparent; Participatory; Iterative; Human-centered.
We hope you will join us for this important conversation about a pivotal moment in the history of our great state. It’s going to be a fun day, full of great folks, and hopefully the start of much more to come, so don’t miss out!
[1] https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/user-centered-design
[2], [3] https://www.acf.hhs.gov/cb/resource/cwit-modular-procurement-and-agile-development
[4] http://opendatahandbook.org/guide/en/what-is-open-data/
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_software
[6] https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/alliances/ethisphere/creating-a-culture.html
