As I continue with this week's blog theme of TED talks, I wanted to discuss Beth Noveck's "Demand a more open source government."
In this TED talk, Noveck discusses her time as the Chief Technology Officer within President Obama's administration. The direction she lead was towards a more "open source" government with transparency being a top priority. Although she acknowledged that the White House was nothing close to "open source" when she joined, Noveck addressed her goals to return to the transparent days of the 1990s.
Through implementation of an open source government, Noveck details that much of the unnecessary bureaucratic aspects are left out. Sberbank is noted as an example of a Russian bank that practiced open-source through crowdsourcing and saved over a billion dollars. On the other hand, Noveck emphasizes that it is important to recognize that data should not just be made open to everyone. Instead, transparency should be created through limited sharing of knowledge to the public.
Action steps to fulfill goals of an open-source government include making the US Patent Office more accessible. With her example, USPTO had power to make decisions regarding patent apps that would be granted; in other words, they had a monopoly for over twenty years. Thus, in order to allow for more open information flow, USPTO allowed total openness such that patent apps could be accessed by all people to analyze.
In conclusion, Noveck places responsibility on all of us to open institutions and to share information. I wholehearedtly agree with Noveck's ideas and believe that an open-source government is a step in the right direction, especially with the prevalence of data in today's society.
Thanks for your time reading this post -- I hope you liked it, and I look forward to your comments!
Best,
Anish
In this TED talk, Noveck discusses her time as the Chief Technology Officer within President Obama's administration. The direction she lead was towards a more "open source" government with transparency being a top priority. Although she acknowledged that the White House was nothing close to "open source" when she joined, Noveck addressed her goals to return to the transparent days of the 1990s.
Through implementation of an open source government, Noveck details that much of the unnecessary bureaucratic aspects are left out. Sberbank is noted as an example of a Russian bank that practiced open-source through crowdsourcing and saved over a billion dollars. On the other hand, Noveck emphasizes that it is important to recognize that data should not just be made open to everyone. Instead, transparency should be created through limited sharing of knowledge to the public.
Action steps to fulfill goals of an open-source government include making the US Patent Office more accessible. With her example, USPTO had power to make decisions regarding patent apps that would be granted; in other words, they had a monopoly for over twenty years. Thus, in order to allow for more open information flow, USPTO allowed total openness such that patent apps could be accessed by all people to analyze.
In conclusion, Noveck places responsibility on all of us to open institutions and to share information. I wholehearedtly agree with Noveck's ideas and believe that an open-source government is a step in the right direction, especially with the prevalence of data in today's society.
Thanks for your time reading this post -- I hope you liked it, and I look forward to your comments!
Best,
Anish
Hi Anish!
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post! I really like the summary you provided about Beth Noveck's TedX talk. I agree with her and you in that there should be a greater transparency and sharing of information, and that we are responsible and should take greater actions.