Government as a
Platform
Tim O’Reilly
O’Reilly Media, Inc.
www.oreilly.com
GTEC
Ottawa, Canada
October 7, 2009
Saturday, October 10, 2009

I’m perhaps best known as a
computer book publisher
covering topics
from the frontiers
of emerging
technologies.
Saturday, October 10, 2009

What We Really Do at O’Reilly
•Find interesting technologies and people
innovating from the edge
•Amplify their effectiveness by spreading the
information needed for others to follow
them.
•Books, Conferences, Online Publishing,
Investing, Research and Consulting
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Watch the Alpha Geeks
• New technologies first exploited by enthusiasts,
then entrepreneurs, then platform players
• Two examples
– Wireless community networks
predict universal Wi-Fi
– Screen scraping predicts
web services and the internet
as platform
Rob Flickenger and his potato chip can antenna
4
Saturday, October 10, 2009

"The future is here. It's just not
evenly distributed yet."
--William Gibson
Saturday, October 10, 2009

The "Killer Apps” of the New Millennium
Saturday, October 10, 2009

The network as platform
•Software delivered as an online service
•Driven by huge databases that literally get better
the more people use them
•“Harnessing collective intelligence”
•“Data is the Intel Inside”
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

The smart phone plus local search.
Today pizza, tomorrow news?
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Now hold that thought.
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Remember What I Said Earlier?
Hackers are “lead users”
who tell us where the
future is going.
Companies apply their
insights in new contexts
to build next-generation
products.
11
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Making government data accessible
to ordinary citizens?
Saturday, October 10, 2009

There’s got to be more to it than that.
Saturday, October 10, 2009

theyworkforyou.com
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

New tools for government transparency
and accountability?
Saturday, October 10, 2009

There’s got to be more to it than that.
Saturday, October 10, 2009

A vision of technology in government
"We need to connect citizens
with each other to engage
them more fully and directly
in solving the problems that
face us. We must use all
available technologies and
methods to open up the
federal government, creating
a new level of transparency
to change the way business
is conducted in Washington
and giving Americans the
chance to participate in
government deliberations
and decision-making in ways
that were not possible only a
few years ago."
– From Barack Obama's
campaign platform on
technology
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Use of Social Media by Government?
Saturday, October 10, 2009

There’s got to be more to it than that.
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Use of Mashups by Government?
Saturday, October 10, 2009

There’s got to be more to it than that.
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Gov 2.0
•Citizen contribution and collaboration
•Use of social media
•Transparency
•Rapid application development
•New methods of procurement
•Cloud computing
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Gov 2.0
•Citizen contribution and collaboration
•Use of social media
•Transparency
•Rapid application development
•New methods of procurement
•Cloud computing
•Government as a platform
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Government is a vehicle for collective
action
Frank DiGiammarino,
recovery.gov:
–Convener first, problem solver
second
–Pull the right people together
–Enable action through knowledge,
resources and visibility
Saturday, October 10, 2009

This is not a new idea
“We must all hang together
or we will assuredly all hang
separately.”
—Ben Franklin
Saturday, October 10, 2009

The most important lesson of Web 2.0
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Build a platform. Let users add value.
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Customer self-service
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Let your citizens help you
to do more with less
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Top Sites on the Internet - 2005
Rank Company # Employees
1 Yahoo 9,000
2 TimeWarner 85,000
3 Microsoft 61,000
4 Google 5,000
5 eBay 11,000
6 News Corp 38,000
7 Craigslist 18
8 Disney 129,000
9 BBC 60,000
10 IAC 26,000
Saturday, October 10, 2009

The Craigslist Philosophy
“If most people are good and their needs are
simple, all you have to do to serve them well is
build a minimal infrastructure allowing them to get
together and work things out for themselves. Any
additional features are almost certainly
superfluous and could even be damaging.”
--Gary Wolf, Wired Magazine, Sept 2009
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Vending Machine Government
Vending Machine Gov concept from Donald Kettl:
The Next Government of the United States
Saturday, October 10, 2009

The consequence
Saturday, October 10, 2009

An alternative model - throw open the
doors to partners
More than 50,000 iPhone
applications in less than a
year!
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

“Cities today are like an Amazon that
only allows in the #1 best-seller from
each category”
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Preferred application partners
•Struggling to catch up in the application
marketplace
Saturday, October 10, 2009

So why do governments still make deals
like these?
•No bid contracts
•Preferred providers
•Earmarks
•Sole source licensing
of government data to
single-source
providers
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Government as a platform means an
end to the design of only complete,
closed “applications.” Instead the
government should provide
fundamental services on which we,
the people, (also known as “the
market”) build the applications.
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

The Three Laws of Open Government Data
1. If it can’t be spidered or indexed, it doesn’t exist.
2. If it isn’t available in open and machine readable
format, it can’t engage.
3. If a legal framework doesn’t allow it to be
repurposed, it doesn’t empower
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

•Government to Citizen (G2C)
•Citizen to Government (C2G)
•Citizen to Citizen (C2C)
•Government to Government (G2G)
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Citizens, Give Us Your Hands,
Not Just Your Voices!
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

We Need to Do More Than Shake
the Vending Machine!
http://image06.webshots.com/6/2/57/50/190125750NgQXwu_ph.jpg
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

civic meetups - 19000 cleanups
Saturday, October 10, 2009

“When the best leader leads, the people
say ‘we did it ourselves.’”
--Lao Tzu
Saturday, October 10, 2009