Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better

Join us for a 90 minute virtual workshop with Jennifer Pahlka, former U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer under President Obama, founder of Code for America, and co-founder of the United States Digital Response. In her recently released book, Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better, Jennifer makes the case that government at all levels has limped into the digital age - offering online services that can feel even more cumbersome than the paperwork that preceded them and widening the gap between the policy outcomes we intend and what we get - and that government is often hamstrung by a rigid, Industrial-era culture, where policy is set from the top-down and not enough focus is placed on the details of implementation. In this workshop, Jennifer will share examples from her experiences working inside and outside of government and offer lessons learned on how we can move towards a system where we create bottom-up solutions in government, bring more people to the decision-making table, and insist on policy and process simplification to get systems that work for people in government and the residents they serve.