I just finished, and so thoroughly enjoyed Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? A Memoir, by Séamas O’Reilly. An easy and enjoyable read, but a personal one for me. The author is one of an Irish Catholic family of eleven children who lost his mother when he was very young. I…

There is a scene in Steven Spielberg’s 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind where Roy Neary (played by Richard Dreyfuss) shapes a pile of mashed potatoes into a mushy replica of Devils Tower. Neary, after a brief encounter with an alien spacecraft, has become so obsessed with the…

Two things happened at the same time this week that made me think about how inefficient, opaque processes can introduce opportunities for certain individuals to receive beneficial treatment. First, my wife and I had to take one of our children for a PCR test. The process of getting the results…

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. ― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice Ten years ago this year, I rode a growing wave of enthusiasm for how governments manage and share data into a position as the first ever Chief Data Officer for the City of Philadelphia. The…

A story about two hands doing work to support digital transformation in government — Pain is weakness leaving the body — A quote often attributed to United States Marine Corps I want to tell you a short story. it’s a story about my hands. Sometime in mid 2017, I woke up one morning with pain at the base of my middle finger on my…

Procurement challenges don’t end when a government agency selects a vendor to fulfill a contract. In many ways, they are just beginning. — If you’ve been paying any attention at all to the world of civic tech for the last 5–10 years then you don’t need to be told that one of the major challenges to implementing effective digital solutions in government is the procurement process. Its hard to find a large or…

In a month of chaotic vaccine distribution rollouts, no government’s effort has been more dysfunctional, or controversial, than that of Philadelphia. To spearhead delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to city residents, the City of Philadelphia decided to partner with a young startup called Philly Fighting COVID (PFC). In recent days, the…

My four-year anniversary at my current job snuck up on me a few weeks back. It’s not an anniversary I have a lot of experience with — it’s been a while since I worked somewhere for four years in a row. My professional career has taken me on an interesting…

If Men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. …