Now Recruiting: Civic Startups • Hacker News Board

Re: Now Recruiting: Civic Startups

#11

Post by untog » Mon, Apr 16, 2012, 5:58 PM UTC

zt wrote: post #7

A few months ago I had a converastion about some of my open data civic work with Brad Burnham. He challanged me to really think about how I could disrupt goverment to get them to release new data and to innovate. He noted that you never want to be in the business of asking permission of the slow-moving giant to make your business work--so I should figure out what I can do without the government's permission. It's gre…

Absolutely. I used to work for a government body and saw time and time again that we'd go with huge, inflexible solutions using technologies like SAP, because that's what the large consulting company insisted on.

But: the people making these choices aren't stupid. Government has very little appetite for the startup-style thinking of trying something, trashing it and iterating. Maybe it's because tax payer money is at stake, but any kind of risky venture is seen as a bad thing. We have to combat that, first.

Re: Now Recruiting: Civic Startups

#12

Post by rprospero » Mon, Apr 16, 2012, 6:41 PM UTC

untog wrote: post #11

zt wrote: post #7

A few months ago I had a converastion about some of my open data civic work with Brad Burnham. He challanged me to really think about how I could disrupt goverment to get them to release new data and to innovate. He noted that you never want to be in the business of asking permission of the slow-moving giant to make your business work--so I should figure out what I can do without the government's permission. It's gre…

Absolutely. I used to work for a government body and saw time and time again that we'd go with huge, inflexible solutions using technologies like SAP, because that's what the large consulting company insisted on. But : the people making these choices aren't stupid. Government has very little appetite for the startup-style thinking of trying something, trashing it and iterating. Maybe it's because tax payer money is a…

I'd say that it's not that risk isn't appreciated. Rather, risk tends to be taken in a rather bi-polar way.

99% of the time, the government goes with the giant, ossified consulting firm. However, 1% of the time, they decide to take a risk. They don't just go with the local start-up, though. They hire Bob's nephew, who's "a real whiz with computers." Bob's nephew puts together a minimum viable product, then Bob's 12 year old nephew accidentally sends out a mass e-mail with everyone's medical records.

The agency then gets accused of not taking privacy seriously, so a whole new set of privacy rules are enacted. Only a industrial giants have the patience to wade through this paperwork, so they scoop up every job for a while.

Eventually, someone looks at the insane standards and points out that the government could save millions of dollars that they're paying to IBM by just hiring a startup. Bob then points out that they could save thousands of dollars on this bloated startup by just hiring his nephew.

Re: Now Recruiting: Civic Startups

#13

Post by videmsky » Mon, Apr 16, 2012, 7:06 PM UTC

If you can get past pre-solicitation, solicitation, and procurement hurdles, then you are golden. However, until this highly opaque process is cracked and startups with no "accounts of past performance" are recognized by public institutions, lean innovators in civic tech face considerable challenges. That said, I think CfA's accelerator and the multitude of other incubators are a great place to take your civic focused product ideas. I look forward to seeing how this area of interest shapes up from an entrepreneurial perspective apart from its clearly needed public service role.

Re: Now Recruiting: Civic Startups

#14

Post by WalterSear » Mon, Apr 16, 2012, 7:37 PM UTC

untog wrote: post #11

zt wrote: post #7

A few months ago I had a converastion about some of my open data civic work with Brad Burnham. He challanged me to really think about how I could disrupt goverment to get them to release new data and to innovate. He noted that you never want to be in the business of asking permission of the slow-moving giant to make your business work--so I should figure out what I can do without the government's permission. It's gre…

Absolutely. I used to work for a government body and saw time and time again that we'd go with huge, inflexible solutions using technologies like SAP, because that's what the large consulting company insisted on. But : the people making these choices aren't stupid. Government has very little appetite for the startup-style thinking of trying something, trashing it and iterating. Maybe it's because tax payer money is a…

And who insisted on those large consulting firms?