essemmarrFeb 16, 2023
Waldo Jaquith

There are two trends in government over the past 30 years that have collided to cause a never-ending series of high-profile failures:

1. Outsourcing anything technology-related, regarding tech as outside of government’s core competencies (or even government’s proper role).
2. Relying on technology to accomplish nearly all agency goals and intermediating interactions with the public through software.

Can you identify the problem here?

Feb 13, 2023 at 6:43pmElk
Show threadWaldo JaquithFeb 13, 2023

YUP. This combination has made it completely normal for agencies to outsource their mission to the private sector and, in doing so, to surrender control of their ability to succeed.

What's the fix? Take responsibility! Accept that success or failure must be controlled by the agency, and that blaming a vendor isn't going to cut it. Outsource discrete components, not entire programs. Hire staff who have at *least* as much expertise as vendors, or else oversight is impossible.

Show threadWaldo JaquithFeb 13, 2023
There's no "one neat trick" for fixing the problem of agencies outsourcing their missions in the course of outsourcing technology. The solution is to *do the work.*
Show threadBrian DuffyFeb 13, 2023
@waldoj Sure. The CIO of a US State with a billion dollar IT spend makes less than the dude setting up laptops at a FAANG.
Show threadHealth Data AbacusFeb 14, 2023

@waldoj

What I thought when I heard a tool was outsourced to Salesforce, having never used it before: "Well at least maybe they'll have modern APIs"

What the people responsible for writing procedures for around the new tool thought about APIs: "................................................................................................."

And that's why they didn't find out they had APIs for about a year, when they were finally told by people who were using them.

Show threadIt’s alright, maFeb 13, 2023
@waldoj Hm… Can’t quite put my finger on it… 🤔
Show threadRyan FordFeb 13, 2023
@waldoj Very astute, but what's even more problematic is how the outsourced technology is handled by the vendors—largely it's viewed as a major payday with a low bar for expected quality. Vendors charge an arm and a leg for subpar, dated, buggy work. And the government happily eats it up and distributes it to the citizens.
Show threadMichael ErardFeb 13, 2023
@waldoj Whose government, and which levels? I live in the Netherlands, which does pretty well in this regard--maybe the backend is lousy with legacy systems that regular people never see, I don't know. But the citizen-facing systems work pretty well.
Show threadJames M.Feb 13, 2023
@MichaelErard @waldoj I assume he means the US government, of which all of this is true. Glad to hear it's better in The Netherlands.
Show threadGlobaltomFeb 13, 2023
@waldoj In the early '90s, the UK govt had an internal team with IT expertise for use by all departments.
John Major adopted "privtitize everything possible" (as sopposed to Thatcher's "privitize things we think private sector can do better") - so that group was sold off, and the UK has had to oursource all big IT project ever since... which hasn't gone well.
Show threadWaldo JaquithFeb 13, 2023
@Globaltom The exact same thing happened in the US in 1995.
Show threadal45tairFeb 13, 2023
@waldoj Interestingly I think the U.K. government’s website provides a useful counter example. They hired developers and built it in house, and while it might not be perfect, it’s way better than the various outsourced things they had before.
Show threadWaldo JaquithFeb 13, 2023
@al45tair That was made by the GDS; I worked for the US counterpart, 18F. They’re how we can see the better alternatives!
Show threadklausfiend has movedFeb 13, 2023
@waldoj this dovetails nicely with the high levels of technical illiteracy within Congress and the scarcity of people with familiarity (e.g., Lieu, Issa) ... i don't trust Dianne Feinstein to legislate at a technology problem even if she isn't senile, and i wouldn't even bother to try with any of the GOP
Show threadLibertyForward1Feb 13, 2023
@klausfiend @waldoj Are you trying to say that Chuck Grassley isn't completely hip new technology?
Show threadklausfiend has movedFeb 13, 2023
@LibertyForward1 @waldoj lol ... probably not, despite his clear mastery of Twitter ;-)
Show threadThaiis Thei 𓁟Feb 13, 2023
@waldoj One day someone woke up and said, fuck the humanities, everything has a technical solution and communities of practice don't matter.
Show threadTim BurksFeb 13, 2023
@waldoj campaign finance laws?
Show threadEconprophFeb 14, 2023
@waldoj
You can substitute "higher education colleges & uni's" for "government" in your post and comments and it is all still very, very true. Same problem and higher ed and our students and faculty have paid the price.
Show threadWaldo JaquithFeb 14, 2023
@econproph I’ve been told that! I don’t have any relevant experience in academic tech, so that’s not something I dare write or speak about, but folks often tell me it’s a pretty perfect analog.
Show threadBrian Orce Feb 14, 2023
@waldoj @anildash Every American should have a USPS email and bank account
Show threadNickFeb 14, 2023
@JIMNOBU @waldoj @anildash USPS is where the federal government is present every day in every part of America — post offices are its consulates in big cities and small towns and the remotest places — and something that binds the nation together for 63¢ wherever you are is capable of binding the nation together in so many other ways.
Show threadArtemisFeb 14, 2023

@JIMNOBU @waldoj @anildash and

- any part of government and semi-government should exclusively bank there and only payout to someone's account there

- and USPS should provide broadband internet (fiber), USPS is the only party with a mandate and obligation to reach everyone. Call them postal routes to make it easier to put them in the ground, it worked for the interstate

Show threadMike BrownFeb 14, 2023
@JIMNOBU a guy in my old hockey team was the Chief Info Security Officer for USPS. He had pushed *HARD* for USPS email accounts and certified email concepts but they were always rejected (Silicon Valley will figure it out!)
Show threadColin DevroeFeb 14, 2023

@JIMNOBU @waldoj @anildash and mastodon account?

I can imagine domain names with county and state names in them that would make up both the email address and mastodon instance URL.

Show threadAlex is catching up on sleepFeb 14, 2023
@cdevroe @JIMNOBU @waldoj @anildash that’d make it hard to move interstate. In Australia you can get a .id.au domain for your personal name (see eg the URL in my bio) for which you need to provide government issued photo id. It’s a pretty good system except for name clashes. You can use variations in that case, eg. Initials, middle names, etc. It’s not really a problem because our population is relatively small and only a certain kind of nerd bothers with these domains anyway. But I like the idea.
Show threadWaldo JaquithFeb 14, 2023
@cdevroe @JIMNOBU Those used to be a thing, in the 1990s. I had jaquith.charlottesville.va.us.
Show threadAvi Rappoport (avirr)Feb 14, 2023
@JIMNOBU @waldoj @anildash that reminds me of the early internet, collectivism, before everything got libertarian.
Show thread: j@fabrica:~/src;  Feb 14, 2023
@JIMNOBU Next you’re going to tell me that the post office was the first paid federal office, in place before the United States even had completed its constitution.
Show threadKraken MareFeb 14, 2023
@waldoj Reagan?
Show threadWaldo JaquithFeb 14, 2023
@krakenmare Gingrich!
Show threadhunterowensFeb 14, 2023
@waldoj good ole state capacity rules everything around me
Show threadDan HonFeb 14, 2023
@waldoj 😐
Show threadDan HonFeb 14, 2023
@waldoj well, at least we saved money!
Show threadWaldo JaquithFeb 14, 2023
@danhon 🧐
Show threadDan HonFeb 14, 2023
@waldoj ... wait... are you saying maybe we didn't save money?
Show threadWaldo JaquithFeb 14, 2023
@danhon Yes, the agency’s mission got destroyed, but for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.
Show threadArneBabFeb 14, 2023
@waldoj That’s a good point …