28 Comments
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lindamc's avatar

It’s so gratifying to see this serious, well-considered, bipartisan effort to *actually effect change.* Looking forward to following your work!

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Sharon F.'s avatar

Much needed! I hope there will be a formal structure for 1) ideas and feedback from current and retired employees and 2) users of government services.

Maybe some test areas.. I'd suggest federal land management.

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Kevin's avatar

This is great to see. I’m especially pleased to see that it includes both Republicans and Democrats. Sometimes it feels like bipartisan anything is a relic of the past, but it seems like the right way to go for this sort of government reform that we hope persists through many administrations. All sides should be able to agree on efficiency and effectiveness.

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Substack Joe's avatar

This is extremely exciting. Congratulations!

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Leonard Heymann's avatar

Jen, an exciting and inspiring initiative. Congrats. Not in your new mandate, but i think we also need to rethink and redefine how political leaders manage technology and discuss it with voters. Since technology is at the core of how government provides service - and protects our privacy - it needs to a far more important political issue and one that gets far more attention during campaigns. Of course that's tricky since politics can play havoc with sound tech policy. But we need to find a constructive way for politics and technology to converge. For example, candidates calling out the need for SLAs for tech-driven services and/or a "moon shot" to complete key government tech initiatives, such as FAA upgrades. The majority of voters today have grown up with technology and are fully realized digital citizens. They should have a voice - through our political leaders - in how smart folks like yourself and your teams imagine and build our digital future.

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Andrew Bosson's avatar

Very excited to see this launch!! Please let me know if you are looking for further team to support the effort. I would love to be involved and believe my experience could be valuable.

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Catherine Steb's avatar

Spot on! Thank goodness for forward thinking, creative, hard-working and brave people!

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DJ's avatar

Jared Polis would be a good fit, assuming he doesn't run for higher office. Also Brad Feld, a venture capitalist in Colorado who's been active on technology policy.

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seth godin's avatar

go Jen go!

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Jack Woodruff's avatar

What are you actually going to do with all that money?

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Noah Kunin's avatar

Huge.

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JohnF's avatar

Inspiring and needes. I appreciate the focus on state capacity with a non-partisan approach. Look forward to seeing what you do!

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Walter Shoup's avatar

Jennifer, is the Recoding America Fund coordinating with Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who, as reported in the Financial Times and The Daily Upside, met with 15 of the top private equity buyout shops last week to pitch the likes of Apollo and Carlyle on funding a $150 billion infrastructure refresh? Their focus on adequate funding for military infrastructure build out and compressing the contracting process sound a lot like the objectives of your fund, although with a much narrower focus.

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Aircordell's avatar

Interesting post and plan. Respectfully, a few questions from a former federal CIO and NYC CTO/CiO who’s been in the government for about 30 years and nearly 10 more in private, old school tech.

Should we first identify the policy goals and purposes that will be served by a new government operating model and new Fit-for-Purpose systems?

Who represents the Progressive Left on your new board and team? Apologies if that’s obvious to others.

How will the foundation address government leaders and stakeholders who want to drown the government in the bathtub and not improve it?

How does this work when we don’t have consensus on facts such as the winner of the 2020 election and human caused climate change?

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DJ's avatar

So glad to see this. Right now the GOP pretends to be the tech forward party but they show no interest in using it for governance. Just tax cuts (and no tariffs!) for tech oligarchs

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sunshines and rains's avatar

Recoding America sounds fantastic

It is a clear need, and the call has been well answered by a great set of experts, expertise and experience.

I am wondering how is the citizen represented in this body? How is the extraordinarily diverse and complex consumer/citizen/taxpayer/payee base able to voice their needs / requirements and wants?

Young voices, old voices, middle aged voices, etc, etc.

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