Recoding America : why government is failing in the digital age and how we can do better / Jennifer Pahlka.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pahlka, Jennifer, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Administrative agencies--United States--Data processing.

Administrative agencies.

Information storage and retrieval systems--Public administration.

Information storage and retrieval systems.

Technology and state--United States.

Technology and state.

United States--Politics and government--1989-.

United States.

Physical Description:

xii, 319 pages ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

[Re]coding <America/>

Why government is failing in the digital age and how we can do better

Place of Publication:

New York, New York : Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company, 2023.

Summary:

"A bold call to reexamine how our government operates-and sometimes fails to-from President Obama's former deputy chief technology officer and the founder of Code for America. Just when we most need our government to work-to decarbonize our infrastructure and economy, to help the vulnerable through a pandemic, to defend ourselves against global threats-it is faltering. 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. But it's not more money or more tech we need. Government is hamstrung by a rigid, industrial-era culture, in which elites dictate policy from on high, disconnected from and too often disdainful of the details of implementation. Lofty goals morph unrecognizably as they cascade through a complex hierarchy. But there is an approach taking hold that keeps pace with today's world and reclaims government for the people it is supposed to serve. Jennifer Pahlka shows why we must stop trying to move the government we have today onto new technology and instead consider what it would mean to truly recode American government"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction : Beyond Schoolhouse Rock!

Archaeology

Seventeen years

Concrete boats

Friendly fire

The Kodak curse

Operational in nature

Stuck in peanut butter

The procedure fetish

The fax hack

Byrne's law

The insiders

Up the waterfall

What we believe matters

Conclusion : For and by people.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Pahlka, Jennifer. Recoding America

ISBN:

9781250266774

1250266777

OCLC:

1338301096

Publisher Number:

99994020076