The Buzz with ACT-IAC

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Service Delivery from the Farm to the Wildlands at USDA Jun 14, 2022

Show notes

Last year, the Biden Administration issued a series of executive orders directing federal agencies to study and measure the effectiveness of government programs - both for program recipients and the federal workforce that implements them.
This difficult, but necessary, work involves gathering both qualitative and quantitative data, analyzing it, and taking a critical eye to the processes that govern our agencies in order to assess how they can better meet the needs of US citizens. This week's guests are helping to drive this historic effort at one of the broadest-reaching federal agencies: the US Department of Agriculture
Simchah Suveyke-Bogin is the Chief Customer Experience Officer at USDA. Nora Johnson, a design strategist at Booz Allen Hamilton, is the former project lead for the Wildland Firefighter Program at the U.S. Forest Service.
This episode of the Buzz is sponsored by Booz Allen Hamilton. Learn more at https://www.boozallen.com/.
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Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode! For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org.
Learn more about membership at https://www.actiac.org/join.
Donate to ACT-IAC at https://actiac.org/donate.
Intro/Outro Music: See a Brighter Day/Gloria Tells
Courtesy of Epidemic Sound
(Episodes 1-159: Intro/Outro Music: Focal Point/Young Community
Courtesy of Epidemic Sound)

Y2K: A Date to Remember with Zachary Loeb Jun 07, 2022

Show notes

Y2K, also known as the Millennium Bug, was a computer error predicted to cause widespread systematic issues when internal dates changed from 12/31/99 to 01/01/00. Despite apocalyptic fears and doomsaying in the years leading up to the new millennium, the year 2000 arrived with no major catastrophe. Planes didn't fall out of the sky. Banks didn't fail. The American public now commonly remembers Y2K as a sort of hoax.
But the popular understanding of Y2K fails to recognize the years of preparation that occurred before January 31, 1999. Over $100 billion was spent in the US alone by government and the private sector to avert any potential disaster. And it worked.
This week on the Buzz, we're digging into the history and legacy of Y2K with guest Zachary Loeb, a doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania who studies the social and technical impacts of the Millennium Bug. This seemingly minor computer glitch has a lot to teach us about the role of technology our lives, how institutions cooperate (or don't), and how we as a society measure and respond to large-scale risk.
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ICYMI: Quantum Computing and the Future of Cybersecurity May 31, 2022

Show notes

This week, the Buzz presents another session from one of our recent in-person events. The 2022 Emerging Technology and Innovation Conference took place from May 22-24, and explored how new technologies are introducing new opportunities and impacting government services and the citizen experience.
Quantum computing is a nascent technology that proposes to harness the quantum properties of subatomic particles to solve computational problems. Sounds complicated, right? Well this panel of experts from industry, government and academia will help break down what quantum computing is, what it isn't, and the implications for this technology on the field of cybersecurity and cryptography.
Panelists:
Tim Gilday (moderator) - Emerging Technology Senior Director, General Dynamics IT
Dr. Celia Merzbacher - Executive Director, Quantum Economic Development Consortium
Bill Newhouse - Cybersecurity Engineer, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Mark Sherman - Director, Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
Neal Ziring - Technical Director, National Security Agency

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ICYMI: The Impact of Health Data Interoperability on the Patient Experience May 24, 2022

Show notes

This week, The Buzz presents a session from ACT-IAC's 2022 Health Innovation Summit, which took place in person on May 5th.
This panel explores how health records can be more easily shared and within our federal health ecosystems, how interoperability can improve care for patients and make processes more efficient, as well as looking at some challenges and trends in health data exchange.
Speakers:
Geoff Howard (Moderator) - VP for Health, ManTech
Dr. John Howard - Director, National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety, CDC
Lance Scott - Director of Solutions Integration, Defense Health Agency
Kent Stevenson - Chief Architect, Military Health, ManTech
Dr. Paul Tibbets - Executive Director, Office of Technical Integration, Department of Veterans Affairs

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Building FinTech for Low-Income Americans with Stacy Taylor of Propel May 17, 2022

Show notes

Here at ACT-IAC, we are all about looking at ways that technology can help solve our nation's most intractable problems. While technological development can and does shape and disrupt the way we live, it is rare to see new technology intentionally designed to serve the economically vulnerable.
And that's what makes Propel different. Propel develops simple software primarily for low-income Americans. Their app, Providers, helps recipients of government benefits manage their spending and budgeting as well as giving users access to coupons and job listings.
This week on The Buzz, we spoke to Propel's Head of Policy and Partnerships Stacy Taylor to learn more about their approach to serving their customer base and how they try to best meet the needs of a population often underserved by the broader tech industry.

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Exploring Change in the Federal Health Sector May 10, 2022

Show notes

Last week, ACT-IAC held its 5th annual Health Innovation Summit – an event which explored the evolution of healthcare systems and technologies. Of course, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic looms large over every discussion in the healthcare sector, and understandably so, as it has revealed the strengths and weaknesses of our health systems as only a true crisis can.
To talk more about how the Federal health sector and workforce has responded to the pandemic, this week The Buzz is joined by Tamar Mintz and Lisa Klein from Highlight Technologies, one of the sponsors of ACT-IAC’s Health Innovation Summit.
This episode of the Buzz is sponsored by Highlight Technologies. Learn more at www.highlighttech.com.
Register for ACT-IAC's Emerging Technology and Innovation 2022 Conference!

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Wherefore Art Thou Web3? with Elizabeth Renieris May 03, 2022

Show notes

As the past couple of years have underscored, much of our modern society is organized around the internet. From work, to interpersonal communication, to news media, to leisure - over 80% of US adults use the internet every day, averaging almost 7 hours per day.
There is a growing concern in both government and civil society that the internet is not operating as it should. Two of the most common issues raised include consumer privacy and the centralization of control over internet infrastructure. And this is where Web3 comes in – a new version of the internet intended to solve all of these problems.

This week on the Buzz, we’re diving into Web3 to figure out what it is, how it works, and whether it will do what advocates say it will do.
Today's guest is Elizabeth Renieris, Professor of Technology Ethics at the University of Notre Dame and a fellow at both the Stanford Digital Civil Society Lab and the Harvard Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.
Elizabeth's writing on Web3: https://www.cigionline.org/articles/amid-the-hype-over-web3-informed-skepticism-is-critical/

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Demystifying Procurement: The Rise of Other Transactions with Stan Soloway Apr 26, 2022

Show notes

For those outside of the acquisitions community, the practices, policies and processes of federal procurement can seem quite impenetrable. But given that the US Government spent more than $665 billion on contracts in 2020, it is not a subject to be ignored.
To that end, The Buzz with ACT-IAC presents: Demystifying Procurement - a series designed to take you through the ins and outs of this complex, but vital, topic.
In this episode, Stan Soloway, President and CEO of Celero Strategies, shares his insights on a unique aspect of federal procurement - other transaction authorities (OTA's). He recently co-authored a report exploring where OTA's fit into the Federal acquisitions picture and how their use has evolved in recent years.
Stan's Report: "Other Transactions Authorities: After 60 Years, Hitting Their Stride or Hitting The Wall?”
Demystifying Procurement Series:
Episode 1 - A Brief History of Government Contracting with Jim Nagle
Episode 2 - A Crash Course in Modern Acquisitions with Lesley Field
Episode 3 - Getting Creative within the FAR with Soraya Correa

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Ensuring a Successful Voting Experience for All with Amy Cohen Apr 12, 2022

Show notes

Voting is one of the most powerful and direct ways that the average citizen can participate in our nation's governance. Between local, state and federal government, there are over half a million elected positions in the United States, and each one of those positions requires a complex system of administration to ensure a free, fair and secure election in which all voters can make their voices heard. These systems involve an array of interlocking pieces - the way we design ballots, the technology we use, the duties and responsibilities of election officials, and even the interactions between different levels of government. How does all of this fit together to create our democratic system?
To answer that question, this week the Buzz is joined by Amy Cohen, Executive Director of the National Association of State Election Directors, or NASED. NASED is a non-partisan professional organization for our nation's election officials to exchange best practices and ideas and create the best election system possible for all Americans.
For more from NASED, visit https://www.nased.org

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Unpacking DeFi and Financial Risk with Hilary J. Allen Apr 05, 2022

Show notes

Decentralized finance, or DeFi, is a rapidly-growing sector that seeks to use distributed ledger technologies (like cryptocurrencies) to move traditional financial services away from centralized institutions (like banks) and onto the blockchain.
Advocates of DeFi say that by removing intermediaries, banking and financial services will become simpler, and more secure. But are they right? Will DeFi revolutionize money for the better, or will it only exacerbate the existing issues and inequalities in our economy?
This week, the Buzz is joined by Hilary Allen, Professor of Law at American University and author of the forthcoming paper "DeFi: Shadow Banking 2.0?". She argues that DeFi mimics many of the same issues that led to the 2008 financial crash, and that allowing DeFi to integrate into our financial systems will magnify risk and increase instability.
The paper: "DeFi: Shadow Banking 2.0?"
Hilary's upcoming book: Driverless Finance

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