The Buzz with ACT-IAC

Latest Episodes:

ICYMI: Academic Perspectives in Resilient Infrastructure Apr 30, 2024

Show notes

This week, The Buzz presents a session from our 2024 Resilient Infrastructure Summit.
This panel focuses on how academic institutions contribute to infrastructure change action through research, sustainable practices, and policy advocacy. Speakers will showcase university-led initiatives and their alignment with government efforts to meet national goals. Attendees will learn how academic expertise can guide effective action, emphasizing the importance of informed government strategies in tackling environmental challenges.
Speakers:
Jill Thijs (Moderator) - Director of Resilience and Sustainability at Noblis
William Hederman - Senior Fellow at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania
Richard Kauzlarich - Co-Director of the Center for Energy Science and Policy at George Mason University
Edward Maibach - Director of the Center for Resilient Infrastructure Communication at George Mason University
Katie O'Donnell - Program Manager for the Infrastructure and Health Institute at George Washington University

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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)

Dark Patterns and Ethical Design with Colin Gray Apr 24, 2024

Show notes

Have you ever tried to cancel an online subscription and ended up clicking around in circles trying to find the right button to press? If so, you experienced a "dark pattern" - a deceptive tactic of UX design that tries to trick users into doing something they don't want to do.
In the online age, UX designers have enormous power in facilitating our access to information and services. What happens when this power is used for evil?
To discuss this question (and more), we're joined by Colin Gray, Associate Professor of Informatics at Indiana University Bloomington and Director of the Human-Computer Interaction design program. They've spent the past several years documenting and classifying dark patterns and exploring the legal and ethical questions surrounding their use.

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ICYMI: Digital Transformation Strides Driving Citizen Experience in Government Apr 16, 2024

Show notes

This week, The Buzz presents a session from ACT-IAC's 2024 Digital Transformation Summit.

This panel of fedtech experts discusses the progress they have made in their respective agencies to leverage digital transformation to enhance the citizen experience, focusing on policy and process impediments that can derail progress and how to overcome them.
Panelists:

Andrea Fletcher - Chief Digital Strategy Officer, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Raymond Holder - .VP of Digital Growth, Maximus
Beth Martin - Digital Services Expert, OPM
Raj Iyer (Moderator) - Global Head of Public Sector, ServiceNow

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The Civic Tech Success of IRS Direct File with Courtney O' Reilly Apr 09, 2024

Show notes

About a year ago, we were joined on the show by Gabriel Zucker of Code for America to talk taxes. Specifically, a provision of the Inflation Reduction Act that directed the IRS to develop their own proprietary, free tax prep software for the first time in history.
Since then, the IRS has been hard at work. 2024 tax season marks the launch of the IRS Direct File pilot, a simplified tax prep tool available to residents of twelve states. It's free, easy, fast, and represents a huge win for civic tech.
So we invited Code for America back on to celebrate this win and discuss the implications and future of this momentous project. This week The Buzz is joined by Courtney O' Reilly, Senior Program Manager for Tax Benefits at CforA.
Resources:
Code for America's FileYourStateTaxes
IRS Direct File Report to Congress

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A New Era for US Passenger Rail? With Robert Puentes Apr 02, 2024

Show notes

This week, The Buzz is joined once again by Robert Puentes, President and CEO of the Eno Center for Transportation. Last time, we talked about some of the challenges facing American aviation and the FAA. The intervening weeks have magnified some of this as Boeing, under scrutiny for a series of engineering failures, has started seeing some serious turnover in upper management and a slew of promises to shape up.
So maybe now is a good time to examine a different transportation mode for your next vacation or long-distance trip. American regional rail, once among the best in the world, has spent the last 100 years shriveling up into a fractured network that captures only 33 million passengers annually (barely 1/30th of US airlines). But that may be changing. Amtrak gained nearly 25% more passengers from 2022 to 2023, and billions of dollars of federal money are flowing into rail projects all over the country, courtesy of the Inflation Reduction Act and 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill.
With all this momentum, perhaps a new age in American rail is upon us? We discuss the past, present and future of rail travel this week on The Buzz.
More from the Eno Center: https://enotrans.org/issues-and-modes/railroads/
More on Permitting and Planning Challenges: The Green Transition Dilemma with James Salzman and J.B. Ruhl

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ICYMI: Shared Services Lessons from the Intelligence Community Mar 26, 2024

Show notes

This week, The Buzz presents a session from our 2024 Shared Services Summit, in partnership with the Shared Services Leadership Coalition. Learn more at sharedservicesnow.org.
In this fireside chat, Maria Banks, Director of Federal Sales at Atlassian, sat down with Susan Dorr, Chief Information Officer at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

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Replay: The Tax Software We Deserve with Gabriel Zucker Mar 19, 2024

Show notes

This episode originally aired on April 5th, 2023.
As tax season ramps up in earnest, and given the good news about the IRS's Direct File Pilot Program, we thought now would be a good time to revisit an interview we conducted last year with Code For America's Gabriel Zucker, the Interim Program Director of Tax Policy and Partnerships.
This interview focused on how the IRS could design a direct file system, what such a tool might look like, and Code for America's work in civic tech for taxes.

Resources:
GAO Free File Report
ProPublica's Investigation into Private Tax Prep Software
Code for America's Direct File Prototype
Code for America's Research on Simple Tax Filing

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.

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From the Archives: The Roots of Government CX with Dan Tangherlini Mar 12, 2024

Show notes

This week, The Buzz presents a session from our archives.
The concept of customer experience has driven business decisions in private industry for some time, but it's only in the last decade that CX, or citizen service, has become a focus of government.
The creation of healthcare.gov in 2013 heralded a new era in government, one marked by an interest in the lessons learned from tech start-ups and the relationship between IT systems, government processes and the people that use them. In this fireside chat from ACT-IAC's 2014 Executive Leadership Conference, we see the beginning stages of an ongoing conversation that continues to evolve to this day.
Dan Tangherlini, then General Administrator of the GSA, discussed all this and more with Evan Burfield, entrepreneur, author and civic tech enthusiast.

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ICYMI: Don't Forget to Cyber Mar 05, 2024

Show notes

This week, The Buzz presents a session from ACT-IAC's 2024 Digital Transformation Summit.
Digital transformation efforts often rely on implementation of new systems. This presents an opportunity to integrate improved cybersecurity policy from the ground up. Unfortunately, cyber is still often ignored in the digital transformation process despite its importance.
In this fireside chat, Paul Butterfoss, CTO of Federal Civilian IT at Leidos, discusses proper cyber hygiene with Paul Selby, CISO and Deputy CIO at the Department of Energy.

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Virtual Reality and the Future of Medicine with Dr. Brennan Spiegel Feb 27, 2024

Show notes

While virtual reality has been around for several decades, both as a concept and a technology, it is only in the past few years that inexpensive, mass-produced, higher-quality VR systems have become broadly available. This has enabled more people to experiment and conduct research with VR software, and better determine its potential and use.
The field of medicine has exemplified this approach. Medical Extended Reality, or MXR, is an emerging area of research surrounding the psychology, physiology, and ethics of virtual reality and augmented reality. By applying it to the treatment of mental and physical illnesses, MXR sheds light on some of the most mysterious, even philosophical aspects of human existence - perception and the mind.
Dr. Brennen Spiegel is the Director Health Services Research for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he and his colleagues are exploring the cutting edge of MXR. He is also the author of VRx: How Virtual Therapeutics Will Revolutionize Medicine.

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