Federation of American Scientists reposted this
Author, Recoding America: Why Government is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better
When I met Andrew Petrisin, he casually tossed off this great line: You can't fight paper with paper. And then he told me about putting that maxim into action (yes, we need stickers) as he and his team at the Department of Transportation built a product called FLOW to respond to the supply chain crisis of the pandemic. He built it using internal talent with the "change he could find in the couch cushions." I was so enamored of the story I got Allie Harris at Federation of American Scientists to work with me to write it up. Take a read here https://lnkd.in/gDfXskP2 And since the FAS blog doesn't support comments, I'd love to know what else you'd like to hear from Andrew. There's a lot more to say about the barriers he faced, I'm pretty sure. Put your comments and questions here!
Kathryn Kohn
3mo
Crazy to me that something both so massive and delicate (the capital-S capital-C Supply Chain) had to face an international emergency to get something like this done. Huge bravo to Andrew Petrisin for having a vision and making it happen. Andrew, if I might ask, when will you do FLOW but for trains!? Kidding, but what do you think the next horizon for the FLOW concept is? What agency is practically begging for a similar tool?
Anna Vasylytsya
3mo
I love the ‘build-measure-learn’ cycles. The summary of the lessons at the end is great as well.
I think the resistance of private companies to hand over data is understandable; building trust and communicating value is such an important part of making projects more useful and effective. Thanks for sharing this story.
Nina Bhatia
3mo
Love the shout out for Allison Harris. She does amazing work at Federation of American Scientists!
Sean Norick Long
3mo
Go Andrew!!!
Building data enabled systems level intelligence at the Canadian Digital Service
3moSo much of the systems work I engage in within public service can be summed up by this line: “The problem already existed, the data already existed, the data privacy authorities already existed, the people already existed,” he told us. “What we did was put those pieces together in a different way. We changed processes and culture, but otherwise, the tools were already there.”