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Can “Govtech” Save the Government—and Tech?
Tech companies can help streamline government services, but they need to overcome privacy fears
Gavin Newsom did not become governor of California quietly. During his first days in office in January 2019, Newsom said he would remove state National Guard troops from the Mexico border, and he accused the White House of “corruption and incompetence.”
The mini-drama surrounding his first few weeks in office eclipsed two significant new policies that will affect how the state of California collaborates with technology companies. On his first day in office, Newsom announced changes to the way state agencies could buy technology. On his second, he created a new department—the Office of Digital Innovation—with a starting budget of $36.2 million.
Few Americans took note of the announcements. But in the technology world, Newsom’s policies were read as a nod to a little-known sector called “govtech,” where technology companies offer solutions to government problems.
How can governments make applying for food stamps or reporting earthquake damage as seamless as ordering an Uber?
While technology has transformed our lives as consumers—for better and for worse—our existence as citizens has remained largely untouched by the influence of tech, as anyone who tried to renew their driver’s license or contact their local representative knows. But Newsom—who was mayor of San Francisco during some of the frothiest years in tech—has long pushed for governments to partner with tech companies on innovation. His new policies spotlight an important question: how can governments make applying for food stamps or reporting earthquake damage as seamless as ordering an Uber?
Code for America’s app, ClearMyRecord, is one promising answer. In 2014, as many as one million Californians with low-level, nonviolent felonies became eligible to clear or change their records after lawmakers recognized how even minor convictions can create barriers to jobs, housing, and student loans. But actually clearing those convictions was so bureaucratic that few people managed to complete it; in LA County, only seven percent of eligible…
