Government Should Not be a Vending Machine: The Role of Civic Tech

I recently attended the Community Information Exchange Summit, presented by 2–1–1 San Diego. Over 350 people from across North America gathered to discuss citizen-centric service delivery and bridging health and social services to build strong, thriving communities. At the center of the event was the story of 2–1–1 San Diego and its community information exchange […]

NIC’s California Symposium: Cross-Sector Collegiality, Lots of Learning, and 140 Thank-Yous

The National Interoperability Collaborative’s first major event, “A Symposium in the NIC of Time: Information-Sharing across California and Beyond,” took place March 26-27 in West Sacramento. When we started planning the event several months ago, we set two primary goals. First, we wanted to put together a convening that would be interactive and genuinely informative […]

Showtime for NIC: Opportunities to Link, Learn and Lead

For nine months, the building of the National Interoperability Collaborative has mainly taken place behind the scenes, with the kinds of activities any new enterprise has to conduct to move forward – things like creating a charter and organizational materials, planning strategy and shaping relationships, and of course, starting to do the work that NIC […]

The Silicon Valley Regional Data Trust: Putting the Last Word First

With less than two weeks to go before the National Interoperability Collaborative’s first major event – “A Symposium in the NIC of Time: Advancing Information-Sharing in California and Beyond” – we’ve been giving considerable thought to how best to present our work at the Silicon Valley Data Trust (SVRDT) to the symposium’s attendees. The fact […]

A Webinar in the NIC of Time – Insights from the Front Lines: What’s Working (and Not Working) in the Battle against Opioids

In virtually every state of our country, efforts are being mounted to combat the worst public health crisis in modern U.S. history; that is, the opioid epidemic. Some of these initiatives are still in their early stages, while others are relatively advanced and starting to see successes. Regardless of where they are in their development, […]

Spreading the Word on the Impact of Interoperability and Open Data: Our Latest Symposium Focused Sharply on Improving Children’s Lives

Over the past decade, the steadily escalating use of open data has expanded knowledge, driven innovation, enhanced effectiveness and improved outcomes in a growing number of realms, particularly relating to health, healthcare and human services. Stewards of Change Institute, seeing the opportunity (and the need) to expand this work even further, recently held an event […]

Looking Back to See the Future More Clearly

As the first month of 2016 zooms by, Stewards of Change is embarking on what promises to be its busiest and most productive year ever – which leads me to think about how far our field has come during the decade since SOC came into being. In particular, I remember our first national symposium at […]