Jennifer Pahlka – Medium

Jennifer Pahlka

Featured Book

Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better

Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better

A bold call to reexamine how our government operates—and sometimes fails to—from Obama's former US Deputy CTO and the founder of Code for America.

2023

Jennifer Pahlka

Jennifer Pahlka

Stories

This must be the place

Something happened to me last week, and I’m still trying to understand what it was and what it means. Writing helps. But the narrative…

Jul 29, 2024

This must be the place

Jul 29, 2024

I wrote a policy book?? I wrote a policy book!

I spent yesterday pinching myself. (Serious brag alert here.) Ezra Klein’s interview with me dropped, and he starts out with “My pitch for…

Jun 7, 2023

I wrote a policy book?? I wrote a policy book!

Jun 7, 2023

Bad News for Procedure Fetishists

How do procedures that are not required by law or policy become required in practice? It happens because as soon as one person in a risk…

Feb 14, 2023

Bad News for Procedure Fetishists

Feb 14, 2023

Not throwing away our shot

I need to start writing again. I used to write pretty often, and then I went and wrote a book, which weirdly means I didn’t write for a…

Feb 6, 2023

Not throwing away our shot

Feb 6, 2023

Published in
GEN

Why Biden’s Executive Order on Customer Experience Could Be a Game-Changer

Unlike prior initiatives to simply digitize the bureaucracy, this one could actually improve access to government services

Dec 14, 2021

Why Biden’s Executive Order on Customer Experience Could Be a Game-Changer

Dec 14, 2021

Slow Train

The people in sleeping compartments on the Sunset Limited from New Orleans to Los Angeles see each other mostly in the dining car, which…

Jul 12, 2021

Slow Train

Jul 12, 2021

Published in
OneZero

Pitting Private Tech Against the Public Sector is Bad for Everyone

How Marc Andreessen’s criticism of governmental responses to Covid misses the mark

Jun 29, 2021

Pitting Private Tech Against the Public Sector is Bad for Everyone

Jun 29, 2021

Published in
OneZero

How the Government’s Multibillion-Dollar Plan to Modernize Its Tech Could Go Horribly Wrong

Our ‘Kill It with Fire’ Moment

Apr 20, 2021

How the Government’s Multibillion-Dollar Plan to Modernize Its Tech Could Go Horribly Wrong

Apr 20, 2021

What on earth is SME-QA and why should you care about it?

A stunning announcement about how federal government hires recently passed largely unnoticed. Only in the age of vaccine rollout drama…

Feb 4, 2021

What on earth is SME-QA and why should you care about it?

Feb 4, 2021

Published in
U.S. Digital Response

What states must do about Pandemic Unemployment Assistance

Tens of millions of people are suddenly out of work. Your Lyft driver, your hairdresser, your barista, the waiters at your favorite…

Apr 17, 2020

What states must do about Pandemic Unemployment Assistance

Apr 17, 2020

Jennifer Pahlka

Jennifer Pahlka

Book Author

Author of Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better, Fellow at the Federation of American Scientists

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