We’re a very lucky company and have so much to be thankful for. Through the course of the past 15 months of iStrategyLabs’ existence we’ve tackled huge, interesting and exciting projects for big brands…at the same time we’ve been given the opportunity to be true innovators and do things never done before. Meanwhile, we’re growing fast in a really bad economy, but not everyone has it so good. And we know that.

If you know iStrategyLabs you know that we invest every waking moment we can on supporting the communities around us.  That’s why when clients like Share Our Strength call and asked us to put our minds to work to help solve childhood hunger in America we jump at the opportunity.

For this holiday season we developed SOS’s “Add Your Strength” campaign, which focuses on how adding yourself to the SOS family directly effects the well being of children. Carolyn, Zach, Meg and Jen worked really hard on ideation, design and copy writing to produce what we think is a compelling campaign and something we hope  you’ll engage in. You can Add a Plate to someone’s table, Send an eCard, or Buy Holiday Cards.

Check out what Share Our Strength is all about be clicking the Window Cling design (for restaurants) below and please consider making a donation and spreading the word. Happy Thanksgiving!

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Part I: The Washington Post Giveth

This morning I woke up to a Washington Post article featuring me (Peter Corbett) and a crew of DC tech innovators giving their thoughts on “Navigating the Crisis“. Of course, I love the article because it puts me, iStrategyLabs, and Apps for Democracy on the front page of the business section. My core message from that interview is this:

“Getting citizens involved with government projects saves local resources and generates business for start-ups.

I’ll be working hard to make sure that very thing happens over the coming years. Even if iStrategyLabs didn’t benefit a penny, building this kind of public/private sector collaboration is something I’d be passionately pushing forward as a concerned and empowered citizen in a democracy that needs our help desperately. Thank you to Kim Hart for writing this article and for getting the word out about innovation in the capital region.

Part II: The Washington Post Taketh Away

The very moment I was feeling really good about the Washington Post helping to get the word out about the above, Marc Fisher writes one of the most shortsighted, ill conceived articles I’ve seen in recent memory. His “Where’s Firing Fenty When you Need Him“, suggests that Vivek Kundra, CTO of DC be fired for a team leadership retreat. My comment on his article states my feelings on the matter:

“Marc, this is a terribly shortsighted article and I fear you’re doing Washington DC a huge disservice by taking such a myopic view on Vivek Kundura’s leadership style and approach to improving DC’s technology infrastructure.

It wouldn’t be fair for me to attack you, but I have a feeling you do [not] know what it takes to build and motivate a team - especially to do great/new things in government.

Vivek recently green-lighted the Apps for Democracy contest that produced $2,000,000+ in technology innovation value for a $50,000 outlay. That’s a 4000% ROI.

Would you rather have a CTO blowing millions on an old, slow, wasteful method of procuring technology? Or brainstorming with his team in the mountains somewhere figuring out how to save the district $1,950,000+.

I think you owe the citizens of DC a follow-up article with a more robust view of Vivek and OCTO’s achievements. As far as I’m concerned your ability to report and qualifications to do so are seriously in question.

If you’re wondering exactly what influence Vivek has had globally and around the Apps for Democracy contest you can find that here:

http://delicious.com/corbett3000/%23apps08+posts“

I wouldn’t normally write a comment like that, post about here on iStrategyLabs, and send a note to bunch of DC/MD/VA technologists, but Marc touched a nerve. If the Washington Post makes a suggestion like that, what does it do to DC.gov’s ability to take risks and promote innovation in government? Would Apps for Democracy have happened if Vivek Kundra and Mayor Fenty were fearful of public outcry over team building and approaching old problems with new solutions?

Does the Washington Post have a duty to report and investigate deeper than they did in this article? YES!

Maybe I was a bit harsh in calling into question Marc Fisher’s qualifications as a journalist - I’m sure he’s a great writer/reporter etc. For, my similarly uninformed and reactionary way of calling his credentials into question, I apologize. However, this was just a stinker of a piece and he owes the readers of The Washington Post a better report on what Vivek and OCTO are doing with the tech budget in DC. Please comment on that article if you feel this is important at all and/or comment here.  Your participation in this conversation is crutial to ensuring that a) the  media covers things more thoroughly and accurately and b) shody reporting doesn’t effect the healthy, growing culture of innovation in the District of Columbia.

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On September 11th, 2008 Vivek Kundra, CTO of Washington DC, asked iStrategyLabs how we could make their revolutionary open Data Catalog useful for the citizens, visitors, businesses and government agencies of DC. My response was:

“You can do one of two things. You can spend years and millions of dollars contracting this out to big consultancies - and you’ll end up spending twice what you thought you would and get half the quality you hoped for…which is what governments do now. Or, the other way is to have an innovation contest where we put the data in the hands of the people, and give them cash prizes and recognition for their efforts.”

This spark ignited what became a historic moment in democracy through technology innovation. I came back two days later with a proposal on how iStrategyLabs could create a new method for innovation in government through a contest called Hack the District - which was…let’s just say…a little over the top as a name - and was wisely renamed by Vivek and his team to Apps for Democracy. It’s such a better name looking back at it now!

So, armed with the perfect strategy for how to get this done, the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) was able to give iStrategyLabs a green light in 3 weeks time and the creative freedom to bring this to life IN SIX DAYS (Scott McCaughey is our godlike designer who pulled the site together in that short period of time).

This is the first and only client that has ever let us create an idea from scratch and bring it to life exactly as we dreamed it should be (eh hem…except the name).

What resulted is still sinking in:

• 47 applications were built in 30 days
• OCTO has estimated the value of these submissions at $2,000,000+ including external contracting costs and internal procurement time
• The cost to OCTO was $50,000 including prizes, marketing, management etc. representing an estimated 4,000% return on investment
• OCTO has estimated that it would have taken them 1-2 years to complete the procurement process and receive delivery of applications like these under their legacy procurement method
• iPhone apps, Facebook apps, web apps, mobile apps, maps mash-ups and a wiki were entered
• We awarded all medals except the 5th Agency Bronze as we there was not a suitable entry

We’re getting together with the OCTO next week to reflect and think about how Apps for Democracy lives on from here. Vivek’s quote from our press conference with Mayor Adrian Fenty is a small clue:

“While the immediate goal of the Applications for Democracy contest is to develop innovative software to present District data, its long-term goals are broader,” said District CTO Vivek Kundra. “By making government data easy for everyone to access and use, the District hopes to foster citizen participation in government, drive private-sector technology innovation and growth, and build a new model for government-private sector collaboration that can help all governments address the technology challenges of today and tomorrow.”

Videos of the full press conference is here

Thank you to every developer/designer/blogger/twitterer who pushed this effort forward! More to come soon…and if you’re thirsty for more here’s a ton of link-love for all those that wrote about Apps for Democracy:

[Washington Post][Mashable][O’Reilly][Washington Post][Programmable Web][SocialTimes][Mashable][Mashable][Gartner][Gartner][GovTech][GovTech][EastCoastBlogging][Michael Guo][Boalt][Jessie X][Development Seed][DeleteBlog][DelaWonk][PointAbout][PrinceOfPetworth][GovTech][Development Seed][MuniRef][PublicHealthMashup][GovTech][Drupal.lu][GovTech][Sunlight Foundation][Gartner][PITF][GISuser][GSIuser][HighEarthOrbit][NetworkMusing][Development Seed][EventBrite][ConsciousImages][DataMob][PSM2.0][eGov.AU][BenteKalsnesBlog][LivingintheDistrict][iStrategyLabs][MoblGlobl][ClearSpring][OatmealStout][PersonalDemocracyForum][OpenHouseProject][ITP@NYU][TechPresident][Boalt][Boalt][ImPublished][VoiceInGov][MacsimumNews][DCPiazza][HighEarthOrbit][IxDA][FreeGovInfo][Mashable][SocialTimes][eCoComa][Guy Dickinson][iPhone Tricks][OnApps08: 1, 2, 3, 4]

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