Zachary Bastian

Author: Zach Bastian

Study Director: Lea Shanley
Editor: Aaron Lovell

Hackathons offer an opportunity to achieve innovation-oriented goals with limited resources, but require careful planning and organizational commitment to sustain engagement over the long term. This brief provides an overview of hackathons and offers strategies from previous successful events.

Authors: Young, J., Wald, D., Earle, P., and Shanley, L.
Study Director: Lea Shanley
Editors: Aaron Lovell and Zack Bastian.

Recently, agencies charged with monitoring earthquakes around the globe, including the U.S. Geological Survey, have begun to ask how citizens might best contribute to the monitoring of and response to earthquakes. Such contributions, broadly termed citizen seismology, have shown the potential to augment more traditional forms of earthquake science. Citizen… Show more

Authors: Young, J., Wald, D., Earle, P., and Shanley, L.
Study Director: Lea Shanley
Editors: Aaron Lovell and Zack Bastian.

Recently, agencies charged with monitoring earthquakes around the globe, including the U.S. Geological Survey, have begun to ask how citizens might best contribute to the monitoring of and response to earthquakes. Such contributions, broadly termed citizen seismology, have shown the potential to augment more traditional forms of earthquake science. Citizen seismology has the potential to greatly enhance emergency response to earthquakes. Citizens are more likely to survive earthquakes if they are armed with knowledge, and first responders can more effectively aid these survivors when on-the-ground, citizen-generated information is readily available. More broadly, citizen seismology is advancing earthquake science, because it allows scientists to collect data about earthquakes even in locations where sensors are sparse or even absent altogether. Show less

Authors: Reidenberg, J., Gellman, R., Debelack, J., Elewa, A., Liu, N.
Co-Study Director: Lea Shanley
Editors: Aaron Lovell and Zach Bastian

Identifying individuals caught up in major natural disasters and reconnecting them to their families and communities is a challenging task. Earthquakes can destroy communications infrastructure. Floods can inundate storehouses of official records. Planners rarely know where and when a disaster will strike. After a disaster strikes, those who… Show more

Authors: Reidenberg, J., Gellman, R., Debelack, J., Elewa, A., Liu, N.
Co-Study Director: Lea Shanley
Editors: Aaron Lovell and Zach Bastian

Identifying individuals caught up in major natural disasters and reconnecting them to their families and communities is a challenging task. Earthquakes can destroy communications infrastructure. Floods can inundate storehouses of official records. Planners rarely know where and when a disaster will strike. After a disaster strikes, those who can do so flee. Those who cannot may be hidden in debris and seriously injured or worse. Access to the disaster zone may be difficult for days or weeks. The position may change from hour to hour. Many further challenges could be listed. Individuals believed to be in a disaster zone may be listed as missing. People on the list may later be discovered alive or be positively identified as deceased. Some may never be found. It may be an understatement to say the task of assembling and maintaining reliable information about missing people in the wake of a major disaster is difficult. However, it is essential in the cause of common humanity. The first response to a major natural disaster must be to save life without regard to who the victims are. But any well-organized response must quickly take steps to seek to identify the missing. Show less

Authors: Reidenberg, J., Gellman, R., Debelack, J., Elewa, A., Liu, N.
Co-Study Director: Lea Shanley
Editors: Aaron Lovell and Zach Bastian

Identifying individuals caught up in major natural disasters and reconnecting them to their families and communities is a challenging task. Earthquakes can destroy communications infrastructure. Floods can inundate storehouses of official records. Planners rarely know where and when a disaster will strike. After a disaster strikes, those who… Show more

Authors: Reidenberg, J., Gellman, R., Debelack, J., Elewa, A., Liu, N.
Co-Study Director: Lea Shanley
Editors: Aaron Lovell and Zach Bastian

Identifying individuals caught up in major natural disasters and reconnecting them to their families and communities is a challenging task. Earthquakes can destroy communications infrastructure. Floods can inundate storehouses of official records. Planners rarely know where and when a disaster will strike. After a disaster strikes, those who can do so flee. Those who cannot may be hidden in debris and seriously injured or worse. Access to the disaster zone may be difficult for days or weeks. The position may change from hour to hour. Many further challenges could be listed. Individuals believed to be in a disaster zone may be listed as missing. People on the list may later be discovered alive or be positively identified as deceased. Some may never be found. It may be an understatement to say the task of assembling and maintaining reliable information about missing people in the wake of a major disaster is difficult. However, it is essential in the cause of common humanity. The first response to a major natural disaster must be to save life without regard to who the victims are. But any well-organized response must quickly take steps to seek to identify the missing. Show less

Emerging technologies are often accompanied by claims that they have revolutionized crisis management. A closer look at these technologies shows that the process has been uneven and hindered by social, institutional, and legal barriers. These new technologies also suggest that new roles and responsibilities should be elucidated – for institutional crisis responders, new volunteer groups, and the public.This paper maps out this changing landscape and discusses some of the legal and policy… Show more

Emerging technologies are often accompanied by claims that they have revolutionized crisis management. A closer look at these technologies shows that the process has been uneven and hindered by social, institutional, and legal barriers. These new technologies also suggest that new roles and responsibilities should be elucidated – for institutional crisis responders, new volunteer groups, and the public.This paper maps out this changing landscape and discusses some of the legal and policy challenges it introduces. It touches on new ethical dilemmas and suggests areas for future research and political change. Accepted, to be published October 2013.
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As the world has become dependent on information technology (IT), so has the federal government
and its constituencies. Leveraged effectively, technical tools can engage the public, create cost
savings, and improve outcomes. These benefits are obscured by regular reminders that federal IT is
fundamentally flawed. It is too big to succeed.

For IT to become sustainable, the federal government must enable change in three areas: (a) embracing agile development, modular contracting… Show more

As the world has become dependent on information technology (IT), so has the federal government
and its constituencies. Leveraged effectively, technical tools can engage the public, create cost
savings, and improve outcomes. These benefits are obscured by regular reminders that federal IT is
fundamentally flawed. It is too big to succeed.

For IT to become sustainable, the federal government must enable change in three areas: (a) embracing agile development, modular contracting, and open-source software; (b) encouraging small business participation; and (c) shifting the federal IT culture through education and experimentation. The adoption of these reforms is vital. The current state of federal IT undermines good work because of its inefficiency and waste. Show less

Authors: Zachary Bastian, Commons Lab, and Michael Byrne, FCC

Editors: Lea Shanley and Aaron Lovell

The National Broadband Map, designed to provide consumers nationwide reliable information on broadband internet connections, was built incorporating emerging technology. It protects consumers, holds the government and private sector accountable, and engages the public across the United States. In a time of budgetary constraint, the Map made a series of remarkable policy innovations… Show more

Authors: Zachary Bastian, Commons Lab, and Michael Byrne, FCC

Editors: Lea Shanley and Aaron Lovell

The National Broadband Map, designed to provide consumers nationwide reliable information on broadband internet connections, was built incorporating emerging technology. It protects consumers, holds the government and private sector accountable, and engages the public across the United States. In a time of budgetary constraint, the Map made a series of remarkable policy innovations that allowed the project to be completed in minimal time and at a reduced cost.

The public was engaged before, during, and after the project. Citizens generated speed testing data. They provided comments and feedback on improving internet connectivity. They used a National Broadband Map crowdsource utility to let the FCC know whether the information they posted was accurate. The data collected is open, freely available to anyone. The application itself was built using open-source software unchained by licensing fees, enhancing its flexibility and accessibility. The development process broke from traditional government procurement, and programmers regularly communicated with users to better understand the needs of the project: this avoided cost overruns and unused features.

The incorporation of geographic information systems allows users to learn of broadband internet options in their area, and policymakers to identify geographic gaps in service needing support. This combination of techniques created a flexible resource that has already guided appropriations through the Connect America Fund. It continues to be applied to other communications challenges such as mobile broadband connectivity. The National Broadband Map demonstrates there is room for agencies to innovate and promotes a national conversation on how to improve government outcomes in the 21st century. Show less