{
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    "title" : "Harnessing the Power of Many—DigitalGov Summit Recap |Digital.gov",
    "description": "Harnessing the Power of Many—DigitalGov Summit Recap",
    "home_page_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/","feed_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2014/06/03/harnessing-the-power-of-many-digitalgov-summit-panels-recap/index.json","item" : [
    {"title" :"Harnessing the Power of Many—DigitalGov Summit Recap","summary" : "At the DigitalGov Citizen Services Summit last Friday, Jacob Parcell, Manager, Mobile Programs at the General Services Administration led a panel on the challenges and benefits of Inter-Agency work. The other panels were on performance analysis, customer service across channels, and public private partnerships. “The challenges are real,” said Parcell, who quoted President Obama’s famous salmon","date" : "2014-06-03T15:14:11-04:00","date_modified" : "2025-01-27T19:42:55-05:00","authors" : {"alison-lemon" : "Alison Lemon"},"topics" : {
        
            "analytics" : "Analytics",
            "challenges-and-prize-competitions" : "Challenges and prize competitions",
            "content-strategy" : "Content strategy",
            "mobile" : "Mobile",
            "product-and-project-management" : "Product and project management",
            "social-media" : "Social media",
            "software-engineering" : "Software engineering",
            "user-experience" : "User experience"
            },"branch" : "bc-archive-content-3",
      "filename" :"2014-06-03-harnessing-the-power-of-many-digitalgov-summit-panels-recap.md",
      
      "filepath" :"news/2014/06/2014-06-03-harnessing-the-power-of-many-digitalgov-summit-panels-recap.md",
      "filepathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/blob/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2014/06/2014-06-03-harnessing-the-power-of-many-digitalgov-summit-panels-recap.md",
      "editpathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/edit/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2014/06/2014-06-03-harnessing-the-power-of-many-digitalgov-summit-panels-recap.md","slug" : "harnessing-the-power-of-many-digitalgov-summit-panels-recap","url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2014/06/03/harnessing-the-power-of-many-digitalgov-summit-panels-recap/","content" :"\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2014/06/600-x-370-Jacob-Parcell-Panel-4-Inter-Agency-Work-toni470-flickr-20140530_114324.jpg\"\n    alt=\"Jacob Parcell, GSA - Panel 4: Inter-Agency Work - Alec Permison, Census; Lakshmi Grama, NCI; Denice Shaw, EPA; Mike Pulsifer, DOL\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eAt the \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2014/05/30/digitalgov-citizen-services-summit-a-success/\"\u003eDigitalGov Citizen Services Summit\u003c/a\u003e last Friday, Jacob Parcell, Manager, Mobile Programs at the General Services Administration led a panel on the challenges and benefits of Inter-Agency work. The other panels were on \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2014/06/03/digitalgov-summit-panels-recap/\"\u003eperformance analysis\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2014/06/05/the-importance-of-cross-channel-customer-service-digitalgov-summit-recap/\" title=\"The Importance of Cross-Channel Customer Service—DigitalGov Summit Recap\"\u003ecustomer service across channels\u003c/a\u003e, and \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2014/06/05/overcoming-barriers-digitalgov-summit-recap/\" title=\"Overcoming Barriers—DigitalGov Summit Recap\"\u003epublic private partnerships\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“The challenges are real,” said Parcell, who quoted President Obama’s famous salmon quandary: “The Interior Department is in charge of salmon while they’re in fresh water, but the Commerce Department handles them when they’re in saltwater,” Obama said. “I hear it gets even more complicated once they’re smoked.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHowever, the benefits of Inter-Agency work can be enormous. The panel also tackled when to use a top-down versus a bottom-up approach and suggestions for improving inter-agency work.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLakshmi Grama\u003c/strong\u003e, Senior Digital Content Strategist at the \u003cstrong\u003eNational Cancer Institute\u003c/strong\u003e, knows this from her recent spearheading of a working group to create a content modeling solution. There was popular content all over government sites, from events to press releases. She knew it was not something that just one group could solve, so she harnessed the power of a 10 agency working group to produce two content models in just six months. “When people find value, they’ll work together.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAlec Permison\u003c/strong\u003e, Applications Manager, Census.gov, at the \u003cstrong\u003eU.S. Census Bureau\u003c/strong\u003e, works on apps that pull data from multiple agencies about things like employment and economic indicators. A major challenge is that agency data can be in a many different formats. “We want an app that’s slick, but that still ensures the quality of the data.” The end product allows citizens to access information directly, “without waiting to hear it in the news.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the agencies that is used to supplying information is the \u003cstrong\u003eDepartment of Labor\u003c/strong\u003e (DOL). \u003cstrong\u003eMike Pulsifer\u003c/strong\u003e, Lead IT Specialist at DOL said his agency has over 300 data sets that are public and available to developers. The have a commitment to using open source.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDenice Shaw\u003c/strong\u003e, Associate Chief Innovation Officer, Office of Research and Development, \u003cstrong\u003eEnvironmental Protection Agency\u003c/strong\u003e, knew the problem of nutrient pollution needed an unconventional solution. Many agencies needed the data, and although sensors existed to measure the problem, it was expensive to do so. However, by pulling together multiple stakeholders, including other agencies and academia they were able to lower the cost.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"top-down-approach-vs-a-bottom-up-approach\"\u003eTop-down approach vs. a bottom-up approach\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAccording to Parcell, both approaches can work. When you use a bottom-up approach, “if you can find the things people are interested, you can get more people involved.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGrama says “the top-down approach is familiar. The top might not know about the details, they are more interested in the end product.” She also sees a lot of Web and social media folks using a bottom-up approach to figuring things out. The challenge is to articulate why it’s important to top management.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"improving-inter-agency-work\"\u003eImproving inter-agency work\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat can we do improve the quality of inter-agency work? Grama thinks it would be beneficial for government workers to carve out time specifically to think about innovation.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAgencies can also strive to think beyond their silos, since ultimately we work for the taxpayer. If you do work for another agency, “the taxpayer benefits even if your own agency doesn’t see the direct benefit,” said Pulsifer.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat has been your experience with inter-agency work?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAlison Lemon\u003c/strong\u003e is a \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/authors/alison-lemon/\"\u003eKnowledge Manager for the SocialGov Community\u003c/a\u003e and a Senior Analyst for Social Media with the \u003cstrong\u003eFDA’s Office of Women’s Health\u003c/strong\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThanks to our special Summit blogger, Alison, who took up the Open Opportunities challenge. You can \u003ca href=\"http://gsablogs.gsa.gov/dsic/category/open-opportunities/\"\u003efind more opportunities to participate\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n"}
  ]
}