The White House announced it plans to introduce the inaugural members of its Presidential Innovation Fellows program in a ceremony Aug. 23, at 10 a.m. (EDT) that will be streamed live on WhiteHouse.gov/live.
“This new initiative is bringing in top innovators from outside government to work with top innovators inside government to create real and substantial changes that will in a very short time frame benefit the American people, save taxpayers money, and help create new jobs,” said U.S. Chief Technology Officer, Todd Park.
According to Park, the program received nearly 700 applications after it was announced at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York City, May 23, at which Park, along with Federal Chief Information Officer Steve VanRoekel, called for America’s brightest minds to “drop everything you were doing and come serve your country.”
The program was designed to concentrate the talent of individuals from the private sector on specific needs in government for limited bursts of development time. The five major projects the fellows will begin working on, according to Park, include:
• MyGov (@ProjectMyGov) will create a rapid prototype of a streamlined online system that citizens will be able to use to easily access the information and services that are right for them from across the federal government.
• Open Data Initiatives (@ProjectOpenData) will accelerate and expand our efforts to make government data more publicly accessible in “computer-readable” form and spur the use of those data by entrepreneurs as fuel for the creation of new products, services, and jobs.
• The 20% Initiative (@ProjectTwenty) will work to transition “the last mile” of international development assistance payments from cash to electronic methods — lowering administrative costs, promoting financial inclusion, and reducing theft, fraud, and violence.
• RFP-EZ (@ProjectRFPEZ) will develop a new process and online marketplace that will make it vastly easier for the government and small high-growth tech startups to do business with each other, effectively opening up the government market to these startups as never before and enabling the government to buy better, lower-cost tech solutions from the full range of American businesses.
• Blue Button for America (@ProjectBlueBtn) will spread the ability for millions of Americans to easily and securely download their own health information electronically, empowering them to take that information with them should they change insurer or provider and share it with their loved ones or doctors if they choose, all while fueling the emergence of time-saving, money-saving, and even life-saving products and the businesses and jobs that those products will support.
Joining Park and VanRoekel in the announcement will be Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget Jeff Zients and Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management John Berry.
Park will also host a White House Office Hours session on Twitter at 5 p.m. EDT to discuss the launch of the Presidential Innovation Fellows and the projects they will be pursuing. Participants will be able to ask questions prior to and during the live event on Twitter with the hashtag #WHChat and follow the question and answer session live through the @WHLive and @WhiteHouseOSTP Twitter accounts.
The full session of the announcement will be posted on WhiteHouse.gov and Storify.com/Whitehouse. Twitter subscribers can following the morning announcement using the hashtag #innovategov.