A new open-source community promoting data-driven insights in government

The Department of Commerce’s Tech Hubs program, a key initiative supported by the CHIPS and Science Act, aims to bolster federal research and innovation in emerging technologies, especially in areas outside major cities. Senior Biden administration officials discussed the program’s impact during a call announcing 12 new initiatives that will receive funding. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo emphasized the need to decentralize the tech ecosystem, noting that 90% of new tech jobs have been concentrated in just five cities over the past two decades. Key focus areas for these Tech Hubs include uncrewed aerial systems, IT, semiconductors, high-performance materials, and grid resilience systems. Among the recent grant recipients are the Elevate Quantum TechFund in Colorado and the Wisconsin Biohealth TechHub.

In other news, the General Services Administration (GSA) has announced a request for proposals for the Alliant 3 Governmentwide Acquisition Contract, notable for its unprecedented no-ceiling dollar amount. This contract seeks to cover a broad range of IT services, including AI, biometrics, quantum computing, and more, with a focus on emerging technologies.

And, in this week’s featured interview: Greg Godbout and Noah Kunin, former leaders of the GSA’s 18F digital team and Technology Transformation Services, among other things, join Daily Scoop Podcast host Billy Mitchell to discuss their new initiative, info2insight — a new open-source community of civil servants, private-sector technologists, and academics meant to encourage government to embrace data-driven decisions and accelerate the adoption of data analytics in governance. They share why they’ve launched info2insight, the purpose of keeping it open source and what they hope to accomplish with the initiative.

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