About this Series:
In the coming months, I’ll be sharing a total of ten lists of ideas for things we need to do now to ensure that our digital future delivers on its promises of innovation, equity, and a better quality of life for everyone. It’s not too late to fix the mistakes of the past and create a firm foundation for the years ahead, but our prosperity and well-being at every level of American society will depend on confronting these challenges and taking meaningful action.
Develop 21st Century Government and Public Works Programs
Newfangled technology alone will not guarantee…
To better serve communities, we need tech that does more than dazzle
By Harish Rao, Founder & CEO Interpersonal Frequency
Our daily lives are increasingly saturated by technology that is almost magical. With our near-ubiquitous pocket computers, we can navigate confidently, connect constantly, and buy our heart’s desire with a single tap. We can ask a question to an empty room and get an instant answer. With so much made possible so easily, shouldn’t our government interactions be better by now?
When we measure the performance of government websites and digital experiences, we focus on user success: was the user able to complete the purpose of their visit? This reveals volumes about…
We can address racial inequality right now if we reimagine digital services
As of now, the standard operating procedure for getting a coronavirus vaccine across the entire country is some variation of this:
- Log on to a website.
- Cross your fingers.
- Take any appointment you can get. No times left? Rinse and repeat.
So is it really any wonder that vaccination rates in black and brown communities are lagging? The baseline tech for scheduling appointments makes assumptions that are completely out of touch with the reality of older, minority, and impoverished Americans.
FEMA is working to counter this with mobile vaccination units and community outreach, but those efforts are band-aids on top…
By Harish Rao, Founder & CEO Interpersonal Frequency
About this Series:
In the coming months, I’ll be sharing a total of ten lists of ideas for things we need to do now to ensure that our digital future delivers on its promises of more and better access for all and services that will support innovation, equity, and a better quality of life. It’s not too late to fix the mistakes of the past and create a firm foundation for the years ahead, but our prosperity and well-being at every level of American society will depend on confronting these challenges and taking meaningful action.
Provide More and Better Tech Services
…
When We Stop Treating Online Accessibility as an Afterthought, We’ll All Benefit
By Harish Rao, Founder & CEO Interpersonal Frequency
When we talk about accessibility with our clients, we use a parable of sorts. It’s the story of a New York City public library that opened in Queens in 2019, a $41.5 million building that was initially hailed as an architectural triumph. But within days of its soft opening, critics were singing a different tune. Angry social media posts started calling out what had somehow slipped through the cracks of the planning process: the building was incredibly inaccessible. Tiered book…
By Harish Rao, Founder & CEO Interpersonal Frequency
About this Series:
In the coming months, I’ll be sharing ten lists of ideas for things we need to do now to ensure that our digital future meets the challenges and possibilities that lie ahead. It’s not too late to fix the mistakes of the past and create a firm foundation for the years ahead, but our prosperity and well-being at every level of American society will depend on confronting these challenges and taking meaningful action.
Improve Equity of Access
Most of us have increasingly turned to online access when it comes to interacting with our government at all…
It’s time to reboot and upgrade our digital infrastructure
By Harish Rao, Founder & CEO Interpersonal Frequency
There’s almost nothing that we don’t transact online these days. We pay our bills, order our dinners, go on dates, file our taxes, and so much more. And we count on the fact that we can do it so efficiently and safely. It’s a false sense of security, particularly when it comes to digital government.
You wouldn’t drive across a crumbling bridge on the verge of collapse, hanging from frayed suspension wires just a jolt away from snapping. But you’re doing the digital…
By Harish Rao, Founder & CEO Interpersonal Frequency
Shaping our Digital Future Part I: Fund Digital Infrastructure
About this Series:
In the coming months, I’ll be sharing ten lists of ideas for things we need to do now to ensure that our digital future is as bright and booming as possible. It’s not too late to fix the mistakes of the past and create a firm foundation for the years ahead, but our prosperity and well-being at every level of American society will depend on confronting these challenges and taking meaningful action.
Fund Digital Infrastructure
Our nation’s digital infrastructure is outdated…
The Origins of Dysfunction in Online Government Services and the Road to a Cure
By Harish Rao, Founder & CEO Interpersonal Frequency
A couple of months ago, I gave a keynote address at Drupal GovCon 2020, a virtual gathering for developers and managers of government websites. In that address, I shared a shocking statistic derived from the data our company, Interpersonal Frequency, gathered from roughly 15 million government and municipal website users across the country. Nearly one out of three visitors to government websites fails to complete the purpose of their visit.
Not surprisingly, users’ failure rates went up even…
By Harish Rao, Founder & CEO Interpersonal Frequency
The tech giants say it all the time: The future is digital, and moreover, that future is now. If there were ever any doubt that the digital future has arrived, the Covid-19 pandemic has thoroughly erased it. Overnight, government services we used to stand in line or drive across town to access had to find ways to reach us right in our living rooms or on our mobile phones. …
