

Govtech – A $23M Venture Fund for civic tech companies - ondrae
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/09/15/a-23-million-venture-fund-for-the-government-tech-set/

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Iftheshoefits
I'm perpetually amused at the naive optimism and latent arrogance that infuses
the notion that government technology is outdated because of (in)competence or
bureaucracy. The root of the problems with government technology, at basically
any level, is that government technology is procured by a system run by
politicians (or bureaucrats who are appointed by politicians, many of whom
have their own political ambitions or agenda). It has almost nothing to do
with a lack of competence or supply of capable and otherwise willing companies
to tackle the problems.

The nightmarish process of getting government contracts is a feature of this
system; not a bug that politicians are going to willingly or easily part with.
It's part and parcel of the machinery that allows them to bring home the
bacon, as it were.

Contracting for government, at any level, is almost always more about who you
know, how long you've known them, and (or) how much money you already have to
throw at officials' bank accounts/campaigns. So, I hope the fund investors
understand that the problems to be solved in this space are more about
lobbying and networking than about doing anything that's actually IT related.

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mtbcoder
I agree with you completely, however the article does say:

"Bouganim says that he and his investors are looking to pour funds into
companies that demonstrated that they know how to work with government,
whether that's understanding how to slide under the procurement limits that
trigger mounds of paperwork or make use of cloud computing in a way that works
within government's often-strict security requirements.

So it seems as if they are looking to invest in companies that have already
made it into the walled garden of government contracting.

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jMyles
I get the feeling that this is an unpopular opinion here, but this kind of
thing just rubs me the wrong way. It feels like a different face for
corporatocracy. In my heart, I just want the government to do less. And I want
the rest of us to do more.

Perhaps this is just a cynical view from an American life, but I don't think
of myself as a cynic. I feel very optimistic. Nevertheless, I don't trust
government actors and I do find that, inevitably, government motivation is
different from true civic motivation.

On the other hand, I much more OK with local governments trying out big
projects, so maybe this (and other ventures like it) will turn out OK.

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maceo
This is not a "civic tech" fund. This is a fund for companies that are looking
for profit from government contracts.

Civic tech encourages citizen engagement. This does nothing of that nature.

This is just a fund for companies and investors looking to make a profit off
of our tax dollars. The article leaves a foul taste in my mouth. These people
are no more pro-citizen than Northrop and Boeing.

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ThomPete
Last successful outcome of such a relationship between governmental needs and
technology was Silicon Valley and before that DARPA leading to the internet
and CERN leading to HTML.

I believe the government should be as small as possible but disagree that this
as bad as some of the other commenters seem to think.

