White House Fellows Program Looks to Solve Gov’t Tech Problems with Private Sector Assistance

As part of the White House’s recently released digital government strategy, a new Presidential Innovation Fellows
program has been created. The program brings in 15 innovators from outside government who provide expertise on projects, particularly those that are technology related. Tom Fox, vice president for leadership and innovation at
the Partnership for Public Service sat down with Chris Dorobek of the DorobekINSIDER about the program and the keys to its success.

The Entrepreneurs in Residence Programis the original launching pad for the Presidential Innovation Fellows program. The model created by that program takes innovators in government and pairs them with private/nonprofit sector individuals; the government innovators then work with private sector workers to solve government problems that it hasn’t been able to solve on its own. There are already a couple of examples of successes here, one being Visa’s for entrepreneurs.

However, it’s important not to assume that private and nonprofit sector individuals can just parachute into government and fix things. Government has its own language, and does a lot that most people may not be aware of. Because government has a different way of doing things, it’s important to give an on-boarding to the private sector workers about what government functions. The private sector and government sector workers need to have common ground to build off of.

To listen to Tom Fox’s entire interview, you can catch the full radio show at 
GovLoop Insights or you can
 subscribe to our iTunes channel.