Innovation

He goes by many names. By some he is called the federal government’s tech entrepreneur in residence. To others, he is the chief technology officer of the United States. And yet sometimes he goes simply by Park, Todd Park (you know, like Bond). He's the guy who, this past weekend, spoke about hacking government data to use it in ways the government itself may never otherwise consider. Read More »

A federal prize competition launched today is calling for innovative ideas for rapid, point-of-care laboratory diagnostic tests to combat the development and spread of drug resistant bacteria, a rising public health threat. Antibiotic resistant bacteria cause at least 2 million infections and 23,000 deaths each year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Antimicrobial Resistance Diagnostic Challenge will award $20 million in prizes over all phases of the competition for new, innovative and novel laboratory diagnostic tests...

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One aspect of the feds' new Open Data Policy presents both an opportunity and a challenge. It specifically calls for improved interoperability as a way to advance open data implementation. "Right now, standards setting for interoperability seems to be nobody's job -- and the federal government has the opportunity to take the lead here," said Hudson Hollister of the Data Transparency Coalition. Read More »

Todd Park's job is to unleash the power of innovation inside the oh-so change-resistant walls of government, and he appears to love it. Read More »

Nearly four months after issuing a draft policy to release most — if not all — code produced by government agencies as open source, the Office of Management and Budget dropped the final mandate on Aug. 8. The use of open source code for federal projects has been a major push from the administration over the last couple years and the new policy shows an effort for the government to abide by the same standards they espouse...

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The U.S. spends $13 billion a year subsidizing graduate medical education. Yet almost all of this money winds up producing the wrong kinds of doctors in the wrong places, with America’s most elite teaching hospitals being the worst offenders. Read More »

Open source hardware is increasingly making the news, as Ford partners with Bug Labs to “advance in-car connectivity innovation”, thousands of US Radio Shack stores start stocking Arduino, and Facebook releases the plans for energy-efficient data centre technology via Open Compute. But could it change the world? Andrew Back takes a look at five projects which just might...