Government Innovation Quotes

The U.S. government doesn't build your computers, nor do you fly aboard a U.S. government owned and operated airline. Private industry routinely takes technologies pioneered by the government and turns them into cheap, reliable and robust industries. This has happened in aviation, air mail, computers, and the Internet.

The most powerful recent innovation in government is when states aggressively use community colleges for retraining. In Michigan, where large numbers of workers were displaced from the manufacturing industry, we created a wildly successful program: No Worker Left Behind.

If we're the country that makes Amazon and Facebook and Twitter, why can't the federal government have websites and digital services that are awesome?

Americans invented not simply a new form of government but an entirely new concept of politics.

In the U.S., we fundamentally need to do new things, which I think is harder for the government to do. And moreover, it is not something our government actually is inclined to particularly do.

In a vast & huge country like India, e-governance is the only way for effective delivery unto the last.

The State …is a key partner of the private sector—and often a more daring one, willing to take the risks that business won’t. …An entrepreneurial state … operates boldly and effectively to make things happen. Indeed, when not confident, it is more likely that the State will get ‘captured’ and bow to private interests [and become] a poor imitator of private sector behaviors, rather than a real alternative

Innovators reimagine our world in so many areas. We need them to help reimagine what government can and should be.

Not only is it possible to do lean startup in federal government, but it's the most effective way to drive change in the federal government.

What we should be asking is not whether we need a big government or small government, but how we can create a smarter and better government.

We live in a nation where, when New Jersey figures out how to do something and does it well, and shows progress, it affects other states.

Obama was the first American president to see technology as an engine to improve lives and accelerate society more quickly than any government body could.

I think that's actually what's missing from government, for the most part. We've got a lot of policy people, but we have no technologists, even though technology is such a big part of our lives. It's just amazing, because even these big Silicon Valley companies, the masters of the universe or whatever, haven't engaged with Washington until recently. They're still playing catch-up.

I mean, look, the government is not a startup obviously. But projects to change government I think are best thought of as startups.

As a government leader, I'm not going to sit on the sidelines and watch all these other sectors innovate. I'm going to do everything I can as a leader to be in that innovation, to be a provocateur for that innovation.

Almost every great innovation was [created] by government.

The government of India is consistently very advanced. When the world was hesitant on UNIX, we were the first to move in; the RBI said that all banks will implement on UNIX. It worked!

Barack Obama was a president who understood not only how technology could transform the way government services worked but also technology itself. He got it.

Even among the elite, in government circles, technological culture is somewhat deficient.

A Midwestern municipal government isn't the first thing that leaps to mind when you think of innovation, but it ought to be.

It turns out that in the federal government, there are a lot of innovators.

Everything that you are taking advantage of, inventing and using, is still a generation or two behind when it comes to the U.S. government.

Founders Den provides the kind of collaborative and creative atmosphere to foster new ideas not only for emerging new businesses, but government as well.

If there's one thing government needs desperately, it's the ability to quickly try something, pivot when necessary, and build complex systems by starting with simple systems that work and evolving from there, not the other way around.

A lot of my energy is going to Code for America, Jen Pahlka's non-profit startup. We're doing a lot of great work teaching government how to apply technology and changing the culture of government.