So a couple of years ago I started a program to try to get the rockstar tech and design people to take a year off and work in the one environment that represents pretty much everything they're supposed to hate; we have them work in government. The program is called Code for America, and it's a little bit like a Peace Corps for geeks. We select a few fellows every year and we have them work with city governments. Instead of sending them off into the Third World, we send them into the wilds of City Hall. And there they make great apps, they work with city staffers. But really what they're doing is they're showing what's possible with technology today.
Ilang taon na ang nakakaraan nang inumpisahan ko ang isang programa na hinihikayat ang ilang sikat na tao sa larangan ng teknolohiya at disenyo upang liban ang kanilang trabaho ng isang taon at magtrabaho sa isang kapaligiran na kanilang kinasusuklaman sa bawat aspeto: pinagtatrabaho namin sila sa gobyerno. Ang programa ay tinatawag na Code for America, at tulad ng Peace Corps para sa mga geeks. Namili kami ng ilang kasapi kada taon at pinagtatrabaho namin sila sa mga pamahalaang panlunsod. Sa halip na ipatapon sila sa Third World, pinadala namin sila sa mga kagubatan ng City Hall. At doon sila gumagawa ng magagandang apps, at nagtatrabaho kasama ang mga kawani ng lungsod. Ngunit ang tunay nilang layunin ay ang ipakita ang lahat ng posible gamit ang teknolohiya ngayon.
So meet Al. Al is a fire hydrant in the city of Boston. Here it kind of looks like he's looking for a date, but what he's really looking for is for someone to shovel him out when he gets snowed in, because he knows he's not very good at fighting fires when he's covered in four feet of snow. Now how did he come to be looking for help in this very unique manner? We had a team of fellows in Boston last year through the Code for America program. They were there in February, and it snowed a lot in February last year. And they noticed that the city never gets to digging out these fire hydrants. But one fellow in particular, a guy named Erik Michaels-Ober, noticed something else, and that's that citizens are shoveling out sidewalks right in front of these things. So he did what any good developer would do, he wrote an app.
Ipinakilala ko si Al. Si Al ay isang fire hydrant sa siyudad ng Boston. Dito ay mukhang naghahanap siya ng ka-date, pero ang talagang hinananap niya ang isang taong magtatanggal ng niyebe tuwing taglamig, dahil hindi siya magagamit sa pag-apula ng apoy kung natatabunan ito ng niyebeng may apat na talampakan ang lalim. Kaya paano siya nakapaghanap ng tulong sa ganitong kakaibang paraan? Meron kaming mga kasapi sa Boston noong nakaraang taon sa Code for America. Nandunn sila noong Pebrero, at umulan ng maraming niyebe ng mga ilang buwan. Napansin nila na hindi tinatanggal ng mga taga-Boston ang mga niyebe sa mga hydrant sa kanilang lugar. Isa sa mga kasamahan namin, si Erik Michaels-Ober, may napansin siya, na tinatanggal naman ng mga taga-Boston ang niyebe sa sidewalk sa harapan ng mga hydrant. Kaya gumawa siya ng aksyon na sasang-ayon ang sinumang developer, at gumawa siya ng app.
It's a cute little app where you can adopt a fire hydrant. So you agree to dig it out when it snows. If you do, you get to name it, and he called the first one Al. And if you don't, someone can steal it from you. So it's got cute little game dynamics on it. This is a modest little app. It's probably the smallest of the 21 apps that the fellows wrote last year. But it's doing something that no other government technology does. It's spreading virally.
Ito'y cute at maliit na app kung saan makakapag-adopt ka ng fire hydrant. Kung sakaling magka-niyebe, ikaw ang magtatanggal nito. Kung gagawin mo ito, ikaw ang magpapangalan sa hydrant, at ang pinakauna ay tinawag niyang Al. Kung hindi mo siya gagawin, may ibang magnanakaw nito sa'yo. Hindi ba cute ang game dynamics nito. Maliit lang ang app na ito. Ito marahil ang pinakamaliit sa 21 app na ginawa namin noong nakaraang taon. Ngunit may katangian ito na wala ang ibang teknolohiyang ginagamit gobyerno. Iyon ay ang paglaganap nang mabilis, virally kung tawagin.
There's a guy in the I.T. department of the City of Honolulu who saw this app and realized that he could use it, not for snow, but to get citizens to adopt tsunami sirens. It's very important that these tsunami sirens work, but people steal the batteries out of them. So he's getting citizens to check on them. And then Seattle decided to use it to get citizens to clear out clogged storm drains. And Chicago just rolled it out to get people to sign up to shovel sidewalks when it snows. So we now know of nine cities that are planning to use this. And this has spread just frictionlessly, organically, naturally.
Halimbawa, sa I.T. department ng Lungsod ng Honolulu may nakakita ng app na ito at naisip niya na gamitin ito, hindi para sa niyebe, kun'di para makapag-adopt ang mga mamamayan ng tsunami siren. Mahalaga na gumagana ang mga tsunami siren, pero madalas ninanakaw ang mga baterya nito. Kaya ang mga taga-doon mismo ang titingin sa mga ito. At ginamit din ito ng Seattle para tanggalin ang mga nakabara sa drainage. Ginaya din ito sa Chicago para magtanggal ng niyebe sa mga sidewalk. Sa ngayon may siyam na siyudad na may balak gamitin ito. At napakabilis ng paglaganap nito, napaka-natural ika nga.
If you know anything about government technology, you know that this isn't how it normally goes. Procuring software usually takes a couple of years. We had a team that worked on a project in Boston last year that took three people about two and a half months. It was a way that parents could figure out which were the right public schools for their kids. We were told afterward that if that had gone through normal channels, it would have taken at least two years and it would have cost about two million dollars. And that's nothing. There is one project in the California court system right now that so far cost taxpayers two billion dollars, and it doesn't work. And there are projects like this at every level of government.
Kung may naririnig ka man tungkol sa teknolohiyang gamit ng gobyerno, alam mong hindi ito madalas mangyari. Umaabot ng ilang taon ang pagkuha ng software. Sa Boston, may pangkat kami noong isang taon sa isang proyekto na may tatlong tao lang sa loob ng dalawa at kalahating buwan. Ang proyekto ay para sa mga magulang doon upang matukoy ang pinaka-angkop na pampublikong paaralan para sa kanilang mga anak. Nasabi na sa amin na ang normal na prosesong ito ay aabutin ng halos dalawang taon at gagastos ng dalawang milyong dolyar. At maliit pa ang halagang 'yan. Isang proyekto para sa mga korte ng California ay nagkakahalaga ng dalawang bilyong dolyar at hindi pa iyon epektibo. At marami pang proyektong gaya nito sa bawat sulok ng pamahalaan.
So an app that takes a couple of days to write and then spreads virally, that's sort of a shot across the bow to the institution of government. It suggests how government could work better -- not more like a private company, as many people think it should. And not even like a tech company, but more like the Internet itself. And that means permissionless, it means open, it means generative. And that's important. But what's more important about this app is that it represents how a new generation is tackling the problem of government -- not as the problem of an ossified institution, but as a problem of collective action. And that's great news, because, it turns out, we're very good at collective action with digital technology.
Kaya ang app na ginawa sa loob ng ilang araw at lumaganap ng mabilis, iyan ay parang malaking sampal sa mga institusyon ng gobyerno. Mensahe ito na maaring maging mas epektibo ang gobyerno -- hindi sa paraan ng mga pribadong kompanya, gaya ng iniisip ng maraming tao. At hindi rin tulad ng isang tech company, kundi kagaya ng Internet mismo. Ibig sabihin, malaya, bukas, nakakalikha. At lahat ng 'yan ay mahalaga. Ngunit ang mas mahalaga sa app na'to ay ang paraan kung paano tinutugan ng bagong henerasyon ang problema ng gobyerno -- hindi bilang suliranin ng isang institusyon, kundi bilang suliranin ng pamayanan. At iyan ay magandang balita, dahil alam natin na magaling tayo sa sama-samang pag-aksyon gamit ang teknolohiyang digital.
Now there's a very large community of people that are building the tools that we need to do things together effectively. It's not just Code for America fellows, there are hundreds of people all over the country that are standing and writing civic apps every day in their own communities. They haven't given up on government. They are frustrated as hell with it, but they're not complaining about it, they're fixing it. And these folks know something that we've lost sight of. And that's that when you strip away all your feelings about politics and the line at the DMV and all those other things that we're really mad about, government is, at its core, in the words of Tim O'Reilly, "What we do together that we can't do alone."
May malaking sangay ng komunidad na gumagawa ng mga kagamitang gaya nito upang mas maging mabisa ang ating sama-samang pagkilos. Hindi lang Code for America ang gumagawa nito, may daan-daan katao sa buong bansa ang gumagawa ng mga app pang-sibiko bawat araw sa kani-kanilang komunidad. Hindi pa sila sumusuko sa ideya ng gobyerno. Galit at pagod na sila dito, oo, pero hindi sila nagrereklamo, bagkus gusto nila itong ayusin. Alam nila ang isang bagay na matagal na nating nakalimutan. Kung tatanggalin mo ang iyong nararamdaman tungkol sa pulitika, DMV at lahat ng bagay na kinasusuklaman natin, ang pamahalaan, sa tunay na kahulugan ng salita, ayon kay Tim O'Reilly, ay "Ang magagawa natin nang magkasama na hindi natin magagawang mag-isa."
Now a lot of people have given up on government. And if you're one of those people, I would ask that you reconsider, because things are changing. Politics is not changing; government is changing. And because government ultimately derives its power from us -- remember "We the people?" -- how we think about it is going to effect how that change happens.
Sa ngayon maraming tao na ang sumuko na sa gobyerno. At kung isa ka sa kanila, gusto ko sanang tingnan mo ito ulit, dahil may pagbabagong nagaganap. Hindi politika ang nagbabago; ang gobyerno ang nagbabago: Dahil nagmumula sa atin ang kapangyarihan ng isang pamahalaan -- natandaan mo ba, "We the people?" -- kung ano ang tingin natin dito ay nakakaapekto sa nagaganap na pagbabago.
Now I didn't know very much about government when I started this program. And like a lot of people, I thought government was basically about getting people elected to office. Well after two years, I've come to the conclusion that, especially local government, is about opossums.
Bago nagsimula ang proyektong ito, wala akong gaanong alam tungkol sa gobyerno. Gaya ng marami sa atin, akala ko ang gobyerno ay tungkol sa paghalal ng mga tao sa pwesto. Matapos ang dalawang taon, napagtanto ko na, lalo na sa lokal na pamahalaan, ito ay tungkol sa mga opossum.
This is the call center for the services and information line. It's generally where you will get if you call 311 in your city. If you should ever have the chance to staff your city's call center, as our fellow Scott Silverman did as part of the program -- in fact, they all do that -- you will find that people call government with a very wide range of issues, including having an opossum stuck in your house. So Scott gets this call. He types "Opossum" into this official knowledge base. He doesn't really come up with anything. He starts with animal control. And finally, he says, "Look, can you just open all the doors to your house and play music really loud and see if the thing leaves?" So that worked. So booya for Scott. But that wasn't the end of the opossums.
Ito ang call center para sa serbisyo at impormasyong pampubliko. Dito dumadaan ang tawag kapag pinindot mo ang 311 sa inyong lugar. Kung ika'y may pagkakataon na mag-staff sa call center ng siyudad, gaya ng ginawa ng kasamahan naming si Scott Silverman, bilang bahagi ng programa -- sa katunayan, ginawa nilang lahat iyan -- malalaman mong maraming dahilan kung bakit tinatawagan ng mga tao ang gobyerno, kabilang na ang tungkol sa opossum sa kanilang bahay. Nakatanggap ng ganitong tawag si Scott. Ti-nayp niya ang "Opossum" sa kanyang opisyal na database. Walang laman sa database. Inumpisahan niya sa animal control. 'Di nagtagal, sabi niya, "Subukan mo kayang buksan lahat ng pintuan ng bahay magpatugtog ka nang malakas at tingnan mo kung lalabas siya?" Gumana nga. Booya para kay Scott. Pero hindi dito nagtatapos ang kwento ng opossum.
Boston doesn't just have a call center. It has an app, a Web and mobile app, called Citizens Connect. Now we didn't write this app. This is the work of the very smart people at the Office of New Urban Mechanics in Boston. So one day -- this is an actual report -- this came in: "Opossum in my trashcan. Can't tell if it's dead. How do I get this removed?" But what happens with Citizens Connect is different. So Scott was speaking person-to-person. But on Citizens Connect everything is public, so everybody can see this. And in this case, a neighbor saw it. And the next report we got said, "I walked over to this location, found the trashcan behind the house. Opossum? Check. Living? Yep. Turned trashcan on its side. Walked home. Goodnight sweet opossum."
Hindi lang call center ang meron sa Boston. Meron silang app, isang Web at mobile app, na tinatawag na Citizens Connect. Hindi kami ang gumawa ng app na ito. Gawa ito ng mga matatalinong tao mula sa Opisina ng New Urban Mechanics ng Boston. Kaya isang araw -- ito'y isang aktwal na ulat -- ganito ang nangyari: "Opposum sa aking basurahan. 'Di ko alam kung patay na. Papaano ko siya papaalisin?" Iba ang paraan sa Citizens Connect. Si Scott, kinakausap niya ang taong nag-ulat ng problema. Pero ang Citizens Connect ay bukas sa lahat, kaya nakikita ito ng lahat. At sa kasong ito, isang kapitbahay ang nakakita. Kaya ang kasunod na ulat ay ganito, "Pinuntahan ko na ito, nakita ko ang basurahan sa likod ng bahay. Opossum? Tama. Buhay? Oo. Tinaob ko ang basurahan. Umuwi na'ko pagkatapos. Magandang gabi mahal na opossum."
(Laughter)
(Tawanan)
Pretty simple. So this is great. This is the digital meeting the physical. And it's also a great example of government getting in on the crowd-sourcing game. But it's also a great example of government as a platform. And I don't mean necessarily a technological definition of platform here. I'm just talking about a platform for people to help themselves and to help others. So one citizen helped another citizen, but government played a key role here. It connected those two people. And it could have connected them with government services if they'd been needed, but a neighbor is a far better and cheaper alternative to government services. When one neighbor helps another, we strengthen our communities. We call animal control, it just costs a lot of money.
Simple lang 'di ba. Napakaganda nito. Pagtatagpo ng digital sa pisikal. At maganda din itong halimbawa sa paggamit ng crowd-sourcing para sa gobyerno. Maganda rin itong halimbawa bilang plataporma ng gobyerno. Hindi lang teknikal na plataporma ang tinutukoy ko dito. Ibig kong sabihin maaari itong plataporma ng mamamayan para magtulungan. Dito, isang tao ang nakapagbigay-tulong sa kanyang kapwa, kung saan may mahalagang papel na ginampanan ang gobyerno. Ito ang nagdurugtong sa dalawang tao. At maaari din naman magbigay serbisyo ang gobyerno kung kinakailangan, ngunit mas mura ang tulong mula sa isang kapitbahay kumpara sa serbisyo ng gobyerno. Kung tinutulungan ng mamamayan ang kanilang kapitbahay, pinapatibay nito ang komunidad. Kung tatawag pa tayo sa animal control, gagastos pa tayo.
Now one of the important things we need to think about government is that it's not the same thing as politics. And most people get that, but they think that one is the input to the other. That our input to the system of government is voting. Now how many times have we elected a political leader -- and sometimes we spend a lot of energy getting a new political leader elected -- and then we sit back and we expect government to reflect our values and meet our needs, and then not that much changes? That's because government is like a vast ocean and politics is the six-inch layer on top. And what's under that is what we call bureaucracy. And we say that word with such contempt. But it's that contempt that keeps this thing that we own and we pay for as something that's working against us, this other thing, and then we're disempowering ourselves.
Isa sa mga dapat nating tandaan tungkol sa gobyerno ay hindi ito katulad ng pulitika. Alam iyan ng karamihan, pero alam din nating na 'yung isa ay input dun sa isa. At ang ating input sa sistema ng gobyerno ay halalan. Ilang beses na ba tayo naghalal ng mga lider natin sa pulitika -- at minsan nang naglaan ng oras at enerhiya para ikampanya ang napiling lider -- at pagkatapos uupo nalang tayo at aasa sa gobyerno na alamin at tugunan ang ating pangangailangan, tapos walang pagbabago? Dahil ang pamahalaan ay parang malawak na karagatan at ang politika ay tapyas lamang ng tubig sa ibabaw. Sa ilalim nito ang tinatawag nating bureaucracy. At binibigkas natin ang salitang iyan nang may pag-aalipusta. Pero ang ugaling 'yan ang pumipigil sa pamahalaang pagmamay-ari natin at binabayaran natin na magtrabaho para sa atin, itong isang bagay, at ito ang naglulugmok sa atin.
People seem to think politics is sexy. If we want this institution to work for us, we're going to have to make bureaucracy sexy. Because that's where the real work of government happens. We have to engage with the machinery of government. So that's OccupytheSEC movement has done. Have you seen these guys? It's a group of concerned citizens that have written a very detailed 325-page report that's a response to the SEC's request for comment on the Financial Reform Bill. That's not being politically active, that's being bureaucratically active.
Iniisip ng mga tao na sexy ang mundo ng pulitika. Kung gusto nating maging epektibo ang institusyong ito para sa atin, gawin din nating sexy ang bureaucracy. Dahil diyan nagaganap ang tunay na pamamahala. Dapat tayong makiugnay sa makinarya ng gobyerno. 'Yan ang ginawa ng OccupytheSEC movement. Nakilala mo ba na sila? Grupo ito ng mga mamamayang nagmamalasakit at nagsulat detalyadong ulat na may 325 pahina bilang tugon sa hiling ng SEC na opinyon tungkol sa Financial Reform Bill. Hindi 'yon pangingialam sa pulitika, iyon ay halimbawa ng pangingialam sa bureaurucracy.
Now for those of us who've given up on government, it's time that we asked ourselves about the world that we want to leave for our children. You have to see the enormous challenges that they're going to face. Do we really think we're going to get where we need to go without fixing the one institution that can act on behalf of all of us? We can't do without government, but we do need it to be more effective. The good news is that technology is making it possible to fundamentally reframe the function of government in a way that can actually scale by strengthening civil society. And there's a generation out there that's grown up on the Internet, and they know that it's not that hard to do things together, you just have to architect the systems the right way.
Kaya sa lahat ng taong isinuko na ang pag-asa sa gobyerno, oras na para tanungin ang inyong sarili tungkol sa daigdig na iiwanan natin sa ating mga anak. Makikita mong mabibigat ang mga hamon na ating hinaharap. Iniisip ba nating makakatungo tayo sa ninanais nating landas nang hindi isinasaayos ang isang institusyon na maaaring kumilos para sa ating lahat? Kailangan natin ang gobyerno, ngunit kailangan nitong maging mas epektibo. Napakagandang balita na may mga teknolohiyang maaring baguhin at ayusin ang trabaho ng gobyerno, sa paraang nararamdaman ng mga tao ang epekto nito, sa pamamagitan ng pagpapatibay ng lipunang sibil. At ito ang henerasyong lumaki na sanay sa Internet, at alam na hindi mahirap gawin ang mga bagay kung magkakasama, kinakailangan lang na angkop ang disenyo sa bawat sistema.
Now the average age of our fellows is 28, so I am, begrudgingly, almost a generation older than most of them. This is a generation that's grown up taking their voices pretty much for granted. They're not fighting that battle that we're all fighting about who gets to speak; they all get to speak. They can express their opinion on any channel at any time, and they do. So when they're faced with the problem of government, they don't care as much about using their voices. They're using their hands. They're using their hands to write applications that make government work better.
Karaniwang 28 ang edad ng mga kasamahan, kaya ako ito, naiinggit, halos isang henerasyon ang itinanda kaysa sa kanila. Ito ang henerasyong lumaki nang hindi pinahahalagahan ang sariling boses. Hindi gaya natin na kinailangang ipaglaban ang karapatang makapagsalita; lahat sila ay malayang nakakapagsalita. Nakakapagbigay sila ng mga opinyon sa anumang paraan, kahit kailan, at ginagawa nila 'yan. Kaya pagdating sa mga suliranin ng pamahalaan, hindi nila iniisip na gamitin ang kanilang boses. Bagkus ginagamit nila ang kanilang kamay. Ginagamit nila ang kanilang kamay upang lumikha ng mga application upang maisaayos ang gobyerno.
And those applications let us use our hands to make our communities better. That could be shoveling out a hydrant, pulling a weed, turning over a garbage can with an opossum in it. And certainly, we could have been shoveling out those fire hydrants all along, and many people do. But these apps are like little digital reminders that we're not just consumers, and we're not just consumers of government, putting in our taxes and getting back services. We're more than that, we're citizens. And we're not going to fix government until we fix citizenship.
At ang mga application na ito ay ginagamit natin para maging maayos ang ating komunidad. Ang pagtanggal ng niyebe sa hydrant, pagtanggal ng damo, pagtanggal ng opossum sa basurahan. Siyempre, maari namang alagaan ang mga hydrants nang walang app at maraming tao din ang gumagawa non. Pero ang mga apps na ito ay maliliit na paalala na hindi lang tayo kostumer, at hindi lang tayo mga kostumer ng gobyerno, na nagbibigay ng mga buwis at umaasa ng sebisyo. Higit pa tayo doon, tayo ay mga mamamayan. Hindi natin maisasaayos ang gobyerno hangga't 'di natin aayusin ang ating pagiging mamamayan.
So the question I have for all of you here: When it comes to the big, important things that we need to do together, all of us together, are we just going to be a crowd of voices, or are we also going to be a crowd of hands?
Kaya ang tanong ko sa inyong lahat na nandito: Pagdating sa mga malalaki at mahahalagang bagay na nangangailangan ng sama-samang pagkilos, tayong lahat ang magsasama-sama, tayo ba ay magiging lipon ng mga boses, o maari ba tayong maging lipon ng mga kamay?
Thank you.
Salamat.
(Applause)
(Palakpakan)