Table of Contents
- Fueling the Fight for Net Neutrality
- Embracing Ranked-Choice Voting as a Pathway to Pluralism
- Measuring U.S. Drone Use and Misuse
- Fulfilling the Promise of Child Savings Accounts
- Linking the Individual Mandate and Social Responsibility
- Tracking Terrorism in the United States
- Early Education Doesn't End at Pre-K
- Making Higher Education Outcomes Transparent
- Redefining Care Policy
- Using TV "White Spaces" to Create Equitable Internet Access
- Investing in America's Future Thinkers
- Proposing the Public Option
- Creating a Public Interest Technology Sector
- Building a New Practice of Public Problem-Solving
- Expanding Access to High School-Age Youth for High-Quality Apprenticeship Opportunities
- Engaging North Korea
- A Universal 401(k) Plan
- Measuring the Internet for Everyone
- Rethinking Economic Policy
- Documenting the Long Wars
- Ranking Digital Rights
- Future Tense
- Using Fiction to Make Policy More…Realistic
- Pop-Up Magazine
- Developing an MA in Global Security
- Helping Communities Deploy Mesh Networks
- Partnering with Universities
Creating a Public Interest Technology Sector
Idea
With policymakers racing to address societal changes wrought by rapidly evolving technology, a new field was needed to leverage technical expertise in support of governments, nonprofits, and the people they serve. New America sought to create a new field of public interest technology dedicated to helping resource-strapped institutions leverage the technical expertise needed to better serve all people.
Incubation
In 2017, we brought on a cohort of public interest technology fellows, positioned across the country, to help infuse local governments with technology expertise and show the transformative impact of bringing technologists onto their teams. Complementing the PIT fellows is TechCongress, a program initiated by Travis Moore which has, to date, placed 23 technologists in Senate and House offices. Our fellows serve as technology policy advisors to members of Congress over the course of their one-year Congressional Innovation Fellowship.
Impact
The PIT fellows have done extraordinary work, connecting recent immigrants to critical services at the border, collecting a database of services for opioid addicts across the country, and clearing a backlog of pending foster families waiting to be approved. Meanwhile, the TechCongress fellows have helped pass the OPEN Government Data Act into law, led the investigation into Cambridge Analytica's data sharing practices, changed defense procurement rules to allow startups to better compete for contracts and serve our servicemembers, and revealed that the Russian government is targeting the personal emails and devices of members of Congress. Furthermore, PIT launched a groundbreaking University Network (PITUN) in March 2019, which awards grants to support the development of new public interest technology initiatives/institutions in academia and fosters collaboration among network members. Its first grants were announced in October 2019 to 21 schools.