#34 DMV Nation

Reply All

Gimlet

Society & Culture, Documentary, Technology

4.7 • 29.4K Ratings

🗓️ 4 August 2015

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Even though technology evolves at a rapid clip, US government agencies seem trapped about a decade in the past. PJ talks to technologist Clay Johnson about why the government is so unable to adapt, and what it would look like if it could keep pace with the rest of the world. If you want to become a gimlet member, you can go here: http://gimletmedia.com/join. A year membership will get you a t-shirt, early access to pilots, and much more. Also, this Monday, August 10th, we'll be doing a live chat for members only. If you're already a Gimlet member, you'll find information about it on the gimlet page in the next couple of days. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	From Gimlet, this is a reply all to show about the internet.
0:05.6	I'm PJ Buh.
0:12.9	And this week we are talking to a man in Clay Johnson.
0:16.2	Clay has done a bunch of impressive things that have to do with politics in the internet.
0:20.6	His company built Barack Obama.com.
0:22.9	He worked on the Howard Dean website, which was very revolutionary for campaign politics.
0:26.9	And today we are talking to him about none of that.
0:29.9	Today we are talking to him about his pet interest, which is finding and complaining about
0:35.6	the worst government websites on the internet.
0:39.5	My favorite website to pick on is sam.gov, S-A-M, as an uncle sam.gov.
0:46.2	I'm loading it.
0:47.3	So sam.gov, this website I think, cost about $200 million so far to make.
0:53.0	Please check it out.
0:54.0	I'm looking at it.
0:55.4	It looks like a website you would build for your local softball team in like 1993.
1:05.6	Clay says that government websites, it's like they exist on a different, worse internet
1:10.3	than everything else.
1:12.4	But sam.gov is the jewel of his collection.
1:14.7	It's particularly egregious because it's like the government's front door.
1:18.3	Anybody who does contract work for the federal government is supposed to register here.
1:21.7	Whether they want to build like bridge or an airplane or a nuclear power plant, they have
1:25.8	to funnel through this archaic portal.
	...

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