The launch of healthcare.gov was a huge debacle for the United States Federal Government but also a huge lesson for both those in the tech world and the public sector. With the ever growing need for digital media in the public sector, many new obstacles have emerged and challenged both those behind the screen and those elected to office. This demand for digital media, web platforms, and information systems allows our government to operate more efficiently but due to bureaucratic gridlock and funding problems these newly developed innovations tend to lack the saliency and expedience that a business would provide. Expected, but still an interesting consequence of the public sector’s attributes.
Case in point, the Affordable Care Act’s web component, Healthcare.gov, which was to be developed in order allow the American people to easily sign up for healthcare online. When launched, the site was not up to par and crashed repeatedly due to high demand causing headaches and setbacks for the Obama administration. Additionally, an exhaustive amount of time, resources, and money were spent attempting to communicate deadlines and changes to the American public. Additionally, a new team had to be brought in to solve the problem and develop a better platform. This is interesting new territory for government. Political candidates often went to ad agencies and the like to develop better communication strategies and the federal government has often turned to outside consulting agencies like McKinsey & Co. but now the government must turn more and more to outside tech companies and consulting services in order to meet the demand for efficiency and digital presence.
It will be interesting to see where the public sector's online presence and digital communications strategy moves in the coming years and how it will stay in tune with the times.
Source:
http://swampland.time.com/2013/12/17/obama-taps-microsoft-exec-to-run-healthcare-website/
Case in point, the Affordable Care Act’s web component, Healthcare.gov, which was to be developed in order allow the American people to easily sign up for healthcare online. When launched, the site was not up to par and crashed repeatedly due to high demand causing headaches and setbacks for the Obama administration. Additionally, an exhaustive amount of time, resources, and money were spent attempting to communicate deadlines and changes to the American public. Additionally, a new team had to be brought in to solve the problem and develop a better platform. This is interesting new territory for government. Political candidates often went to ad agencies and the like to develop better communication strategies and the federal government has often turned to outside consulting agencies like McKinsey & Co. but now the government must turn more and more to outside tech companies and consulting services in order to meet the demand for efficiency and digital presence.
It will be interesting to see where the public sector's online presence and digital communications strategy moves in the coming years and how it will stay in tune with the times.
Source:
http://swampland.time.com/2013/12/17/obama-taps-microsoft-exec-to-run-healthcare-website/