Wednesday, June 11, 2014

e.Republic Labs Initiative Underway

I noted last week that Dustin Haisler has joined e.Republic to lead our new Labs initiative. This is an entirely new endeavor for us and something unique in our industry.  While a new direction, it draws on our 25 years of working on and around public sector innovation. In launching Labs I outlined some of our thinking about what we are doing and why:


An Open Letter from Dennis McKenna, Co-founder & CEO,  e.Republic
I am excited to announce the launch of a major new initiative for our company: e.Republic Labs. This new endeavor provides a fresh set of tools to assist in meeting e.Republic’s mission to foster public sector innovation. It stems from our belief that thinking differently and acting collaboratively is the most powerful way to make permanent, positive change happen.
Under the direction of Dustin Haisler, e.Republic Labs will serve as a catalyst and connector for the development, deployment and scalability of a new generation of government and civic technologies that are redefining what it means to do the public’s business.
e.Republic Labs will do this through a unique combination of collaboration, research, reporting, incubation and advisory support for both public- and private-sector organizations.
Affiliated with e.Republic Labs, we are also launching e.Republic Ventures, an accelerator to assist select early stage companies go to market with their game-changing solutions.
We are launching e.Republic Labs and Ventures because we believe this is a uniquely disruptive moment in the evolution of technology, offering a once-in-a-generation opportunity for governments both small and large to harness powerful new tools that can dramatically improve public sector outcomes, build more livable communities and open a new era of citizen engagement.
e.Republic Labs builds on our company’s deep experience, network and successful track record in catalyzing innovation at the nexus of digital technology and government. Our original media property, Government Technology, was launched to help states and localities take advantage of the microprocessor revolution in the 1980s. A decade later, our Center for Digital Government and its Digital States and Digital Communities programs fostered the growth and maturity of the e-government movement with the rise of the Internet as a platform for governing. A result of our work is a powerful network of government agencies, companies and elected officials that are each moving the needle of public sector innovation.
Now, e.Republic Labs allows us to bring the best of our experience, energy and knowledge to the next era of public sector innovation and the change agents who will drive it. 
Over the last several months, I’ve spoken with individuals throughout the country, from public officials to application developers to tech company executives, investors and civic not-for-profit leaders. To a person there is a growing sense that we, as a society, are at an important juncture and that we must do more with the $3 trillion annual public investment in state and local government.  The public expects it. The future demands it.
Through our media platforms and original research, we have been working hard to help change the conversation about the future of our communities and the relationship between citizens and their government.  With e.Republic Labs and Ventures, we hope to accelerate that change.


Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Dustin Haisler Joins e.Republic as Chief Innovation Officer & Lead Our New Labs Initiative

Very excited to announce that Dustin Haisler has joined e.Republic as our chief innovation officer and will lead a new iniative we've launched called e.Republic Labs

I first ran across Dustin when 
in 2009, at the age of 22, Government Technology named him one of our Doers, Dreamers and Drivers for the work he was doing as CIO for Manor, a small town near Austin, Texas.

A pioneer in open government innovation, Dustin lead a first-in-nation effort putting QR codes on points of interest in downtown Manor, letting citizens use smartphones to access historical information and data about city services. The QR code initiative drew attention from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and was featured in a 2009 blog post on open government innovation. Later Dustin launched Manor Labs, an early civic crowd sourcing initiative. 


Dustin moved to the private sector in 2010 joining Spigit as director of government innovation. While at Spigit, a company that makes crowd-sourcing and innovation management software, Dustin helped design and deploy innovation programs for New York City; Bogota, Columbia and NASA's Langley Research Center. 


Prior to joining e.Republic Dustin was with the startup KlabLab.

Dustin has great insights and instincts around emerging technologies and how these can be harnessed   to help states and localities build better communities.