WEBVTT

00:00:00.792 --> 00:00:02.059
Hi everybody.

00:00:02.083 --> 00:00:03.351
My name is Matt Cutts,

00:00:03.375 --> 00:00:07.809
and I worked at Google
for almost 17 years.

00:00:07.833 --> 00:00:09.726
As a distinguished engineer there,

00:00:09.750 --> 00:00:13.893
I was pretty close to the top
of the Silicon Valley ecosystem.

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:13.917 --> 00:00:16.934
Then I decided to follow
some inspiring folks

00:00:16.958 --> 00:00:21.018
and do a short tour
at the US Digital Service.

00:00:21.042 --> 00:00:24.226
That's the group of geeks
that helped rescue HealthCare.gov

00:00:24.250 --> 00:00:28.018
when that website went down hard in 2013.

00:00:28.042 --> 00:00:29.309
Yeah.

00:00:29.333 --> 00:00:31.934
So I signed up for
a three-to-six-month tour,

00:00:31.958 --> 00:00:34.393
and almost three years later,

00:00:34.417 --> 00:00:36.476
I'm still in Washington DC,

00:00:36.500 --> 00:00:38.226
working for the federal government,

00:00:38.250 --> 00:00:42.143
because the government
really needs technologists right now.

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:42.167 --> 00:00:43.434
At my old job,

00:00:43.458 --> 00:00:46.059
every room had videoconferencing

00:00:46.083 --> 00:00:48.268
integrated with calendars,

00:00:48.292 --> 00:00:52.393
power cables were built
right into the furniture.

00:00:52.417 --> 00:00:54.976
When I moved to a government agency,

00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:57.934
I had to call a person
to set up a phone conference.

00:00:57.958 --> 00:00:59.684
And when we moved to a new office,

00:00:59.708 --> 00:01:01.559
we didn't have furniture for a while,

00:01:01.583 --> 00:01:04.250
so we set up the phone on a trash can.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:05.625 --> 00:01:08.893
One of the things that surprised me,
whenever I moved to DC,

00:01:08.917 --> 00:01:12.667
is how much the government
still has to deal with paper.

00:01:13.500 --> 00:01:15.518
This is a facility in Winston-Salem,

00:01:15.542 --> 00:01:16.934
North Carolina,

00:01:16.958 --> 00:01:18.518
where people were worried

00:01:18.542 --> 00:01:21.976
that the building
might be structurally unsound

00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:24.268
from the weight of all that paper.

00:01:24.292 --> 00:01:25.559
Yeah.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:25.583 --> 00:01:26.851
Paper has some downsides.

00:01:26.875 --> 00:01:28.143
Here's a pop quiz:

00:01:28.167 --> 00:01:32.101
If your last name starts with H or higher,

00:01:32.125 --> 00:01:35.125
H or higher, would you raise your hand?

00:01:36.667 --> 00:01:37.934
Wow.

00:01:37.958 --> 00:01:39.226
I have some bad news:

00:01:39.250 --> 00:01:41.434
Your veteran records
might have been destroyed

00:01:41.458 --> 00:01:42.768
in a fire in 1973.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:42.792 --> 00:01:43.809
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:43.833 --> 00:01:45.101
Yeah.

00:01:45.125 --> 00:01:49.934
Paper processes are also slower
and more prone to errors.

00:01:49.958 --> 00:01:51.226
If you're a veteran

00:01:51.250 --> 00:01:53.351
and you're applying
for your health benefits

00:01:53.375 --> 00:01:54.643
using a paper form,

00:01:54.667 --> 00:01:58.851
you might have to wait months
for that form to be processed.

00:01:58.875 --> 00:02:01.268
We replaced that with a web form,

00:02:01.292 --> 00:02:03.018
and now most veterans find out

00:02:03.042 --> 00:02:05.393
if they can get access
to their health benefits

00:02:05.417 --> 00:02:06.934
in 10 minutes.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:06.958 --> 00:02:09.726
(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:09.750 --> 00:02:11.684
Here's another launch that I'm proud of.

00:02:11.708 --> 00:02:13.976
We worked with the Small
Business Administration

00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:17.226
to move one of their systems
from paper to digital.

00:02:17.250 --> 00:02:19.226
So this is a picture from before,

00:02:19.250 --> 00:02:21.726
and this is afterwards.

00:02:21.750 --> 00:02:24.184
Same cubicles, same people,

00:02:24.208 --> 00:02:26.500
just a better system for everyone.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:27.417 --> 00:02:30.643
At one point, we wanted to celebrate
modernizing a different system,

00:02:30.667 --> 00:02:32.559
and so we went to a local grocery store

00:02:32.583 --> 00:02:34.226
and we said, "Can you make a cake

00:02:34.250 --> 00:02:37.184
and decorate it with the form
that we've digitized?"

00:02:37.208 --> 00:02:40.768
And the grocery store
got really weirded out by that request.

00:02:40.792 --> 00:02:43.893
They wanted a letter
on official government letterhead.

00:02:43.917 --> 00:02:47.059
Well, we work for the government,
so we wrote a letter that said,

00:02:47.083 --> 00:02:49.476
"You can use this public-domain form

00:02:49.500 --> 00:02:52.601
on a cake for celebratory purposes."

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:52.625 --> 00:02:54.643
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:54.667 --> 00:02:57.601
Which led to bad jokes
about filling forms out in triplicake.

00:02:57.625 --> 00:02:59.476
Yes, dad jokes in government.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:59.500 --> 00:03:02.309
Now I've talked a lot about paper,

00:03:02.333 --> 00:03:05.976
but we also bring up
computer systems that go down.

00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:08.351
We bring in modern technology practices,

00:03:08.375 --> 00:03:11.601
like user-centered design and the cloud,

00:03:11.625 --> 00:03:14.476
and we also help improve procurement.

00:03:14.500 --> 00:03:17.351
It turns out government buys software

00:03:17.375 --> 00:03:22.143
the same way that it buys chairs
and brownies and tanks:

00:03:22.167 --> 00:03:27.268
from government regulations
that are over 1,000 pages long.

00:03:27.292 --> 00:03:30.976
So yes, there's some stuff
that's messed up in government right now.

00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:34.143
But if you think Silicon Valley
is the savior in this story,

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:34.167 --> 00:03:35.434
(Laughs)

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:35.458 --> 00:03:37.226
you've got another thing coming.

00:03:37.250 --> 00:03:40.101
Some of the best and brightest
minds in technology

00:03:40.125 --> 00:03:42.101
are working on meal-delivery start-ups

00:03:42.125 --> 00:03:43.393
and scooters

00:03:43.417 --> 00:03:47.309
and how to deliver weed to people better.

00:03:47.333 --> 00:03:50.875
Is that really the most important thing
to work on right now?

00:03:51.792 --> 00:03:55.893
Silicon Valley likes to talk
about making the world a better place.

00:03:55.917 --> 00:03:59.684
But you feel your impact
in a much more visceral way

00:03:59.708 --> 00:04:00.958
in government.

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:02.042 --> 00:04:04.809
This is somebody whose dad passed away.

00:04:04.833 --> 00:04:06.851
He hunted me down on Twitter

00:04:06.875 --> 00:04:09.893
to say that a system that we had improved

00:04:09.917 --> 00:04:12.375
worked well for him during a tough time.

00:04:13.333 --> 00:04:16.434
Those tough times are
when government needs to work well

00:04:16.458 --> 00:04:19.309
and why we need innovation in government.

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:19.333 --> 00:04:20.857
Now I have a confession to make.

00:04:20.881 --> 00:04:22.226
When I came to DC,

00:04:22.250 --> 00:04:26.101
I sometimes used words like bureaucrat.

00:04:26.125 --> 00:04:27.393
These days,

00:04:27.417 --> 00:04:30.601
I'm much more likely
to use words like civil servant.

00:04:30.625 --> 00:04:33.518
Like Francine, who can make you cry.

00:04:33.542 --> 00:04:35.434
Or at least, she made me cry,

00:04:35.458 --> 00:04:38.101
because she's so inspiring.

00:04:38.125 --> 00:04:42.101
I am also deeply, fiercely proud
of my colleagues.

00:04:42.125 --> 00:04:45.518
They will work
through illogical situations

00:04:45.542 --> 00:04:48.875
and put in late nights
to get to the right result.

00:04:49.833 --> 00:04:52.434
The government can't pay
huge salary bonuses,

00:04:52.458 --> 00:04:55.726
so we ended up making our own awards.

00:04:55.750 --> 00:04:58.726
Our mascot is a crab named Molly.

00:04:58.750 --> 00:05:02.643
And so that award is actually
a crab-shaped purse,

00:05:02.667 --> 00:05:04.333
screwed into sheet metal.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:06.208 --> 00:05:09.059
These days, I believe less
in silver bullets

00:05:09.083 --> 00:05:11.417
that are going to fix everything.

00:05:12.250 --> 00:05:14.059
I believe more

00:05:14.083 --> 00:05:16.125
in the people who show up to help.

00:05:17.333 --> 00:05:20.018
If you're looking for something
deeply meaningful --

00:05:20.042 --> 00:05:24.851
and full disclosure,
sometimes incredibly frustrating --

00:05:24.875 --> 00:05:26.893
here's what you need to know.

00:05:26.917 --> 00:05:28.809
There is something difficult

00:05:28.833 --> 00:05:33.976
and messy and vital and magical happening

00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:36.893
when civil servants partner
with technologists

00:05:36.917 --> 00:05:40.393
at the city and state and national level.

00:05:40.417 --> 00:05:42.434
You don't have to do it forever.

00:05:42.458 --> 00:05:45.768
But you can make a difference
in public service

00:05:45.792 --> 00:05:47.393
right now.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:47.417 --> 00:05:48.684
Thank you.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:48.708 --> 00:05:51.750
(Applause)