For the Digital Service Network’s (DSN) final installment of its summer event series, Let’s Get Digital, we heard about New York State’s (NYS) human-centered design (HCD) journey and how relationships between leadership and digital service teams have been pivotal in advancing user-centric service delivery.
The article outlines NYC Opportunity's "Designed by Community" program, which funds and empowers local leaders to create solutions for challenges in marginalized communities. Initially focused on government projects, the program pivoted during the pandemic to support community-led initiatives, with projects ranging from mentorship programs to tech tools for public housing residents.
We wrapped up Rules as Code Demo Day with Max Ghenis and Nikhil Woodruff, the founders of PolicyEngine. The PolicyEngine web app computes the impact of tax and benefit policy in the US and the UK. With PolicyEngine, anyone can freely calculate their taxes and benefits under current law and customizable policy reforms, and also estimate the society-wide impacts of those reforms. Policymakers and think tanks from across the political spectrum can analyze actual policy. PolicyEngine is built atop the open source OpenFisca US and UK microsimulation models and they are building an open unified data set utilizing data from the Policy Rules Database, Current Population Survey, Survey of Consumer Finances, Consumer Expenditures, tax records, and IRS Public Use File.
This piece highlights promising design patterns for account creation and identity proofing in public benefits applications. The publication also identifies areas where additional evidence, resources, and coordinated federal guidance may help support equitable implementations of authentication and identity proofing, enabling agencies to balance access and security.
This page includes data and observations about authentication and identity proofing steps specifically for online applications that include MAGI Medicaid.
Digitizing public benefits policy will make the biggest impact for administrators and Americans, but only if it happens at the highest level of government.
The team conducted experiments to determine whether clients would be responsive to proactive support offered by a chatbot, and identify the ideal timing of the intervention.
DSN Spotlights are short-form project profiles that feature exciting work happening across our network of digital government practitioners. Spotlights celebrate our members’ stories, lift up actionable takeaways for other practitioners, and put the examples we host in the Digital Government Hub in context.
This video documents the Digital Benefits Network's Digital Identity Community of Practice launch, covering mission review, 2025 goals, California authentication innovations, and peer networking for equitable and effective digital identity in public benefits.
