This year’s 16 finalists for the Innovations in American Government Awards, given each year since 1986 by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance & Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, illustrate ways that cities, counties, states, and even federal agencies are reinventing services.

My opinion of governments role in service innovation is that of Fred Wilson’s, government needs to be a catalyst in structuring the problem clearly and then letting the market tackle the solutions.There are tonnes of creative technologists (*cough*, *cough*) waiting to feast on well-structured problems to things like Health Care, Finance and Education.