Watch this democracy spotlight.

It's time to reinvent government for the 21st century, according to David Eaves, public policy entrepreneur, and Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media, speaking at ILF's "Democracy Spotlight." The following lessons from the technology industry can be applied to government when providing services that the private sector alone cannot.

Make government services like the products we love. O’Reilly wants government interfaces be simple, beautiful and easy to use, and shared a thought from a recent Code for America graduate: “What if we felt about government how we feel about our iPhones?” We love the products we get from companies like Apple, and with some more thoughtful design it could be the same for government. Eaves wanted to integrate government data from different agencies, for example, integrating online information of local restaurants with health code violations, customer ratings, prices and type of food.

Use data to make better, citizen-centered decisions. O’Reilly cited a new project called Honolulu Answers, a service that provides clear, simple answers to citizens’ most frequently asked questions.  These questions are determined based on visitor logs to the city of Honolulu’s existing website and call center data. This kind of approach gives citizens what they are looking for rather than what governments wants them to see.

Openness and experimentation matter. Ten or 15 years ago, systems that integrated public data with government services -- like trash pickup schedules, location of fire hydrants or the provision of information on government budgets -- may have cost as much at $50,000. Now, organizations like Code for America,as well as tech-savvy concerned citizens can make platforms that are of great use to the public for a much lower cost. The more open a government can make its data, the more innovation citizen-driven innovation will emerge.