Paul Smith

About Paul

My name is Paul Smith. I’m a software engineer and computer programmer in Evanston, IL.

Short bio

Paul Smith is the Chief Technologist and co-founder of Ad Hoc, a company dedicated to building reliable digital services for U.S. governments. He was a leader of the “tech surge” that fixed HealthCare.gov after its initial launch in 2013, and has since overseen the rebuilding of HealthCare.gov and the transformation of VA.gov.

Prior to Ad Hoc, Paul served as Deputy Director of Technology at the Democratic National Committee, where he played a key role in President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. He co-founded EveryBlock, a pioneering hyperlocal news website acquired by msnbc.com in 2009.

Paul has been developing websites and applications professionally for over two decades. He is interested in using technology to solve complex problems and improve public services. Paul blogs about software development and more at pauladamsmith.com.

Contact me

The best way to get in touch with me is to send me an email, paulsmith at gmail dot com.

Elsewhere

You may find me intermittently on various social media platforms:

RSS feed

You can subscribe to the main feed of my blog here:

https://pauladamsmith.com/blog/index.xml

More about me

My name is Paul Smith. I’m a software engineer and computer programmer in Chicago. I’ve been developing websites and applications professionally for more than two decades. I was a leader of the “tech surge” that fixed HealthCare.gov.

I am the Chief Technologist at Ad Hoc. I’m also one of Ad Hoc’s two co-founders and its founding CTO. We started Ad Hoc in 2014 after having worked on the successful rescue of HealthCare.gov after its initial disastrous launch in 2013. The point of Ad Hoc is to be a modern software company that the government can rely on to build dependable and usable digital services. I think we’ve been pretty successful. We started with four people, and after 10 years in business, we’ve grown to over 500, and in the course of that time have rebuilt HealthCare.gov from the ground up, transformed VA.gov into a Veteran-centric get-stuff-down site, built the flagship VA mobile app, and have delivered many other mission-critical services.

I’m formerly the CTO of Public Good Software, a startup I co-founded to help make better software for civil society.

I was the Deputy Director of Technology at the Democratic National Committee from September 2011 through February 2013. I worked closely with the Obama For America 2012 campaign in Chicago. We reelected the President and helped Democrats win across the country. Some highlights for me during that time was building the main polling place locator web application and infrastructure used by both the DNC and the Obama campaign. As a high-traffic, mission-critical site that needed to be developed quickly and delivered on a deadline, it exemplifies the kind of software engineering I like and think I’m good at.

I co-founded EveryBlock in 2007, a pioneering hyperlocal news website. It was acquired by msnbc.com in 2009, and I worked there until the fall of 2011. We aggregated new sources and public records like restaurant inspections, police crime reports, and building permits, anything with a location, and compiled it into a news feed for your block. One thing I’m really proud of from that time is that we built our own maps to visualize the data. This was after Google Maps had launched, but before services like Mapbox, so we had to figure a lot of things out on our own.

Before EveryBlock, I was a freelance web developer in Chicago. I developed web applications for Crain’s Chicago Business, and designed and developed the personal website of journalist Chris Hayes.

Prior to that, I worked at the Center for Neighborhood Technology, a non-profit also in Chicago. I was webmaster and systems administrator, and developed sites such as the Civic Footprint, a site that let you look up who represented you politically, down to the local level.

While at CNT, I also helped conceive and direct the technology of a community wireless networking project that aimed to pilot internet access in low-income communities in Chicago and Illinois. As a consequence of that effort, I found myself in the Gulf states of Louisiana and Mississippi in the weeks following the landfall of Hurricane Katrina. My colleague Rogers Wilson and I, along with a team of volunteers from around the country, helped to restore communications for people displaced by the hurricane.

Throughout my time in Chicago, I was involved in helping a unique rails-to-trails project, similar to NYC’s High Line, hoping to be the Chicago equivalent. I co-founded Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail in 2003, an all-volunteer non-profit organization dedicated to converting the unused elevated rail line on the north side of Chicago running along Bloomingdale Avenue into a multi-use greenspace and park. The park was built and opened in 2015. I continue to serve on the board of FBT.

I intermittently attended St. Mary’s College of Maryland, where I studied physics and philosophy.

I was fortunate to intern as a high school senior at (what was then known as) the Laboratory of Mathematical Biology, part of the National Cancer Institute at Ft. Detrick, Maryland, where I first was exposed to Unix systems, C and Perl programming, information theory, the internet, and the World Wide Web, in 1994. Long live NCSA Mosiac! I feel lucky to have been a part of the heady optimistic early years of the Web, with its promises of instant global connectivity, access to knowledge, and freedom of expression and experimentation, and still stubbornly cling to those values.

I’ve always been interested in computers, again being fortunate enough to be young during the personal computer revolution. My childhood exposed me to Commodore’s VIC-20, C64, and Amiga. I went to a programming summer camp where I learned Logo and Pascal. I have always tinkered and still consider programming my favorite hobby. It’s still fascinating and satisfying an intellectual pursuit. My current interests include compilers, deep learning, and helping keep the dream of server-side web frameworks alive.

My other hobbies include woodworking, circuits and electronics, photography, making music, and strength training.

I’m originally from Maryland. I lived in Chicago from 1999 to 2009. I was again in Maryland, in Baltimore, from 2009 to 2014. I moved back to Chicago in the summer of 2014. I moved to Evanston in 2017, where I currently live with my wife Michelle Mills and our children.

Talks