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# Independent research and advisory work on funded technology programs
- URL: https://www.billybicket.org/independent-research-and-advisory-work-on-funded-technology-programs/
- Published: 2026-10-23T01:50:53.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T12:11:35.000Z
- Author: Billy Bicket
- Tags: News

Hi! I'm Billy Bicket. I study what remains after funded technology programs end, and advise the funders and intermediaries who decide what comes next.

Most program records describe the beginning: who enrolled, who completed, what was delivered. A decision about a next round depends on different facts. 

What is still in use, what it costs to maintain, who carries it, and whether those people gained any authority over it. These are rarely recorded, because collecting them means going back after the program has closed.

The question is timely. Many of the AI and technology programs funded for nonprofits in 2024 and 2025 are closing their first rounds, and next-round decisions are being made largely on completion data.

That return is the core of my work.

## Questions

Each engagement addresses six questions, answered with the people who delivered and used the work:

1. What is still in ordinary use, and by whom?
2. What does it cost to keep, in money and in staff time?
3. Who is carrying it, and would it continue without them?
4. Did the people left responsible gain any authority to change it?
5. What was dropped, and was dropping it a sound decision?
6. What would a next round need to pay for that this one did not?

These are not impact evaluations and do not use comparison groups. They are structured returns to the people who did the work, timed to a funding decision.

**Method.** I review program files first. In each participating organization I interview two or three people: whoever led the work, someone who uses it day to day, and where possible the manager who controls the budget. I ask to see the work in use rather than relying on description. Findings distinguish what I observed, what I was told and what I infer.

## Engagements

I take on a small number of commissioned studies at a time, in three forms:

1) Decision note *about one week*. A short written assessment of one pending decision, drawing on program files and three interviews.

2) Program assessment *about five weeks*. Interviews across up to eight participating organizations. Each organization receives its own record. The commissioner receives cross-cutting findings and a recommendation.

3) Assessment and next-round design *about five weeks, plus design*. The assessment, followed by work with the commissioner on selection criteria, budgeted staff time, exit conditions and a six-month check-in with participants.

Fees are fixed and agreed in advance, after an initial conversation about the decision and its timing.

[See an illustrative program assessment](https://www.billybicket.org/illustrative-program-assessment/).

## Terms

- I do not assess programs I helped design.
- The commissioner owns the findings and can act on them, whether the commissioner is a funder or an intermediary.
- What a specific organization told me is reported in aggregate unless that organization agrees otherwise. Each organization keeps its own record.
- I do the work myself.

## Background

I have worked on technology programs for about thirty years. I spent fourteen years at TechSoup, most recently leading Maker Labs, and co-founded NetSquared there, which made about $1 million in civic-technology grants and grew to roughly 50,000 participants across dozens of countries. Before that I was among the first ten employees at Meetup, where I ran early business-model experiments and helped build its venue network across about 1,000 cities. At Mindful Schools I helped expand teacher training from 75 to 1,000 educators a month.

At TechSoup's Cultural Memory Lab, developed with Gray Area and the Filecoin Foundation for the Decentralized Web, I designed a cohort model: four projects selected from 181 applications, all of which built working prototypes. What those prototypes became in their communities was never recorded.

This work began with that gap in mind.

## Writing

Bicket, B. (2026). *The Future Is Somebody Else's Job.* Essay on maintenance, authority and the decisions that follow funded technology programs. Draft available on request.

## Contact

If you are approaching a renewal, redesign or wind-down decision on a funded program, I would be glad to talk. Please include the program and when the decision is due.

[billybicket@gmail.com](mailto:billybicket@gmail.com?subject=Program%20decision)