Changes Afoot Last year when we (Code for America) began officially supporting civic startups. We created a program to support companies that build tool that help government work more effectively and transparently. We call it the Code for America Accelerator. Ever since then our organization, and our officespace, has become a hotbed of entrepreneurial energyRead… Read more »
View from M@dison Building rooftop overlooking Grand Circle Park, in Detroit, Michigan. Sometimes, when people hear “Code for America” they might assume that we fellows are all computer programmers, but quite a few of us have backgrounds in architecture, urban design, city planning, community organizing, transportation, and housing policy. And we are metaphorically tied toRead… Read more »
At a Chinese restaurant last weekend, my fortune cookie read: You are a deep thinker and a good problem solver. I was flattered by my cookie’s opinion, but the thought that sprang to mind was that the fortune was an excellent description of the Code for America board. Many non-profit boards serve primarily a governanceRead… Read more »
April is National Volunteer Month and right now it’s National Volunteer Week. The point of “National…Month/Week/Day” recognitions like this is, well, recognition. Volunteers give their time every day. It’s now time to say, Thank You. And, we best honor our volunteers when we can tell them, and everyone, “Here’s what your contributions did last yearRead… Read more »
How (and why) do local governments innovate? It’s a question underlying everything we do at Code for America — and yet when answering it, often we rely on intuition rather than data-driven research. But new findings from the New America Foundation’s California Civic Innovation Project (CCIP) give us some great insight into the motivations andRead… Read more »
This post is written by Tamir Novotny, Senior Policy Associate at Living Cities, and is cross-posted from livingcities.org/blog. We’re (Living Cities) working with the City of Louisville, Ken. to develop technology to engage low-income young adults in the city’s long-term planning. Here’s what we’re learning. We recently kicked off in earnest a project in LouisvilleRead… Read more »
Code for America, in partnership with Google for Entrepreneurs, is excited to announce a new Incubator program, which will support Code for America fellows as they seek to turn their products into companies. CfA’s longest standing program is an annual service-year Fellowship for developers, designers, and community managers, where they work hand-in-hand with city governmentsRead… Read more »
Crossposted from: recovers.wordpress.com Low vacancy, numerous homeless people, elegant old buildings, shuttle buses to Silicon Valley… and warning, I’m going to talk about earthquakes. If it gets scary, stick with me: there’s good news at the end, ways to better understand the specific risks facing San Francisco, and some easy places to start. Let’s TalkRead… Read more »
I created my GitHub account last year during my first week – perhaps day – as a 2012 Code for America fellow. I had to do this in order to complete a challenge that would earn me the coveted CfA track jacket. It’s been over a year now and I push to GitHub daily. InRead… Read more »
At Code for America, we’re no stranger to the hackathon and its event cousins: iconathons, make-a-thons, write-a-thons, and more. In 2013 alone, we hosted two hackathons at our San Francisco office, and partnered on events in 12 cities—and it’s only March. With so much experience, it’s easy to prep for new events by focusing solelyRead… Read more »