YOYO: Your On Your Own At midnight on July 4, 2012 I issued the following command: “git push brigade master.” That means I sent a command to to redeploy the Brigade website from its code repository on GitHub. The new site transforms the Brigade from a community of app deployers into a community of civicRead… Read more »
I’d like to share with you a sentence that makes me very happy and optimistic about the future of government. It’s from the website that CfA Fellows Ruthie BenDor and Tamara Shopsin are building to help new businesses in Santa Cruz, Calif. understand how to be legit, and to help them become so. It reads:Read… Read more »
In May of this year, Code for America began accepting applications for our new Accelerator civic startup incubator program, designed to help startup ventures in the civic space. As my colleague Abhi Nemani mentioned in a recent blog post, the Accelerator program staff expected a couple of dozen applicants. We got a couple of hundred.Read… Read more »
Last week we launched official Oakland Brigade: OpenOakland. If you’re new to Code for America then you’ve been missing out. If you know them, you may not yet know about the Brigade. Open:Oakland is the start of a new Brigade to create and redeploy civic innovations, liberate public data, spur innovation within government, and bringRead… Read more »
One of the core ideas behind almost everything we do at Code for America is this – governments that face common challenges are uniquely positioned to collaborate and share both ideas and solutions. Nowhere is this potential for collaboration more immediate and more valuable than in the way governments make use of technology. Governments areRead… Read more »
Talking with Buenos Aires Open Government and Web teams, photo via Buenos AIres Data Recently myself and 2011 Code for America fellow, Max Ogden (@maxogden) were in Buenos Aires for JSConf Argentina. While in town we visited friends of Code for America, Buenos Aires’ Open Government and Web departments (@GCBAData, @GCBA). We met with aboutRead… Read more »
One of the most common – and important – ways that citizens interact with their government is through the reporting of non-emergency issues in their neighborhoods. How effectively governments manage these requests for service is critical to fostering stable neighborhoods and confidence in municipal leadership. Since it was first adopted in Baltimore in the mid-1990’s,Read… Read more »
In May, we kicked off something new: the CfA Salon Speaker Series. It’s not new – actually quite old – and we’re hoping you’ll help us dust off this tradition of discussion and lounging (in person for the Bay Area-based and here on the blog for the rest). At our first Salon in May weRead… Read more »
The interns have arrived. They’re full of energy and enthusiasm – and great ideas. During their first week we told them all about Code for America, and they told us about their adventures making their way out to San Francisco. It seems they’ve arrived at the perfect time to infuse some energy into the office.Read… Read more »
It’s a mashup we love — hackers, wonks, and startup enthusiasts in the nation’s capital coming together to create a civic startup in 54 hours. e-Government in DC, hosted Code for America and Startup Weekend, challenges participants to focus on creating a startup that solves a real-life problem faced by federal or local governments, agencies,Read… Read more »