Code for America needs a CTO
We need a really amazing CTO: someone who is brilliant, committed, diplomatic, mature and experienced. Our CTO should be passionate about transforming the business of governing from the bottom up, and want to be visible, serving as a civic innovation rockstar in order to advance the cause.
There are lots of opportunities for skilled developers in the private sector. Why would someone with the talent to go to a promising startup want to work for a non-profit? I asked Clay Shirky, one of our advisors, to answer that question, and here’s what he said:
It’s hard. This isn’t your dad’s CIO job — a lot of this work is conceptually and technologically challenging.
It matters. Most of us live in cities, and all of us want them to run better than they do.
It’s powerful. Two enormous changes of the last 30 years — urbanization of the species and digitization of group action ‚Äì have hardly been combined yet.
It’s possible to make dramatic progress. Models of civic service haven’t even been dragged into the mid-90s, much less the 21st century.
I founded this organization with Leonard Lin. When Andrew Greenhill and I first asked the question ‚ÄúWhy isn’t there a Teach for America for web developers?‚Äù Leonard was the first person I thought of. He was one of the co-founders of Upcoming, which sold to Yahoo!, and has spent his time since using the Internet to help find Katrina survivors, helping build my.barackobama.com, and generally getting involved in things that help make the world a better place. Leonard has several projects he’s committed to in addition to Code for America, and while he’ll continue to be heavily involved, providing technical and strategic leadership and serving on the board of directors, we need someone who can dedicate him/herself to the cause full-time.
Code for America’s CTO must hold a vision for technology for cities that helps them become more transparent, participatory and efficient. He/she must also develop a deep understanding of current municipal IT infrastructure, and become an expert in helping cities implement gov 2.0 in their operations.
We’re looking for someone with a track record of success in the consumer web 2.0 world and a passion for public service who wants to help transform the business of governing from the bottom up. For more information on the job, visit our posting on Transparency Jobs.
We need a really amazing CTO: someone who is brilliant, committed, diplomatic, mature and experienced. Our CTO should be passionate about transforming the business of governing from the bottom up, and want to be visible, serving as a civic innovation rockstar in order to advance the cause.
There are lots of opportunities for skilled developers in the private sector. Why would someone with the talent to go to a promising startup want to work for a non-profit? I asked Clay Shirky, one of our advisors, to answer that question, and here’s what he said:
- It’s hard. This isn’t your dad’s CIO job — a lot of this work is conceptually and technologically challenging.
- It matters. Most of us live in cities, and all of us want them to run better than they do.
- It’s powerful. Two enormous changes of the last 30 years — urbanization of the species and digitization of group action — have hardly been combined yet.
- It’s possible to make dramatic progress. Models of civic service haven’t even been dragged into the mid-90s, much less the 21st century.
I founded this organization with Leonard Lin. When Andrew Greenhill and I first asked the question, “Why isn’t there a Teach for America for web developers?” Leonard was the first person I thought of. He was one of the co-founders of Upcoming, which sold to Yahoo!, and has spent his time since using the Internet to help find Katrina survivors, helping build my.barackobama.com, and generally getting involved in things that help make the world a better place. Leonard has several projects he’s committed to in addition to Code for America, and while he’ll continue to be heavily involved, providing technical and strategic leadership and serving on the board of directors, we need someone who can dedicate him/herself to the cause full-time.
Code for America’s CTO must hold a vision for technology for cities that helps them become more transparent, participatory and efficient. He/she must also develop a deep understanding of current municipal IT infrastructure, and become an expert in helping cities implement gov 2.0 in their operations.
We’re looking for someone with a track record of success in the consumer web 2.0 world and a passion for public service who wants to help transform the business of governing from the bottom up. For more information on the job, visit our posting on Transparency Jobs.
