I’m on vacation this week, but I didn’t want Ada Lovelace Day to pass without a shout out to a very cool woman in technology: Alissa Black. Alissa is the Business Analyst Supervisor for the City and County of San Francisco, and most recently she’s been instrumental in the launch of the Open311 API. It’s hard to explain why this is a big deal, both to folks in government who aren’t technical, and potentially to folks in technology, to whom APIs are everyday things, but it is a concrete and significant step towards “government as a platform” (to use Tim O’Reilly’s apt term). And getting something like this to actually happen, especially with a broad base of support including other cities and an open source community, takes real skill, a lot of work, and a commitment to a vision.
Speaking of vision, one self-serving reason I’m such a fan of Alissa’s is that she immediately understood the vision of Code for America and has been instrumental in bringing it to life. It’s a wonderful experience when someone not only gets what you’re trying to achieve and believes in it, but actually understands it better than you do, and adds to and refines that vision every time she engages with it. Alissa’s background has informed her ideas of where cities can go: she was a project team manager for New York City’s 3-1-1 from 2004 to 2006, during which time that system grew and evolved dramatically. Then, after a year in the private sector, she landed in San Francisco, where she works with city departments to understand how technology can help them, and now supervises the team of business analysts doing just that. I can tell you from experience that she’s a great listener (listening being one of the truly undervalued skills of our time) and so understands issues to a great depth. She works through obstacles skillfully and patiently, and most importantly, she understands how technology can make society a better place. She holds the big picture firmly in view while she sweats the small stuff with grace.
In addition to her work with San Francisco, Alissa has driving a business analysis process for the cities who’ve applied for the first cycle of Code for America. This means that when we choose the cities who will be involved the first year, we’ll have a strong understanding of what we’re getting into, and what the Fellows are going to need to do to be successful. Her generosity is matched only by her professionalism, and we’d be dead in the water without her.
Ada Lovelace Day is intended to honor women in technology, and like last year, when I wrote about Carolyn Lawson (who is now doing even more cool things at the state level‚ -look for news there soon), I’m choosing to honor women in government technology because I believe this is where we’ll see the biggest impact on our lives in the next five years. I’ve also chosen both women because they are real unsung heroes. Thank you for all that you do!
