May 5th, 2010

Congratulations to the First CfA Cities

by Jennifer Pahlka

Jennifer Pahlka
We had planned to announce the cities chosen for the first Code for
America cycle this week, but Julie odell over at Mashable beat us to
it. We’re at Web 2.0 Expo this week and Juile got the scoop visiting
our booth. In any case, we’re excited to have chosen five cities whose
applications reflect a deep understanding of the power the web as a
platform can bring to cities.  Each of these applicants demonstrated
not only cutting edge thinking and a willingness to invest in
long-term change, but also a fantastic idea for a web app that will
make their city (and any other city who wants to use it) more
efficient, transparent and participatory.
The cities chosen for the first Code for America cycle are
Boston, MA
Philadelphia, PA
District of Columbia
Seattle, WA
Boulder, CO
What’s next for the cities chosen?  Well, we have a lot of work to
accomplish between now and the time the fellows will come on board in
January 2011. Part of the promise of cfa is to bring the best thinking
from the web industry together with the best thinking from cities, and
as part of that agenda we will be planning brainstorm days with each
city, when we invite web industry innovators and thought leaders to
partner with the key stakeholders inside city hall and tease out
further opportunities inherent in the projects they’ve proposed. We’ll
be documenting this process and blogging about it here, so stand by
for more detail on these cities projects as they evolve over the
coming months.
In the meantime, we extend both our congratulations and our gratitude
to all the cities who applied, and look forward to working with these
five bold, innovative civic leaders over the next year and a half.

We had planned to announce the cities chosen for the first Code for America cycle this week, but Jolie O’Dell over at Mashable beat us to it. We’re at Web 2.0 Expo this week and Jolie got the scoop visiting our booth. In any case, we’re excited to have chosen five cities whose applications reflect a deep understanding of the power the web as a platform can bring to cities.  Each of these applicants demonstrated not only cutting-edge thinking and a willingness to invest in long-term change, but also a fantastic idea for a web app that will make their city (and any other city who wants to use it) more efficient, transparent and participatory.

The cities chosen for the first Code for America cycle are:

  • Boston, MA
  • Philadelphia, PA
  • District of Columbia
  • Seattle, WA
  • Boulder, CO

What’s next for the cities chosen?  Well, we have a lot of work to accomplish between now and the time the fellows will come on board in January 2011. Part of the promise of CfA is to bring the best thinking from the web industry together with the best thinking from cities, and as part of that agenda we will be planning brainstorm days with each city, when we invite web industry innovators and thought leaders to meet with the key stakeholders inside city hall and further develop the opportunities inherent in the projects they’ve proposed. We’ll be documenting this process and blogging about it here, so stand by for more detail on these cities projects as they evolve over the coming months.

In the meantime, we extend both our congratulations and our gratitude to all the cities who applied, and look forward to working with these five bold, innovative civic leaders over the next year and a half.

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