We’re pleased to offer you some Government Sparkle for your desktop. (Just wait for the laptop stickers!)
This happened at day two of the Seattle Datacamp at the Jigsaw Renaissance hacker space with the sparkle consultation — and the lovely special Cooper Black Italics font – from Amber Case of @caseorganic. But I had been thinking about the need for a Government Sparkleforce since I started with CfA.
At some point during the CfA Training, I had been reflecting on the happiness, passion and enthusiasm among Code for America fellows and staff. This positive energy, I’ve noticed, is very commonly found anywhere that people feel empowered to work for a greater good. For instance, I am a huge fan of YayQuery, a podcast for web developers who like the javascript library jQuery. jQuery makes it easier to develop interactive web experiences across multiple browsers. Many users of jQuery become vociferous proponents of its awesomeness. YayQuery is no exception. They put a lot of sparkles and unicorns into what has been a very useful podcast talking about the goings-on of the open source project, jQuery. I would even say that part of the comfort, pleasure and joy that open source participants feel is that they have the freedom to put sparkles and unicorns all over their podcast, and all over their experience of being part of an awesome open source community. Part of this is that a lot of this work happens in a volunteer space. In people’s free time. As citizens, as global citizens.
Make magazine has the slogan “if you can’t open it, you don’t own it.” I think this extends to software and government as well. If you can’t open it, you certainly can’t add your own touch of sparkle.
So this is basically what I was thinking when I think of a government sparkleforce. We are creating new experiences and opportunities to allow us all open up the democratic process in ways that show that we all have freedom of expression.
