At a few weeks into the development of the Brigade program a status summary becomes useful. Here is what has happened thus far:
- We connected with civic hacker communities throughout the country. More cities join weekly. These “alpha” cities have agreed to work together to develop the first iteration of the Brigade program.
- A forum was established for discussion of program and platform development. Forum membership is moderated, and all discussion is visible to the general public.
- We talked to the creators and maintainers of apps that we’ll adopt and deploy during the alpha program. Apps include Adopta, Foo Mapper, Open Data Catalog, and PDXAPI. Each of these have demonstrated viability and sustainability for the cities in which they have been used.
- CfA staff participated in an inception event facilitated by Parker Thompson of Pivotal Labs. The eight hour session generated the product design for the Brigade’s web platform.
- The first call among alpha cities was held on Friday, January 20.
On the horizon: Fellows will host events in each of their cities on February 25. We are targeting this date for simultaneous Brigade events. Contact Jack Madans to participate where you live.
