On January 26 at 5:30pm, we’re hosting an Open House. Come have a drink and a snack, and learn about their projects, and discuss what comes next.

All are welcome! RSVP below or on Eventbrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/edit?msg=1&saved=1&eid=2769330141

(Note: we hope to host this event at our new offices, but as construction is still underway, we may end up at our current space. RSVP, and we’ll be sure to keep you up-to-date.)

In 2012, Code for America will be launching a Civic Startup Accelerator to support disruption as a public service. The Accelerator will invite entrepreneurs to propose ventures that redesign the citizen/government experience through innovative technology.

But we need someone to lead it.

The Director of the CfA Accelerator will be a mix of entrepreneur, civic-nerd, coach and connector. You’ll have to not only build and execute a successful accelerator program, but also help define this emerging market to investors. This can’t be just another startup factory; the quirks and nuances in this space will require a specialized program and a leader with the creativity, enthusiasm, and doggedness to get it off the ground, and fast.

In a few months, you’ll need to iron out a plan for the accelerator, pitch investors on your vision, recruit mentors for the teams, and then go out there and find the most promising ideas for civic startups. Finally, you’ll need to bring everything together for a 12-week sprint, turning those ideas into sustainable businesses. And then, of course, you have to do it all again.

Our ideal candidate has experience as an entrepreneur, is passionate about public service, and can build a network of investors, mentors, and advisors to make the program successful. Previous involvement with civic-oriented startups is a plus.

This sounds like a challenge, we’re sure, and that’s because it is. It’s a challenge that matters. If you’re successful, you’ll not only have helped multiple companies find their way to impact, but you’ll have helped give shape, meaning, and promise to this increasingly important space.

Interested? Good. Apply here: http://codeforamerica.org/jobs/

Among other elements of the new Web site: organization of a “Snow Corps,” which will match volunteers with mounds to shovel; winter-related computer applications to guide people when two inches of snow has fallen, alerting them to parking bans on city streets or, if it is too late, telling them where their car has been towed to; and an “adopt-a-sidewalk” program that will soon allow residents to share shoveling tools and claim shoveling responsibilities on a map.

Notably, “Adopt-a-Sidewalk,” which is tool launching soon, is in fact built on top of (or forked to use the technical term) of the app CfA fellows developed for the city of Boston last year: Adopt-a-Hydrant.

If you recall, that tool, as well, was made as a response to the city concerns over the impact of snowstorms on emergency readiness. Developed by fellow Erik Michaels-Ober, Adopt-a-Hydrant, however, was written to function as a platform, able to be re-purposed for any kind of civic infrastructure; in fact, the original app included reference to “Hydrant” only once in the code, making it simple and easy to be reused. Of course, as you can see on GitHub, the city of Chicago is building on top of the platform with new features and customizations — which should only make it more useful for the next city.

As the article rightly notes, however, it remains to be whether Chicagoans will “really wish to officially stake out shoveling responsibilities,” so we too are eager to see the platform rolled out this year. ABC Chicago reports that it will launch after beta testing with the media partner, OhSoWe.

In any event, this, to me, illustrates both to the value of reusable software and the creative ways cities can use it — the motivating ideas for our Civic Commons Marketplace. The Marketplace, which just beta launched, is intended to help cities connect around the software they buy and build; the thinking being that cities need to know what others are using to share tools and best practices for better, more cost-effective services. Put simply, cities can and should share technology for the public good. And indeed that’s exactly what we’re seeing here with Chicago building off of Boston’s efforts: open, collaborative civic innovation.

YAKB.us helps residents find transit information. While this may sound familiar, his version takes a inclusive approach, focusing on helping those without smartphones or dataplans learn where and when buses are arriving. With the app, you can either call or text into a set number and find the location nearest you. Since it utilizes the Tropo voice-to-text platform, there’s no call center operator required — it’s all automated. Plus, the bus stop information is available in both English and Spanish. All in all, YAKB.us seems like a smart, efficient way to enhanced access.

As you might know Ryan was one of the inaugural Code for America fellows, working on a host of different projects throughout the year. While he came with an impressive background, leading the web apps teams for the City of Santa Clarita, he didn’t let that be an excuse not to use the fellowship to grow. In fact, he started the year as a primarily .NET and GIS programmer, and he ended it as one of our leading Ruby-on-Rails developers. That is just a testament to his work ethic and passion. Code for America is now honored to have him stay on on staff as our Technical Lead, in charge of supporting the future fellows’ technical education and infrastructure. Given Ryan’s experience in City Hall and in our fellowship — and his prize-winning coding skills — I couldn’t think of a better fit.

Congrats, Ryan!

Note: While CfA’s Jen Pahlka was initially selected as a judge of the competition, she chose to recuse herself from voting or participating in any submissions from CfA fellows.

Their announcement is available on SXSW.com and excerpted below.

Code for America’s Jennifer Pahlka to Inspire with SXSW Interactive Keynote
Challenging the tech community to change the world for the better is a big part of the core mission of SXSW Interactive. With this idea in mind, we are very excited to announce that Jennifer Pahlka, founder and executive director of Code for America, will be our keynote speaker for Tuesday, March 13…

We hope you’ll join us at 2pm on Tuesday, March 13 for this inspirational call to action.

“After Change By Us’ successful launch in New York City and now Philadelphia, we are excited to see the code released open source for anyone to use,” said Jake Barton, Principal at Local Projects — the initial development firm on Change By Us, in collaboration with CEOs for Cities with with the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation. “At a time that cities are being squeezed for funds in all directions,” he added, “Change By Us is a free software platform that turns citizens into collaborators, empowering everyone in a city to make change for good. This triple win for any city costs nothing to install, entices citizens to participate, and creates ample press opportunities to tell stories about positive collaborative change.”

Throughout this year, our fellows have worked with Local Projects and CEOs for Cities to help open source the application, develop new features and deploy it in Philadelphia. In particular, our fellows — including Mjumbe Poe, Alan Palazzolo, Aaron Ogle, John Mertens, Anna Bloom, and Tyler Stalder — leveraged their on-the-ground user research this year to enhance the app’s resources for civic leaders. They built in functionality so that project leaders can now detail specific needs (e.g. volunteers, or in-kind donations) and organize events, in addition to developing to social features, such as being able to share projects on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and even directly invite your friends through the app. They also made available a host of tutorial videos on the FAQ page to make it easier for people to be successful.

Now that Change By Us is opensourced, we hope others in the community will work on extending the app even further. The source code and instructions for installation are available for download on Github. Local Projects and CEOs for Cities will be continuing to partner with cities to deploy the application around the world, and our Civic Commons initiative will be encouraging its reuse — along with other shared civic technology.

The Philadelphia instance launched with a focus on making the city “smarter, safer, and greener.” Mayor Michael A. Nutter said, “We are proud to be in the vanguard of cities using powerful and sophisticated Internet tools to foster civic participation and advancement of collaborative projects in the public space.” Philly residents can now access the site, share their ideas, and turn them into civic projects for a better city. Thanks to the support of the Knight Foundation, in addition, up to $25,000 in grants will be awarded for projects proposed on the site. Jeff Friedman, the city’s Manager of Civic Innovation & Participation and our lead sponsor in the city, concluded, “With the advent of powerful and sophisticated open source Internet-based tools like Change by Us, Philadelphia, New York, and other cities have the opportunity to unleash the full potential of positive, constructive, collective action.”

This came by way of a new app called Dark Sky that purports to predict the weather. Using your precise location, it tells you when it will precipitate and for how long; for instance, you boot it up before you’re going to head out for a walk, and it’ll tell you that it’s probably going to rain in 10 minutes, so you better hurry up. Plus, you can see predicted radar imagery for your location — which you’ll likely want to look at just because it’s so pretty. As the creators, Adam Grossman & Jack Turner describe on their Kickstarter page:

One of our biggest beefs with existing weather radar animations (those found in iOS apps, online, and on the news) is that they’re clunky, jerky and hard to follow. Doppler radar stations only take new images every five to ten minutes, so instead of a smooth animation you’re presented with a slideshow of a handful of still images. This makes it hard to get a sense of where the storms are coming from and where they’re headed.

I was particularly excited about this app, because it puts a new, beautiful spin on an set of open data. As you may know, the National Weather Service operates an array of over 140 doppler radar stations throughout the United States, and provides the data free to the general public. What you might not know is that data has given life to many civic startups, including most notably The Weather Channel, which in 2008 was purchased for $3.5 billion. Dark Sky’s servers pull in this data, then they “process it, clean it, extract velocity data, and convert it to the animations you see…”

You can learn more about the app in their video embedded below or also on their kickstarter page, where you can also help them finish up the app.

• The San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District’s text-message network to tap CPR-certified citizens when someone nearby reports a cardiac event.
• Riverside County’s use of digital channels to provide farmers with detailed weather data to promote more efficient irrigation and higher crop yields.
• Santa Cruz’s participatory budget process, San Francisco’s open-data clearinghouse, and more.

One of the report’s top recommendations is for communities to implement a version of the Federal IT Dashboard, which Civic Commons helped the OMB open source earlier this year. The Dashboard tracks government technology spending — allowing the public to monitor how money is being spent. Earlier this year, it was estimated that the IT Dashboard had saved $3 billion. The New America Foundation recommended using the IT Dashboard as tool to track performance measures and metrics. There’s even a Change.org petition going around now to encourage the City of San Francisco to implement the Dashboard.

Also, for those of you in the Bay Area, you can attend an Oct. 26 event at Stanford University, where the report will be discussed with policy experts and government officials; RSVP here. Code for America will be there talking about some of our projects in the context of the report.

To dive into the projects detailed in the report, check out the interactive map they put together, embedded below:

The report is worth reading in full, and is available at New America: http://newamerica.net/publications/policy/hear_us_now

Lauren (@ellereider) will be joining our communications team as a Marketing Coordinator, and she’ll be helping us tell our story and grow our community, for both Code for America and Civic Commons — something she’s perfectly qualified for. She hosts a solid background in non-profit communications and has worked on various local and national campaigns blending new and traditional mediums. Lauren spent the past several years amplifying the voice of registered nurses as a member of the California Nurses Association (CNA) communications team. Before that, Lauren served in the art department of San Francisco magazine and facilitated communications at ACLU of Northern California. Lauren, often found Canon in-hand, is a self-proclaimed documentarian of democracy. In sum, she gets our mission, shares our passion, and has talent in marketing, writing, and design. Expect to hear a lot from her — I for one am looking forward to it.

Mark Pan is joining us this fall as an operations and communications intern. He just received a degree in urban studies and education from the University of Pennsylvania. As an undergraduate, Mark led a host of web and tech initiatives as the student body vice president, taught hip hop dance, dabbled in web design, and mixed music for various groups. After interning at Code for America, Mark will be teaching in Malaysia on a Fulbright fellowship and then in Hawai’i with, who else, Teach for America. He’s already made a huge impact in the office, and we’re excited to have his energy, resourcefulness, and help. (I’m somewhat inclined to steal his passport, so he can’t leave — just don’t tell him.) In any event, we’re lucky to have him.

Please join me in welcoming to the team, Lauren and Mark!

Open Government from The Academy on Vimeo.