Like many of you, I use the Google Maps application on my smartphone, a lot. Whether I need to locate the nearest convenience store or find the closest BART stop, having a map in my hand with a realtime “you …
The Big Arm of Politics
People often ask me about various innovative efforts to change America’s voting rates, habits, or options. There is a ton of interesting experimentation happening here, from TurboVote to ElectNext to Americans Elect. I haven’t dug in deeply to any of …
Take the Challenge
May 16, 2012 in 2011 Fellows, Commentary, Open Data
Right now the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC) is hosting a Civic Data Challenge. This challenge hopes to “turn the raw data of ‘civic health’ into beautiful, useful applications and visualizations, enabling communities to be better understood and made to …
Nick Bowden: Facilitating Mind Mixing
May 10, 2012 in Accelerator, Civic Startups
This post is part of an ongoing series about civic startups. What’s a civic startup? Find out. Code for America recently launched a civic startup accelerator to help promote and “turbo charge” civic startups. We’re accepting applications for the accelerator now …
Oakland City Council Votes for Open Data Policy
May 9, 2012 in 2012 fellows, News
On Monday April 30, 2012, Oakland City Council reviewed an open data policy initiative put forth by city councilmember of the 4th District and Oakland native, Libby Schaff. The open data policy agenda report composed by policy analyst Bruce Stoffmacher, …
Moving Cities From “Build or Buy?” to “Rent, Borrow, and Build!”
May 8, 2012 in 2012 fellows, Commentary
As a technology consultant in the nonprofit sector for 10 years, I’ve helped a lot of organizations select and adopt technology platforms and software titles — everything from simple desktop widgets up to full-blown operational database implementations. When I was …
Jonathan Wegener: Plotting Your Exit Strategy
May 3, 2012 in Accelerator, Civic Startups
This post is the first in an upcoming series of posts about civic startups. What’s a civic startup? Find out. Code for America recently launched a civic startup accelerator to help promote and “turbo charge” civic startups. We’re accepting applications for …
Open Data Powers New Citizen Engagement Strategies
May 2, 2012 in Open Data, Philadelphia
Code for America recently launched Engagement Commons to bring together information and solutions from across the country on innovative new strategies for government engagement with citizens. The landscape of tools and strategies for engaging citizens is changing rapidly, as more …
