Code for America Hosts Nationwide “Day of Civic Innovation” – Feb. 25 Share This +

Code for America (CfA) announced today, a nationwide “Day of Civic Innovation.” On February 25, CfA will host “Code Across America – Day of Civic Innovation,” which will include 16 events from coast to coast. CfA is a national non-profit that helps governments work better with the people and the power of the web.

Most events will follow the model of a Hackathon, inviting web developers, designers, and interested community members to join in a day-long brainstorm and development session on how to improve their city.

Code for America is hosting this day of innovation in in effort to shed some light on how essential it is for cities to tap the talent and passion of the community to find innovative ways of approaching local challenges. Coordinating multiple events across the country will also bring focus and reinforcement to collaboration between cities.

“People with web talent and a sense of civic duty can be found throughout the country. If every city could orchestrate such enthusiasm and willingness to participate to improve one’s community then American cities would be more tech-savvy than the Silicon Valley,” said Kevin Curry, program director for the Code for America Brigade. “Code Across America joins hundreds of people working together to deploy applications that will improve our cities and our society, to build a civic web.”

WHO: Urbanists, Civic Hackers, City Reps, Developers, Designers, etc — anyone with the passion and motivation to improve their city
WHEN: Simultaneous event, February 25; Ongoing, February 24 – March 4
WHAT: Hackathons, app deployments, unconference sessions

Events will be held from February 24 to March 4 with the majority being held on Saturday, February 25. Events will be held in these 15 cities:

  • Austin, Texas: February 25 from 9:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., details*
  • Chattanooga, Tenn.: February 24 from 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., details
  • Chicago: February 25 from 9:30 a.m. – 8:00 p.m., details*
  • Dallas: February 23 at 6:00 p.m. – February 26 at 5:00 p.m., details
  • Detroit: February 25 from 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., details*
  • Honolulu: February 25 from 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., details*
  • Macon: February 25 from 11:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., details*
  • New Orleans: February 24 at 5:30 P.M. – February 25 at 7:30 p.m., details*
  • Norfolk, Va.: March 2 at 8:00 p.m. – March 4 at 3:00 p.m., details
  • Philadelphia: February 25 from 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., details*
  • Raleigh, N.C.: February 25 from 9 a.m. – Afternoon, details
  • San Diego: March 3 from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., details
  • San Francisco: February 25 from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., details*
  • Santa Cruz, Calif.: February 25 from 8:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., details*
    *Indicates media availability at the event

Code Across America – A Day of Civic Innovation is about empowering citizens. It calls on developers to harness technology, designers to make apps user-friendly, passionate citizens to bring ideas and energy, and urban planners to put it all in context – this day is about a community coming together on their weekend for the good of their city and community.

Events are being held in the eight Code for America 2012 partners cities by the Code for America 2012 fellows. The 26 Code for America Fellows are broken into eight teams and assigned to one of Code for America’s partner cities. Each team is spending the month of February in their assigned city familiarizing themselves with the city government and community, and hosting various events such as this to encourage community and government collaboration.

The other eight events are being held in forward-thinking cities by active members of the Code for America Brigade – these events will focus on deploying existing applications.

The CfA Brigade is a program that locally organizes civic hackers throughout the country to deploy civic apps for their community. Code Across America will help kick-off this new program. Each city will identify an app to focus on, customizing it for their needs, standing it up, and getting it in the hands of users by the end of the event.

For more information: codeforamerica.org/code-across-america
Follow us: #codeacross