Code for America enlists the brightest minds of the web industry into public service to use their skills to solve core problems facing our communities. Through our fellowship program, talented web developers, designers, and entrepreneurs leverage the power of the internet to make governments more open and efficient, and in doing so, they become civic leaders able to realize transformational change in government with technology.
2010:Recruitment
Both cities and fellows go through a competitive application process.Cities identify a project that fits the CFA criteria, including a clear business case, and demonstrate they have support for the program among their internal stakeholders. Fellows must show a successful Web 2.0 application they’ve built (or significantly contributed to) and demonstrate talent and professionalism. For the 2011 cycle, we recruited four cities and 20 fellows.
2011: Program Begins
January
Orientation/CFA Institute: The selected fellows come together at the headquarters for a month of training, team building, working on internal tools, and project research. A key element of this portion of the program is the guest speaker series; leaders in both government and the web industry provide inspiration and build the corps’ networks. The fellows are divided into teams of five, each team assigned to a host city and that city’s project.
February
City Tour: Next, the fellows visit their host cities for one month. Their job is to learn how city government works, build a network of contacts in City Hall, and identify where CFA can have the most impact. The city sponsor serves as host, orienting the fellows, setting up meetings for them with a broad array of stakeholders and answering questions. The goal is to be able to represent the needs of their host city when they return for the development phase.
March – September
Development: Each team then has seven months to develop their application for their city. Teams work together at headquarters, sharing resources where appropriate. Ongoing training and guest speaker series continue through this phase.
September
Launch and Launch Conference: At month nine of the cycle, teams launch their applications. Staff from all the host cities come to headquarters for a launch conference, where each team demos their project for all the cities to see. This is an opportunity for the cities to strengthen their relationships with each other and discuss common priorities, including common technology needs and open data standards.
October – November
Maintenance and hand-off: In the final months, the fellows document their work, fix bugs and add final features, and work with the city to transition maintenance of the application.
