Our team is made up of web geeks, city experts, and technology industry leaders.

Staff

Jennifer Pahlka is the founder and executive director of Code for America, which works with talented web professionals and cities around the country to promote public service and reboot government. Government Technology named her one of 2011’s Doers, Dreamers and Drivers in Public Sector Innovation and the Huffington Post named her the top Game Changer in Business and Technology the same year. She is known for her TED talk, Coding a Better Government, and is a frequent speaker at a wide range of events. She spent eight years at CMP Media where she ran the Game Developers Conference, Game Developer magazine, Gamasutra.com and the Independent Games Festival. Previously, she ran the Web 2.0 and Gov 2.0 events for TechWeb, in conjunction with O’Reilly Media, and co-chaired the successful Web 2.0 Expo. Jennifer’s early career was spent in the non-profit sector. She is a graduate of Yale University and lives in Oakland, Calif. with her daughter and eight chickens.

Abhi Nemani (Chief of Staff) has worked closely with technology firms, political organizations, and local governments, focusing on leveraging technology to grow their impact. At the Rose Institute of State and Local Government, he led a 30-person research team to increase transparency and efficiency in governance using technology, and at various political organizations, including the Center for American Progress and Young Democrats of America, he has organized national outreach and mobilization campaigns. At Google, he pioneered an innovative strategy to leverage social media. As a designer, editor, and developer, Abhi has extensive experience creating popular and award-winning websites, magazines, graphics, and publications. He graduated magna cum laude from Claremont McKenna College with a honors degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE). Contact: abhi[@]codeforamerica.org | 909-206-2220

Meghan Reilly (CFO & COO) joined Code for America in August, 2010. After graduating from the University of Colorado she moved out West to join The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco team. She participated in their rigorous training program and spent four years learning the hospitality industry. She then moved into the technology arena, working on major technology events such as COMDEX, Interop, Web 2.0 Summit, Web 2.0 Expo and more. Her roles on these events evolved; when she left the corporate world in August she was Associate GM & Operations Director on the Web 2.0 and Gov 2.0 events, co-produced by UBM TechWeb and O’Reilly Media.

Bob Sofman (Chief Program Officer) has had a diverse career – from counseling adolescents early in his career to holding executive positions in both large companies and startups. During the 10 years Bob spent at ATT, he held a variety of positions, including running ATT’s International Inbound business. From ATT, Bob helped launch PacBell’s Long Distance business and from there joined his first startup AVIRNEX in a CMO role. After a successful acquisition, Bob joined PointCast where he helped direct the sale of the company and then spent 7 years as an SVP at Charles Schwab where he launched Schwab’s wireless business and led the eBusiness Group. He holds a BS in Psychology and two Masters Degrees (Counseling and Computer Science), as well as being certified in change and culture management. Bob is a single father of a 6 year-old son, lives in San Francisco, and sits on several non-profit and advisory boards.

Ron Bouganim (Program Director: Accelerator) is a serial entrepreneur in the telecommunications and consumer Internet sectors, having co-founded or been a member of the senior management of startups including CCI (sold to British Telecom), Trymedia (sold to Macrovision), Razz and branchnext. Ron has a deep understanding of how to develop ideas that start on a blank page into organizations that have far reaching scale. Ron has raised over $300 Million in venture capital and vendor financing and been engaged in 7 M&A transactions. Ron has also been actively involved with a number of nonprofits as a donor, adviser and board member including Kiva, Foundation For Defense Of Democracies, Full Circle Fund, Endeavor, ZSpace, Take Stock In Children and the Children’s Foundation For Creative Technology.

Lauren Reid (Communications Manager) is a ardent servant of democracy-in-action whether it be on strike lines or online. She hosts a solid background in non-profit communications and has worked on various local and national campaigns blending new and traditional mediums. Prior to joining Code for America, Lauren spent several years amplifying the voice of registered nurses as a member of the California Nurses Association 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. She holds degrees in Visual Communication/Photojournalism and English from the University of Miami. Contact: lr[@]codeforamerica.org | 415-625-9639

Jack Madans (Program Coordinator) cut his teeth as a community organizer early on when he founded the pilot project, FoodCycle, while studying at the London School of Economics. Under Jack’s leadership FoodCycle served 200 three-course meals a week at the cost of 50 cents per meal, and has grown to now serving 3,000 meals. While interning at the White House, Jack assisted with policy production in the the Office of Urban Affairs and outreach to the nation’s Mayors in the office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Jack founded the Digital Citizens Project, a group of techno-progressives that build tools, share concepts, and aggregate individuals to collectively use technology in the public interest. Jack earned a degree in Political Science from UC Berkeley where he was President of the Roosevelt Institute’s local chapter.

Michael Santus (Office Manager) joined Code for America in December, 2011. Originally from Philadelphia, Penn. he moved west in 1995. After gaining extensive skills and experience in the financial planning industry, he spent the past 5+ years as the Sales Operations Manager for a local Bay Area classic and exotic car dealer. He is a Mercedes Benz lover and an avid traveler whose motto is “Have luggage will travel.”

Kevin Curry (Program Director, Brigade) joined Code for America at founding as an advisor. He came on board full time as a program director in January 2012 to lead Code for America’s community engagement and volunteering efforts. Together with Code for America founder, Jennifer Pahlka, Kevin created CityCamp, an international unconference and online community dedicated to innovation for municipal governments and community organizations. Kevin is also co-founder at Bridgeborn, Inc., in Virginia Beach, Virginia where he lives with his wife, daughter, and two pugs. 

Clementine Breslin (Executive Assistant) joined Code for America in June of 2012. Before CfA, Clementine worked as an editorial assistant at Stanford University’s academic press. In the past, she has worked in law, book publishing, and sales. She is a published poet, full-time foodie and amateur pool shark. Clementine holds a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, where she graduated in 2010. 

Ashley Meyers (Development and Engagement Manager) comes to Code for America with a background in politics and government. She caught the campaign bug in Chicago on a U.S. Senate race, did a stint on the Hill, and has since worked in a variety of roles, most recently serving as the Finance Director on a Congressional campaign. In 2010 she was awarded a Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs and spent a year studying cross-sector public policy issues in Northern California, working with a number of government agencies and non-profits in the Bay Area. She brings expertise in fundraising, coalition building and community engagement to manage CfA’s development efforts. Ashley is a graduate of Northwestern University with degree in history and political science. Contact her at ashley@codeforamerica.org.

Lauren Dyson (Content Manager) originally got involved with Code for America as a communications intern in 2010, and joined the team full-time in 2012. She brings a range of experience in the Gov 2.0 space, having previously served as a 2010 Google Policy Fellow working with the Internet Education Foundation to promote informed decision-making by policymakers on technology policy issues, and a research assistant at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society on the Digital Natives initiative. Lauren graduated from Vassar College with a degree in Media Studies.

Alex Tran (Program Manager, Fellowship) is a city advocate working at the intersections of technology and public service. Most recently he developed digital literacy trainings for leading Bay Area nonprofits, philanthropies and social enterprises at ZeroDivide. An alumni of the Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs, Alex has executed on diverse public service projects, including revamping the San Francisco Dept. of Public Work’s web presence, creating Digital Divide focused conferences for the California Emerging Technology Fund, and pitching a winning social enterprise mobile app concept to a panel of funders. Alex also has extensive community organizing experience as a Public Allies AmeriCorps volunteer and through leading climate change lobbying efforts in DC with 350.org and students from Pomona College, where he studied public policy and environmental science.

Noel Hidalgo (New York Program Manage, Brigade) is an Eagle Scout, a social entrepreneur, an activist, technologist, and organizer. For the last 15 years, he has explored the innovative technologies that bring us together. His work has focused on building communities, transforming organizations, and building digital participatory frameworks to connect all of the in-between-bits. He started NYC’s Drupal Users Group, helped cement unconferences and hackathons in NYC, founded one of NYC’s first coworking facilities, and traveled the World meeting the other side of the Internet.  In 2009, he helped reinvent legislative information portals by relaunching NYSenate.gov and providing Legislators and constituents a suite of 21st Century tools. In 2011, he was a founding member of the New York City Transparency Working Group, a network of NYC civic groups who advocate for greater transparency in city government. In 2012, nycTWG lobbied for the passing of NYC Local Law 11 of 2012, then America’s premier municipal Open Data law. Currently, he organizes betaNYC, America’s largest civic technology, civic startup and open government meetup, and works as Code for America’s NYC program manager.

Wendy Owen (Chief Revenue Officer) has played leadership roles at pioneering technology companies since the early days of the web. She is a bridge-builder whose customer-centric approach has led both to long-term mutually beneficial relationships and to organizational innovation based on a deep understanding of partner needs. Wendy developed the Strategy discipline at design consultancy Hot Studio and established a new Metrics and Optimization program which brought a data-driven methodology to the company. As VP Customer Experience for Social CRM startup Get Satisfaction, she was responsible for developing the company’s SMB strategy and ensuring an exceptional customer experience across all digital touchpoints. In addition to her extensive software and service innovation experience, Wendy has partnered with many non-profits throughout her career including the SF Bar Association’s Volunteer Legal Services Program, Public Broadcasting System, and the Bay Area Video Coalition among others. She is excited to bring her passion for change and innovation to the civic technology space with Code for America.

Hannah Young (Program Coordinator, Brigade) joined Code for America in December 2012. Before moving to San Francisco and getting bit by the startup bug, she worked in Wisconsin newsrooms, the U.S. House of Representatives, and on numerous political campaigns. Hannah graduated with dual degrees in political science and journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. When she’s not working, you can find her reading newspapers and seeking out the best kimchi, coffee, and microbrews San Francisco has to offer.

Mick Thompson (Engineer in Residence) is a developer, author, and entrepreneur with 10 years of experience building reliable and scalable web applications. Mick has worked almost exclusively for startups where building applications on new and innovative technologies is the norm. He started Ignite NM, a night of geeky presentations in his home state of New Mexico. Mick worked on large streams of data at the realtime search engine Collecta in Santa Monica, CA. He built web applications and APIs for Occipital’s 360 Panorama in Boulder, CO. He was a Code for America Fellow in 2012 and decided to continue on working on making government better via technology as Engineer in Residence at CfA in San Francisco. He is passionate about open source software, web applications, API design, and open data.

Angel Kittiyachavalit (Designer in Residence) is a visual and user experience designer. After graduating from UC Berkeley, she worked for ReadyMade magazine. Most recently, she was a user experience designer at a startup, where she launched their user testing program and was in charge of designing everything from web to print. She also loves learning different languages and speaks English, Thai, Spanish, and some Mandarin.

Hadley Dynak (Institutional Partnerships Manager) brings extensive experience in local government and non-profit operations to her work with Code for America.  She began her career with the Chicago Department of Public Health, and for the 10+ years prior to joining CfA she worked as a consultant for numerous service and policy organizations to strengthen their fundraising and communications capacity.  She also has produced several documentaries about social issues to build awareness and inspire social change.  She has a Master’s in Public Health from the University of Michigan and is passionate about authentic storytelling as a means to inspire institutional engagement and demonstrate results.

Luke Norris (Director of Business Development) has 12 years of experience in executing growth strategies for start-ups, nonprofits and Fortune 500 companies through leading direct sales and innovation teams, as well as structuring strategic partnerships.  Luke is a Denver native who lives and works in Kansas City, Mo., where he’s been recognized for his nonprofit and civic volunteerism. He was honored as the most valuable volunteer for the YMCA’s Civic Engagement Team, recognized as a Distinguished Citizen by the National Conference for Community and Justice, named a Rising Star of Philanthropy and appointed as a Commissioner to the Housing Authority of Kansas City.  Luke also is a mentor to entrepreneurship scholars at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and is a member of the Board of Advisors for Neighbor.ly, a civic crowdfunding service. When Luke isn’t making things happen, he’s traveling, cooking, eating-out or hanging with his wife, Tracey, and their friends.

Catherine Bracy (International Program Manager) In that role, she is launching and running Code for All. Until November 2012, she ran the Obama campaign’s technology office in San Francisco where she recruited technology volunteers to build software for the campaign. She also worked on outreach for Tech4Obama, the campaign’s technology affinity group. Before joining the Obama campaign she ran the Knight Foundation’s 2011 News Challenge, and prior to that she was the administrative director at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

Dharmishta Rood (Program Manager, Accelerator) believes that technology has the capacity to facilitate positive change in the world. Before joining Code for America, she was a Fellow in Psychology at Harvard, a Fellow at MITMedia Lab’s Center for Civic Media, wrote cases, industry reports and researched the Internet at Harvard Business School, and was a researcher at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. While in Cambridge, she co-founded and co-directed t=0 MIT’s festival for entrepreneurs in conjunction with the Trust Center for Entrepreneurship. She is on the board of SXSW’s V2Venture and Startup Accelerator. She holds an EdM from Harvard University and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UCLA with a BA in Design | Media Arts.

Dana Oshiro (Senior Marketing Manager) is a writer and marketing strategist with a love of tech and an interest in how new innovations affect our societies and lives. Prior to her position at CfA she has worked in tech journalism, publishing, public affairs, environmental health and anti-poverty advocacy. She currently posts at the The NextWeb and in her personal blog Villagers with Pitchforks. To contact Dana, ping her at @danaoshiro or email dana[at]codeforamerica[dot]org.

Board of Directors

Andrew McLaughlin is the Vice President of Tumblr. He is also currently a non-resident fellow at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, teaching a course on free speech around the world. He was, until recently, Deputy Chief Technology Officer of the United States, responsible for advising the President on Internet, technology, and innovation policies, including open government, cybersecurity, online privacy, freedom of expression, radio spectrum, research and development priorities, entrepreneurship, and open technology platforms in health care, energy, and education. From November 2008-January 2009, Andrew served as a member of the Obama/Biden presidential transition team in Washington. From 2004-2009, he was Director of Global Public Policy for Google. From 1998-2005, he was a Senior Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. From 1999-2002, Andrew worked to launch and manage the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), serving as Vice President, Chief Policy Officer, and Chief Financial Officer. In 2002-2003, Andrew taught at Harvard Law while working on Internet infrastructure and policy reform projects in a number of developing countries, including Ghana, Mongolia, Kenya, Afghanistan, and South Africa.

John Lilly is a partner at Greylock Partners with a focus on consumer Internet and enterprise software. Prior to Greylock, John was CEO of Mozilla, the organization behind Firefox, an open source Web browser used by more than 400 million people. John also co-founded Reactivity, an enterprise security infrastructure company acquired by Cisco in 2007, where he served as founding CEO and later CTO. John is currently on the Board of Directors of the Mozilla Corporation and the Participatory Culture Foundation, and has previously served on the boards of directors of TripIt (acquired by Concur in 2011), CenterRun (acquired by Sun Microsystems in 2003), and Reactivity (acquired by Cisco Systems in 2007). He is a co-inventor on 7 United States patents.

Stacy Donohue is a Director of Investments at the Omidyar Network. She brings broad technology, strategy, and financial expertise to Omidyar Network’s Media, Markets & Transparency initiative, managing investments in Government Transparency across the United States and Latin America. In this role, Stacy works to encourage accountability and effectiveness in government by increasing people’s access to credible information about government activities and money in politics. Prior to joining Omidyar Network, Stacy spent nine years at Hewlett-Packard in senior roles spanning strategy, corporate development, and merger and acquisition transactions. Stacy received an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School, an MA in art history from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BA from Yale University, where she graduated summa cum laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Andrew Greenhill is the Mayor’s Chief of Staff for the City of Tucson. He has worked extensively on wide-ranging issues facing Tucson and Southern Arizona such as water, transportation, environmental sustainability, urban planning, economic development and local government reform. Andrew’s strong interest in Government 2.0‚ the use of technology to improve government and serve citizens, has led to the development of a number of technology initiatives both inside and outside city government. In addition to serving on the Board of Directors for Code for America, Andrew recently co-founded OpenTucson, a local non-profit where civic-minded web developers work closely with community leaders to develop applications and other technological solutions and improve Tucson’s quality of life.

Eric Ries is an entrepreneur and author of the New York Times bestseller, The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Business, published by Crown Business. He serves on the advisory board of a number of technology startups, and has consulted to new and established companies as well as venture capital firms. In 2010, he was named entrepreneur-in-residence at Harvard Business School and is currently an IDEO Fellow. Previously he co-founded and served as CTO of IMVU, his third startup. In 2007, BusinessWeek named him one of the Best Young Entrepreneurs of Tech. In 2009, he was honored with a TechFellow award in the category of Engineering Leadership.The Lean Startup methodology has been written about in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review,Inc. (where he appeared on the cover), Wired, Fast Company, and countless blogs. He lives in San Francisco.

Nigel Jacob is the Co-Chair of the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics for the City of Boston. With an extensive background in collaborative, citizen-facing technology projects, Nigel Jacob co-founded the Office of New Urban Mechanics – a civic innovation incubator within Boston’s City Hall. Nigel also serves as Mayor Menino’s advisor on emerging technologies. In both of these roles, Nigel works to develop new models of innovation for cities in the 21st century. Prior to joining the City of Boston in 2006, Nigel worked for and launched a series of technology start-ups in the Boston area. Nigel is also a fellow at the Center for the Advancement Public Action at Bennington College. In recognition for their ground-breaking work in Boston, Nigel and Chris Osgood were both named Public Officials of the year in 2011 by Governing Magazine.

Board Emeritus

Tim O’Reilly is the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, Inc., thought by many to be the best computer book publisher in the world. In addition to Foo Camps (Friends of O’Reilly Camps, which gave rise to the un-conference movement), O’Reilly Media also hosts conferences on technology topics, including the Web 2.0 Summit, the Web 2.0 Expo, the O’Reilly Open Source Convention, the Gov 2.0 Summit, and the Gov 2.0 Expo. Tim’s blog, the O’Reilly Radar, watches the alpha geeks, to determine emerging technology trends, and serves as a platform for advocacy about issues of importance to the technical community. Tim’s long-term vision for his company is to change the world by spreading the knowledge of innovators.

Leonard Lin is a technologist specializing in the social web and a happy dilettante in hardware hacking, data visualization, participatory politics and other such geekery. He co-founded Upcoming.org (acquired by Yahoo! in 2005), and subsequently ran Yahoo!’s Hack Day program. Most recently, he worked on web technology and social software for the Obama campaign. Prolific and highly parallel, he’s written code for Lawrence Lessig, WordPress, Metafilter, Downhill Battle, and deployed mobile location and sensor network applications for the Web 2.0 Expo and Where 2.0 conferences. Leonard helped co-found Code for America along with Jennifer Pahlka, laying the groundwork for the program, and continues to serve as a technical advisor.

Board of Advisors

Deb Bryant is Public Sector Communities Manager at Oregon State University’s Open Source Lab (OSL), where she advocates and creates collaboration between public, private and academic concerns in pursuit of the successful adoption of open source technology and models. She leads OSL’s production of the annual Government Open Source Conference (GOSCON). Deborah’s interest in open source and its implication for government is reflected in her civic involvement; she serves as a Board Director for DemocracyLab.org; on the Board of Advisors for the Open Source Digital Voting Foundation; on the Oregon Statewide Distance Learning Advisory Council.

Clay Johnson is an open government advocate. He is the former director of Sunlight Labs at the Sunlight Foundation where he led the organization’s plunge into Open Source. He developed Sunlight’s contest model into Apps for America and Design for America and under his leadership, Sunlight Labs became a community of 2000 developers and designers working to open their government. He was one of Federal computing Week’s Fed 100 in 2010. Prior to Sunlight, Clay was one of the four founders of Blue State Digital, the organization that provided the technology and online strategy behind Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

Jascha Franklin-Hodge is a Founding Partner and Chief Technology Officer of Blue State Digital. Mr. Franklin-Hodge has more than a decade’s experience in software development in the corporate, nonprofit, and political spheres. He manages Blue State’s technology staff and operations out of BSD’s technology center near downtown Boston, including Blue State’s infrastructure, the maintenance and enhancement of the BSD Online Tools, and it’s technology client services. For Gov. Howard Dean’s groundbreaking 2004 presidential campaign, he led the technology team responsible for scaling, securing, and maintaining a high-visibility, high-traffic Web site, which received praise from both the political and tech communities for its usability, reliability, and depth of functionality. He studied computer science at MIT.

David Eaves (Director of Training) is a public policy entrepreneur, open government activist and negotiation expert. David is retained by several governments to advise on open government and open data, works with two spin-offs of the Harvard Negotiation Project and advises businesses on open source strategies and community management. David advises the Mayor of Vancouver and helped author the city’s Open Motion, is on the advisory board of Civic Commons, served on the international referenced group of the Australian Gov2.0 commission and was the ENGO negotiation consultant on the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement. In addition to his work he is a frequent speaker and author on these and other subjects.

Adam Greenfield is the author of Speedbird and the founder and managing director of Urbanscale. Over the last decade, he has written and consulted on issues at the intersection of design, technology and culture, with an increasing focus on how these things interact in (and condition our experience of) cities. He is the author of Everyware: The dawning age of ubiquitous computing. With his wife, Nurri Kim, he co-founded undisciplinary design collective, Do projects, which publishes books, pamphlets, and editions, and otherwise underwrites explorations into space and experience. Previously, he was the head of design direction for service and user-interface design at Nokia.

Peter Corbett is the founder and CEO of iStrategyLabs‚ an interactive agency that develops creative solutions to clients’ challenges and brings them to life in the digital and physical world. He’s widely known for his creative marketing approaches coupled with a deep technical background, and a focus on civic innovation through community building. In Government 2.0 circles, Peter is widely known for co-creating Apps for Democracy with Vivek Kundra and DC’s Office of the CTO, as well his co-founding of Government 2.0 Club, Government 2.0 Camp, and Transparency Camp.

Michal Migurski is a partner at Stamen where he architects the technical aspects of Stamen’s work, moving comfortably from active participation in Stamen’s design process, designing database schemas and API’s, to creating the dynamic applications that Stamen delivers to clients. Michal has been building for the web since 1995, specializing in data design and publishing for a diverse range of clients and numerous public, technical research projects and active open source codebases. He’s a Polish National and holds a degree in Cognitive Science from UC Berkeley. He maintains an active weblog at mike.teczno.com, and likes to talk in front of groups.

Ben Cerveny is a strategic and conceptual advisor to Stamen, helping to articulate an approach toward creative visualization and to evaluate and develop potential partners and engagements relative to that vision. Ben is a highly regarded experience designer and conceptual strategist, guiding the creative direction and vision of multiple successful endeavors, both public and private. His clients include Nokia, Sony, and Philips, as well as the Cities of Amsterdam and Barcelona. Previously, he was founder of the Experience Design Lab at frogdesign, an international product design company, and a lead designer and platform development strategist at Ludicorp, makers of Flickr.

Nick Grossman is the Director of Civic Works at OpenPlans, a social enterprise building open civic technologies. At OpenPlans, Nick oversees the development of open source software projects for government agencies, with a focus on sustainable transportation and local civic engagement. Previously, Nick worked as a dot-com startupper, independent web designer and developer, and urban design consultant. He holds a degree in Urban Studies from Stanford University.

Andrew Rasiej is the Founder of Personal Democracy Forum, an annual conference and website covering the intersection of politics and technology; as well as techPresident, a group blog that covers how the 2008 presidential candidates are using the web, and how content generated by voters is affecting the campaign. He has served as an advisor to Senators and Congressman and political candidates on the use of Information Technology for campaign and policy purposes since 1999.

Clay Shirky is a writer, consultant and teacher on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies. He has a joint appointment at New York University (NYU) as a Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and Assistant Arts Professor in the New Media focused graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP). His consulting practice is focused on the rise of decentralized technologies with clients including Nokia, GBN, the Library of Congress, the Highlands Forum, the Markle Foundation, and the BBC. He is the author of Here Comes Everybody and Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age.

Tom Steinberg is the founder and director of mySociety, a non-profit, open source organization that runs many of the best-known democracy websites in the UK. By trade Tom was a hybrid policy analyst and sysadmin who mainly cut his teeth at the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit from 2001 to 2003. Tom has also advised governments and parties across a spectrum of countries, and a range of ideological positions. In 2007 he co-authored the The Power of Information Review with Ed Mayo and the Strategy Unit, and is now a member of the UK government’s Public Sector Transparency Board.

Eugene Eric Kim is the cofounder and principal of Blue Oxen Associates, developing collaborative strategies for organizations such as NASA, Institute for International Education, and the Wikimedia Foundation. He is a thought leader in the collaborative tool space, focusing especially on Wikis, digital identity, and usability.  He most recently directed computer pioneer Doug Engelbart’s HyperScope project. Previously, Eugene worked for several years as an independent consultant, served as the Senior Technical Editor at Dr. Dobb’s Journal, and authored one of the first books on web application development. He received his A.B. in History and Science from Harvard University.

City Steering Committee

Cristine Deberry, Deputy Chief of Staff, Office of the Mayor of San Francisco

Andrew Greenhill, Chief of Staff, Office of the Mayor of Tucson

Peter Koht, City of Santa Cruz

Dustin Haisler, CIO, City of Manor, TX

Tim Howell, IT Director, City of South Padre Island

Nigel Jacob, Senior Advisor for Emerging Technology, Boston City Hall

Kelly Morariu, Assistant to the City Manager, City of Hayward

James Perazzo, Director of Performance Management, New York City