BasicGov / BLOG

Code for America officially launched this month after announcing the initiative at Gov 2.0 in 2009.

The initiative proves to be very interesting and helpful for local government. It is leveraging new media tools with unconferences, google docs, videos and multiple social networks.

City Camp unconference in Chicago (January 23-24) goals:

• Bring together local government officials, municipal employees, coders, designers, and journalists to share perspectives and insights
• Establish patterns that cities can use to add value to citizens’ lives using the Web as a platform

City Camp’s outcomes are very relevant to local governments:

• Improved local communications
• Improved local orientation and navigation
• Enhanced public safety
• Lower IT costs
• Simpler connections between citizens & communities and local government
• Fostered economic development
• Increased civic participation at the local level

For City Camp they reserved half the seats for public sector attendees and are sold out for general attendance but city employees can still register here

Code for America related social networks are flourishing:

- Twitter: @codeforamerica – Official hashtag #codeforamerica
- Other related hashtags #muni #gov2
- Twitter: @CityCamp – Official hashtag #citycamp
- E-mail List: http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/citycamp
- Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=130953577981
- GovLoop:http://www.govloop.com/group/citycamp
- Delicious:http://delicious.com/tag/CityCamp
- Major E-mail Updates:http://eepurl.com/d6Ta

And for more information about this fantastic initiative check out these:

- Jeff Smith of CivSource gave his readers a great overview of Code for America
- Luke Fretwell interviewed organizer Jen Palki on GovFresh about the new role developers play in democracy and the importance of their involvement.
- Jen also gave a five-minute talk on the inspiration for Code for America at Ignite Bay Area.

BasicGov is following this initiative and hopes to contribute at some point about lessons learned and best practices using the Web as a platform.

The Gov 2.0 Summit presentations are available on bliptv and worth listening to.  Fascinating comments and discussions about government at all levels changing,  adopting innovative technologies and re-using / sharing information.

Here are a few highlights:

• Tim O’Reilly’s opening about government participating in Web 2.0, killer apps, Software as a service, “harnessing collective intelligence” … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFXxEXH23CE
• Jen Palka with TechWeb to announce a new exciting initiative “Code for America” which is about sharing  some of the best “experiments going on locally” and “propagate best local Gov 2.0″ ; based on the notion “What if, instead of reinventing the wheel every time, cities shared technology resources?”
• Andrew McLaughlin, Deputy Chief Technology Officer of the Obama administration, talking about “speeding up government” in the decisions, data it makes available, real time capabilities to data.gov and apps.gov

What do you think about Code for America?