Communications of the ACM
'code For America' Programmers to Work in City Governments
Credit: Wikimedia.org
Boston, Seattle, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., will each receive a team of five open source Web programmers for 11 months, as chosen by Code for America, a new nonprofit organization that's pairing Web specialists with city governments. Each city paid $250,000 to participate, which included submitting applications and proposals for what they wanted to accomplish.
Boston's Code for America fellows will design a Web platform enabling the city to use its educational services to engage students, which could allow students to get suggested readings for homework assignments, discuss their schoolwork with one another, and engage in reading contests. The D.C. team will put together a how-to manual designed to enable other local governments to replicate the city's work with open data programs, such as its Web application contest Apps for Democracy. The Philadelphia fellows will craft an open source mechanism for citizens to collaborate on activities related to local neighborhood services. Seattle's fellows will develop a way for communities to work with one another and public safety officials to improve neighborhood safety.
The 20 programmers were chosen from a group of 360 applicants. Code for America executive director Jennifer Pahlka says the group was surprised by the number of applicants who were interrupting successful careers to join the program.
From Government Technology
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2010 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA 
No entries found