Communications of the ACM
Local Coders Help Improve Government Functions
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Local software programmers are helping to enhance government functions through efforts such as Code for America (CfA), a fellowship program that matches cities with coders to produce easily transferable applications for cities. Developers appear eager to support city initiatives. For example, the CfA's inaugural class included 362 applications, many from developers that had previous experience building software apps. "It's a chance [to] not only get to work with cities to really potentially make some impact, but actually build this new program to really get it online," says CfA fellow Jeremy Canfield. "I find that really compelling."
Another initiative, Apps for Democracy, is a competition in which developers vie for cash prizes to develop the best apps using city data from Washington, D.C., and the inaugural contest yielded about 50 applications within a month at a cost of $50,000. The event inspired a series of copycat contests in the United States and around the world.
Outside of competitions, civic innovators have gathered at "unconferences" such as CityCamp, where municipal and civic leaders convene to talk about city governments' technology challenges and solutions. CityCamps were held in Chicago, Denver, and San Francisco last year. Meanwhile, a couple of cities created research and development-type labs in which citizens could offer ideas to the CIO's office.
From Governing
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