Max Ogden, a 21-year-old web developer from Portland, Ore., typically spends 9 to 5 developing software for a market research firm. It pays the rent but doesn’t ignite his passion. Then he takes his laptop to a local coffeehouse and gets busy on what he calls “my 5-to-9 projects.” By designing free, opensource applications in his spare time, using public data that the city of Portland makes available to developers to inspire innovation, he hopes to make his hometown function a little better. “They’re fun civic apps that make use of open data to make a difference,” he explains.
Now Ogden is turning geek activism into a full-time gig. He is part of the inaugural class of 20 fellows in a program called Code for America designed to enlist the nation’s young tech talents in a year of urban service. The first fellows came together in January to start solving interesting technology challenges in four pilot cities that embrace open-source solutions: Boston, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.
Code for America CEO and co-founder Jennifer Pahlka says the organization is intended to address “the real crisis facing our cities after years of cutting budgets to the bone.” She credits longtime friend Andrew Greenhill, mayor’s chief of staff for Tucson, Ariz., for helping her understand the tough issues facing American cities, including their aging workforce and often outdated technology infrastructure. By tapping the skills of a tech-savvy generation that’s accustomed to working collaboratively on open, efficient, and interactive solutions, Code for America aims to make government more transparent and agile about solving urgent problems.
For Pahlka, who previously ran the Game Developers Conference and events like the Web 2.0 Expo, this vision of “Gov 2.0” is a natural extension of the work she’s been doing for more than a decade to build communities around open technologies. Her mentor, Tim O’Reilly, the technology publisher who coined the phrase “Web 2.0,” is a board member and champion of Code for America.
The poor economic climate didn’t deter Pahlka and colleagues from launching a new nonprofit. If anything, she says, the recession “made the need for this more urgent.” Funders apparently agree. By late 2010, supporters including the Knight, Omidyar, and Rockefeller foundations had contributed $1 million. A number of corporate sponsors are also lending support, and high-profile endorsements have come from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, and other tech leaders.
The first 20 fellows, selected from a pool of more than 360 applicants, range from fresh-out-of-college programmers to more seasoned web developers. In fact, they’re more seasoned than Pahlka expected. “We thought this would be like Teach for America but it’s turned out to be more like the Peace Corps,” she says. Fellows receive a small stipend in exchange for their effort.
After their year of service ends, Pahlka expects Code for America alumni to become “some of the most forwardthinking, connected people in this space.” By bringing an influx of energy and ideas, Code for America “adds another piece of the puzzle” to help American cities, says Bethany Henderson, founder of another service-year program called City Hall Fellows. “It brings in a population not traditionally engaged in government—the tech crowd—and gives them a way to engage meaningfully.”
Code for America asks city leaders to think carefully about the problems they want help solving. Cities must apply to participate, including a well-defined statement about the challenge they hope to address through technology. Boston, for example, is focusing on improving access to educational data, while Seattle wants to use neighborhood statistics to improve public safety. Winning proposals tend to look for ways to leverage the Web to make cities more efficient, transparent, and participatory. The best ideas will lead to platform solutions, Pahlka adds, “so that others can build on them cheaply. That’s when things will get really interesting.”
Read more stories by Suzie Boss.