Code for America

Code for America seeks to help cities leverage the power of the web to become more open and efficient. Their activities include:

Fellowship Program: Showing What’s Possible

Through Code for America’s fellowship program, we recruit talented web developers, designers, and entrepreneurs into a year of public service and then invite forward-thinking cities to apply to work with them, hand-in-hand, to help them better leverage technology and engage the community. Through this process — and the apps they create, datasets they open, and events they host — both the fellows and the cities not only make a real difference in each city, but they also show what’s possible in any city.

Accelerator: Driving the Adoption of New Tools

 While technological and market advances over the past few decades have enabled the private sector to run more efficiently, government has been left behind, saddled with outdated and inefficient software and vendors. That has to change. The Code for America Accelerator recruits “civic startups” and turbo-charges them with a national platform to raise awareness, a wealth of business training and advice, and a broad network of potential investors and civic leaders.

Brigade: Mobilizing Citizen Engagement

Anyone can code for America, anywhere. And they are. Across the country civic technologists are coming together to remix and reuse apps, promote openness in city halls, and work together to solve local problems. The Brigade provides a national platform to help these groups come together, and for others, the tools and resources to start a local chapter in their community. This growing network of civic leaders is working to redefine the notion of citizenship at the local level.

Peer Network: Connecting Civic Change Agents

Local governments are changing. Forward-thinking public servants across the country are leveraging technology to innovate the way our cities work — and it’s accelerated by the exchange of ideas, solutions, best practices, and even software code between likeminded leaders. The Code for America Peer Network is a professional learning network for local government innovators who share the common goal of taking innovation in their city to the next level. Through the Peer Network, Code for America connects local governments around the country to facilitate peer learning, collaborative problem-solving, and the spread of innovation best practices between cities.