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#militaryxmas #navywife #betterlucknextyear

#militaryxmas #betterlucknextyear #navywife

How Civic Insight Is Making City Data Meaningful*

Open Data is a buzzword in government organizations, as most major cities have published at least some of their data online, and local governments across the country are launching open data initiatives. But it’s important to realize that open data is not necessarily helpful data. In it’s raw form, data is virtually meaningless to most citizens.

To make their data useful, cities are turning to civic tech startups to translate raw data into useful information. One such company started as a Code for America project.

When the Code for America Fellowship team arrived in New Orleans in 2012, they were tasked with creating a public records system to track the status of over 35,000 vacant (or blighted) properties. Within 6 months, Blight Status was born, giving residents an easy way to identify blighted properties and track what officials are doing about them.

After their fellowship concluded, three of the fellows turned the project into a full-fledged company. Civic Insight, as it’s now known, makes official information about buildings and construction projects – including civic processes like permitting and licensing – available to the public in an easy-to-use interface.

Co-founder and CEO, Eddie Tejada, has big plans for Civic Insight. “Our technology is maturing quickly and we've learned a great deal about how we could automate our technology even further,” he said, “so I am excited to continue to grow and launch in cities across the country.”

Civic Insight most recently launched in Dallas after a partnership was formed between City Hall and civic organizations including the Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity. Dallas Habitat wanted to use property data – information like appraisal data, code enforcement, and fire and police activity – to determine where to make their next investment, but the data wasn’t readily available.

Recognizing the need for other organizations and the public to have access to that same information they were seeking, Dallas Habitat worked with City Hall to publish the data.

At the 2014 Code for America Summit, Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity CEO Bill Hall described the challenge of turning raw data into something useful to the public. “First, we wanted the community to have the data,” he explained, “but we needed a way for the community to use it and implement it and understand it.”

That’s when they commissioned Civic Insight, who is turning the data into simple, clear language and visualizations.

While the current website features an interactive mapping and monitoring tool of code violations, it will eventually integrate the additional information (crime activity, building permits, etc.) that Habitat was originally seeking, making it a one-stop shop for information on the overall health of a neighborhood.

“We ultimately want a high level understanding of the cascading impact that new building has on a neighborhood,” explained Tejada. “We want to make it easy to understand how Dallas’s neighborhoods are changing over time.”

Civic Insight’s current customers include Palo Alto, New Orleans and Dallas, with several other cities going live in the new year.

*originally posted on thetoolbox.org

If There’s A Tech Bubble, Civic Tech Is Safe*

Since its founding in 2009, Code for America has spawned many successful projects including Civic Insight and LocalData, which are full-fledged startups that originally began as ideas conceived during a fellowship year. In the same vein, the civic engagement platform, MindMixer, a graduate of the 2012 CfA Accelerator, closed a $17 million series C funding round earlier this month. The company provides community organizations with a civic engagement platform.

Despite these success stories, sky-high valuations for tech startups like Airbnb, Uber, and Snapchat have led some Wall Street experts to speculate that we may be in a tech bubble. Could the civic tech ecosystem survive a burst?

It can, and here’s why.

The product is necessary

Civic tech startups help people better interact with government. Since citizen engagement is fundamental to democracy, there will always be a need for tools that foster interaction.

The customer is willing and eager

Governments are tired of traditional multi-year, multi-million dollar contracts. Because civic tech is affordable and agile, decision makers often approve its use in a matter of days and see its benefits just as quickly.

The market is stable

The government marketplace is a stable one, even in a recession. Though budgets shrink, there will always be a budget. The government can’t go out of business. And if the last few years are any indication, tighter budgets will only spur more innovation.

What civic tech companies are you seeing have an impact in your community?

*this post originally appeared on The Toolbox.

Government Innovation vs Civic Innovation

In StateTech, Louisville's Chief of Civic Innovation Ted Smith explains:

Government innovation is innovation in the delivery of government services. Civic innovation is innovation for public benefit.

#civic innovation

Pioneering Smart Cities: What Separates Innovators From The Rest?*

Since Code for America's inaugural year in 2011, 28 municipal governments have participated in the (CfA) Fellowship Program. Last year, officials from 80+ cities attended the annual CfA summit in San Francisco, when the Code for America civic innovation community gathers in person for three days of collaborating, connecting and learning.

One of the main things that these municipal governments have in common is their willingness to innovate. Many have Chief Innovation Officers, who are charged with translating ideas of government innovation including open data initiatives, which are developed to identify better ways to use technology and spark the kind of citizen engagement that leads to action.

For all of the cities that have embraced the Code for America ideal of open data and transparency there are numerous governments that haven’t. But why?

Change is hard

Historically, government is not known for innovation. Bureaucratic red tape, antiquated IT systems, and a “why bother” mentality are often cited as reasons for a government’s apathy toward innovation. In other words, change is hard. But it’s not impossible.

Governments that have taken a forward-thinking approach to solving city problems have champions inside city hall. They have the support of executive leadership, departmental stakeholders, and usually a mid-level advocate that is committed to making the open data initiative a success and cutting the bureaucratic red tape. They have determined the best way to make data accessible given their current IT systems, and they have made sure that all key stakeholders are informed of the benefits of open data.

There is also a strong correlation between interested and involved citizens and an innovative government – i.e., champions outside of city hall. For example, the Open Chattanooga CfA Brigade was a driving force behind Chattanooga’s open data commitment and one of the many brigades championing open and transparent government. Code for America Brigades work with local government and volunteers to hold regular civic hack nights and events. From there, they share their work with the Brigade Network consisting of 126 local brigades across the globe.

The prospect of open government is daunting

Another reason many municipalities have yet to embrace the open data movement is the fact that releasing and maintaining the data can be a daunting task. Cities have hundreds of datasets, and there are a lot of steps to take before releasing each one. So, open government advocacy groups stress the importance of keeping it simple.

Rather than trying to release every dataset at once, smart cities have prioritized by releasing data that is readily available, shown success in other cities, and is most useful to citizens. Kansas City, MO, for example, goes straight to the public and asks them tovote on the data that they’d most like to see.

Other successful cities like Boston, Louisville, and Chicago continually reevaluate the datasets and add more data as their programs develop.

What’s next for Open Government?

The good news is that as the pioneering smart cities find success in their open data programs, others are jumping on the bandwagon and utilizing the resources provided by Code for America and other organizations. San Diego City Council approved an open data policy in July that was spearheaded by Open San Diego, a CfA Brigade. Minneapolis also passed an open data policy in July, and it too received input from the local CfA Brigade, Open Twin Cities.

To find out more about joining or starting a Code for America Brigade in your city, click here.

*this article originally appeared on The Toolbox.

Code For America: A Peace Corps for Geeks? More Like an International Movement

Code for America (CfA) has been dubbed the Peace Corps for geeks because of its intensive yearlong fellowship, which recruits developers, designers, and program managers to work with local governments. Since its inception in 2009, CfA has dispatched teams of fellows to 32 locations across the country. But this program is just one facet of Code for America. The nonprofit has evolved into an international movement working toward a government for the people, by the people.

Here are three of CfA’s other noteworthy programs pushing civic engagement and open government to the fore.

Civic Startups: Creating a Civic Tech Ecosystem

With government finally embracing technology as a way to provide public services, civic startups – small, scrappy, innovative companies that use government data to produce software applications and government services – are on the rise. Now in its third year, Code for America’s startup program is comprised of an accelerator that provides funding, mentorship and networking for selected companies, and an incubator for companies formed by past fellowship teams. All of the program’s graduates are still running, which is an impressive fact considering that as many as 90% of all tech startups eventually fail.

The Peer Network: Changing Government from Within

The Peer Network is a professional learning network for government officials and public servants. Through regular trainings, discussions, and events, Code for America facilitates the transfer of ideas, and fosters new practices and policies so that government workers can make changes from within. In 2013, initiatives included passing legislation to support open data, adopting common data formats, designing services with new citizen-centric techniques, and experimenting with better approaches to procuring technology.

The Brigade: Mobilizing Citizen Engagement

For citizens that want to take a hands-on approach to improving their communities, the Code for America Brigade brings participatory government to a whole new level. Working alongside local government, brigades of volunteers hold regular civic hack nights and events, advocate for open data, and deploy apps. Then, they share their work with the Brigade Network – a total of 126 local brigades, 76 of which are in the US and 50 international.

Coming up next in part two of my Toolbox’s three-part series on Code for America, I'll take a look at the cities embracing the CfA mission and how it’s impacting their citizens.

*this blog post originally appeared on The Toolbox

Wanted: Chief Data Officer for America's Finest City

Apply here: ow.ly/yXJOU

#opengov #opendata #sandiego

opensandiego

In support of the city of San Diego's progress towards implementing an open data policy

http://opensandiego.org/docs/Open-Data-Policy-Support-Letter.pdf

Washington, D.C.: Not just a city in Maryland.

Since moving to San Diego, it's come to my attention that many Americans need a geography refresher. A brush up on US Government 101 wouldn't hurt either.

To the many people that have seen my DC license and/or license plate and commented that they had always thought Washington DC was a city in Maryland or Virginia, here is a quick refresher from Encyclopedia Britannica:

"Washington, in full Washington, D.C. (“District of Columbia”), city and capital of the United States of America. It is coextensive with the District of Columbia (the city is often referred to as simply D.C.) and is located on the northern shore of the Potomac River, at the river’s navigation head—that is, the transshipment point between waterway and land transport. The state of Maryland borders the District of Columbia to the north, east, and west, and the state of Virginia borders the District on the southern shore of the Potomac River."

You're welcome, America.

#geography 101

#gov20la #govgeek (at Annenberg Community Beach House)

#govgeek #gov20la

UNICEF Taps Into The Power Of Unplugging*

Since we’re more addicted to our smartphones than ever before, we thought it would be interesting to create a connection between something we think we can’t live without (our cell phones) and something we actually can’t live without (clean water). ~Susannah Masur, UNICEF

Every day, 1,400 children under five die from diarrheal diseases linked to water, sanitation and hygiene. The UNICEF Tap Project is a campaign designed to combat the problem by driving awareness and raking in donations to UNICEF’s global water and sanitation programs for children.

The Project launched in New York City in 2007 with a simple call to action. During World Water Week (the end of March), restaurants across the United States encouraged patrons to donate $1 or more for the tap water they usually enjoy for free with donations supporting UNICEF’s water and sanitation programs.

Since its inception, the UNICEF Tap Project has raised nearly $4.5 million for water sanitation in Belize, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Nicaragua, Côte d’Ivoire, Guatemala, Haiti, Iraq, Mauritania, Togo and Vietnam.

This year with the release of a new mobile web app, UNICEF is making it easier than ever for people to support the Tap Project. We caught up with the UNICEF team to learn more.

What went into designing and creating a mobile app?

Advertising agency Droga5 is our founding partner for the UNICEF Tap Project, and we worked closely with them to create this year’s concept. Every year we ask ourselves the same question, “Why should people care about access to clean water?”

Clean water is something most of us in the U.S. take for granted, and it’s hard to put ourselves in the shoes of a child halfway across the globe for whom safe drinking water is a luxury.

We wanted to put things into perspective and allow people to reflect on the issue of clean water and their own realities at the same time.

How does the app work?

For every ten minutes spent on the UNICEF Tap Project mobile experience, Giorgio Armani Fragrances and other donors will provide the funding equivalent of one day of clean water for a child. Once the cell phone is touched after activating the mobile web app, the site calculates the time spent and impact of the effort.

Throughout the process, the app also provides facts about water access and record times set by other users in the same state. Through the site tap.unicefusa.org, individuals can also donate or sign up as volunteers to support UNICEF’s clean water and sanitation programs for children.

What's the desired impact of the mobile app? Have you seen results?

We’re thrilled that this year’s campaign has taken off. So far, the mobile experience has been activated 3.5 million times, people have stayed off their phones for over 200 million minutes to provide clean water to children, and more than 14,000 people have signed up as volunteers with us. We’ve been blown away by how much interest and enthusiasm this year’s campaign has generated. Our aim was to meet or exceed last year’s goal of $1 million, and we’re on track to do that.

The TAP For more information, visit UNICEF online: www.unicefusa.org.

*originally posted on The Toolbox

Check out my latest blog post for The Toolbox

#austin (at Texas State Capitol)

#austin

Citizen Engagement: 3 Cities And Their Civic Tech Tools

Though democratic governments are of the people, by the people, and for the people, it often seems that our only input is electing officials who pass laws on our behalf. After all, I don’t know many people who attend town hall meetings these days. But the evolution of technology has given citizens a new way to participate. Governments are using technology to include as many voices from their communities as possible in civic decisions and activities.

Here are three examples.

Raleigh, NC

Raleigh North Carolina’s open government initiative is a great example of passive citizen engagement. By following an open source strategy, Open Raleigh has made city data available to the public. Citizens then use the data in a myriad of ways, from simply visualizing daily crime in their city, to creating an app that lets users navigate and interactively utilize the city’s greenway system.

Fort Smith, AR

Using MindMixer, Fort Smith Arkansas has created an online forum for residents to discuss the city’s comprehensive plan, effectively putting the community’s future in the hands of the community itself. Citizens are invited to share their own ideas, vote on ideas submitted by others, and engage with city officials that are “listening” to the conversation on the site.

Seattle, WA

Being a tech town, it’s no surprise that Seattle is using social media as a citizen engagement tool. The Seattle Police Department (SPD) uses a variety of social media tools to reach the public. In 2012, the department launched a first-of-its kind hyper-local twitter initiative. A police scanner for the twitter generation, Tweets by Beat provides twitter feeds of police dispatches in each of Seattle’s 51 police beats so that residents can find out what is happening right on their block.

In addition to Twitter and Facebook, SPD created a Tumblr to, in their own words, “show you your police department doing police-y things in your city.” In a nutshell, the department’s Tumblr serves as an extension of their other social media outlets.

3 Startups Proving That 'For Good' & 'For profit' Are Not Mutually Exclusive

Several days ago civic tech startup Citizinvestor shared with its followers their company values. What stood out to me was their eighth core value:

For good, for profit

Profit and social impact are not mutually exclusive. We believe the best way to create real change is by creating new value in the marketplace.

There is a misconception that if a company is for profit, it is inherently not “for the people.” -- not surprising considering the turbulence we’ve seen on Wall Street over the past several years.

Thankfully, dozens of civic tech companies, along with organizations like Code for America and the Knight Foundation, are proving otherwise.

The intersection of ‘for profit’ and ‘for good’

Mark Headd, Philadelphia’s Chief Data Officer and civic innovation thought leader, provides great insight into what a civic startup looks like. He explains in his blog, Civic Innovations, that civic startups have particular qualities that make them attractive to both governments and citizens. Both parties have an interest in seeing these kinds of startups succeed because both will realize benefits when they do. Mark provides an excellent definition:

“Civic startups are those companies that, through the pursuit of their core missions, produce what economists call a positive externality. In other words, there are benefits inherent in the services these companies provide that are not reflected in the cost of that service.”

Here are three examples of startups who embody Headd’s definition.

Citizinvestor: the Public Sector’s Answer to Kickstarter

Citizinvestor (whose core values are the basis for this post) is essentially Kickstarter for government. Citizinvestor is a crowdfunding and civic engagement platform for local government projects. Any government entity can post public projects to Citizinvestor.com where citizens can make a tax-deductible donation to the projects they care about most.

ArchiveSocial: Ensuring Social Media Compliance One Tweet at a Time

ArchiveSocial enables public agencies to engage with citizens via social media, while automatically ensuring compliance with state and federal records laws such as FOIA. It provides a legal safety net, and eliminates the time and effort required to respond to public records requests. Essentially, citizens benefit from increased engagement with their government, and the promise of government transparency (i.e. freedom of information) being fulfilled.

SmartProcure: Changing How Government Does Business

SmartProcure is an online information service that provides access to local, state, and federal government procurement data. With 60 million government purchase orders in their database and counting, SmartProcure enables government agencies to make more efficient procurement decisions and save taxpayer dollars, while simultaneously enabling businesses to sell more effectively and competitively to government agencies.

Why I Joined a Civic Startup

I am proud to be a part of a civic startup. After working with big government contractors for over five years, I knew the business of government. Several months ago I began looking for new career opportunities. I wanted to continue working with government, but I wanted to actually make a difference. In my job hunt, I focused only companies that fit the civic startup bill.

The definition of a civic startup

Those are the businesses that I targeted. Not only did I stumble across some amazing companies (Measured Voice, SmartProcure, and Appallicious, to name just a few), but my research led me to several startup founders who I now consider career mentors, and ultimately to ArchiveSocial.

Why I went with ArchiveSocial

After several months of reaching out to a multitude civic startups, (and basically doing a guerilla marketing campaign to promote myself), I was offered positions at 3 companies. And then came the tough part.* I had to choose.

After a one-month trial period to test my fit with the company (a fairly common practice in the startup world), I packed up my apartment,made the move to Durham, North Carolina, and started with ArchiveSocial full-time.

I chose ArchiveSocial because of the company’s mission in the public sector: increasing citizen engagement and government transparency. By archiving social media records, ArchiveSocial eliminates the compliance risk that is preventing government agencies -- especially at the municipal level -- from using social media as a two-way communications tool, or from having any social media presence whatsoever. Citizens benefit from increased engagement with their government, and the promise of government transparency (i.e. freedom of information) being fulfilled.

The future of civic startups

Like all civic startups, or any startup, for that matter, ArchiveSocial faces many challenges. We have limited resources and we’re competing against the government establishment (those big government contractors I mentioned at the beginning of this post).

Luckily, there are several well-established organizations that are committed to the success of civic startups. ArchiveSocial is part of the Code for America accelerator program, for example. Cities are also taking notice. Philadelphia is one of the cities nurturing startups and recently launched a program called FastFWD, a 12-week social enterprise accelerator focused on public safety.

Civic startups are still a relatively new concept. As more and more governments strive for innovation, I can envision a future where we are widely accepted. Only time will tell.

Quote of the Day

"Small towns themselves are not silent prisoners of old technology – many of the most innovative communities I’ve worked with have fewer than 20,000 people. These communities are the BEST positioned to try technology, fail, pivot and settle upon working solutions because of their size and the familiarity of their residents. It is our job to make making these steps forward painless." - Caitria O'Neill, Co-founder and CEO of Recovers

Read more about "thinking small" on the Recovers blog

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