Collaborating with local government is one of the defining criteria of a Brigade. To build the most impactful solutions, both government and citizens must have a seat at the table. But collaboration isn’t always easy. It takes commitment from both parties, time, and a willingness to walk the proverbial mile in one another’s shoes. ToRead… Read more »

Per usual during seasonal transitions we pause to reflect what passed in the season before and what’s ahead. For us this was the Summer of Civic Hacking. It kicked-off the weekend of June 1, the first-ever National Day of Civic Hacking when thousands of people gathered in 90+ locations to learn about, celebrate and hackRead… Read more »

For the past month, New York’s civic hackers visited PLUTO. We are not talking about the “formerly” ninth planet, we are talking one of the most important datasets any city could provide as open data — tax lot and zoning data compiled into one massive map. In New York City, this data is known asRead… Read more »

Jonathan Feldman (@_jfeldman) is the Chief Information Officer for the City of Asheville, N.C. Asheville is a small city with a big startup and open data scene that has been featured on GovTech.com and the National League of Cities. Jonathan has helped build the case for an open data initiative by demonstrating economic development andRead… Read more »

In Buenos Aires, Argentina — as well as in many U.S. states and municipalities — government content can be subject to copyright, meaning that oftentimes works such as information on state and local government websites are not actually in the public domain. But this week, the City of Buenos Aires announced that they will beRead… Read more »

There is much discussion about cities becoming smarter, but becoming smarter is only part of what we should be aiming to achieve. Cities need to change in many ways to accommodate the influx of people during the 21st century. A Transportation Command Center (source: Highways Agency, flickr) Fortunately there’s a revolution occurring in how ourRead… Read more »

There was a time when technical resources were scarcer than human resources in government. But now, with the explosion of cloud storage, personal devices, and enterprise SaaS (software as a service) available at low cost — and the massive budget and staffing cuts facing most cities — that’s no longer necessarily the case. Technology isRead… Read more »

#cfabrigade hive mind: Cambridge (MA) Oak., South Bend, San Diego govs pursuing #opendata pol/leg + Bikeshare cities pondering data standrds — Kevin Curry (@kmcurry) August 9, 2013 Open data standards are the talk of the civic hacking nation and this has me excited. It’s feels like a resurgence. I think a lot of folks areRead… Read more »

I’m ecstatic to have interned with Code for America this summer. Spending summer here was an obvious decision for me because Code for America is the perfect combination of my interests in city government, civic innovation, and technology. I grew up in Nashville and just completed my first year at Claremont McKenna College where IRead… Read more »

A year ago, when I first met Maury Blackman, CEO of Accela, and Kris Trujillo, then senior software architect (since promoted to Director of Software Development), we spoke about support for the 2013 Oakland Fellowship project. Little did I know that Accela would become a generous corporate sponsor of our 2013 programs and a partnerRead… Read more »