C H R I S T O P H E R W H I T A K E R

@ C I V I C W H I T A K E R , I N C

M I D W E S T R E G I O N A L C O O R D I N A T O R

C O D E F O R A M E R I C A

Chicago as civic innovation through leader

To start with, Code for America isn’t that old

Code for America believes that government can work for the people, by the people in the 21st Century.

We build open source technology and organize a network of people dedicated to making government services simple, effective, and easy to use.

Brigade started off very small

Not so small anymore

We were already here.

OpenGov Chicago – Est 2007 OpenGov Hack Night – 3/2012

Hey, isn’t that…?

At that same time, this is happening:

Chicago hires first CTO, CDO, and launches data.cityofchicago.org

The Smart Chicago Collaborative hires Dan O’Neil as the first executive director.

The Apps for Metro Chicago contest ends, hack nights begin.

1871 Opens, Hack Night Moves

We all become very busy people.

Home Base

Chicago as part of the national network

We’re first through the wall

A civic movement built on Chicago Code

#CivicSummer #CivicWorks #CodeforAmerica

The Code for America Fellowship in Chicago: $300,000

(Smart Chicago paid the city’s share)

The CivicSummer Program: $250,000

The CivicWorks Grant: $500,000

Forking the model

They’re going full time.

The Regional Brigades

So, it was easy to keep track of 17 captains

Not so much with 53+

The original plan was to make it easier for brigades to get support without HQ becoming a bottleneck

However, in practice the regional brigade pilot has served to be a giant switchboard across the whole organization.

This is a feature – not a bug

Balance Redeployment

A network for civic innovation

We lead by example

We build code for others to use

We collaborate nationally

The Future

More work to do

Not to late to get involved

Come to a hack night

And if you’d like to see a project you can check out http://www.codeforamerica.org/geeks/civicissues

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C H R I S T O P H E R @ C I V I C W H I T A K E R . C O M

Questions?