One of Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne’s primary tasks is to assess the city government digital strategy in New York. Her team created the Road Map for the Digital City, which outlines how New York will go digital in 2011. Just like New York, several governments in various cities around the country are adopting technology in new ways to increase citizen engagement, promote transparency, and make city government more effective.
In Louisville, Ky., they created a website called “Your Tax Dollars At Work” that allows residents to see where city revenues comes from, how money is budgeted to the various departments, where expenditures are going, city employee salaries, and the status of stimulus funds. The city of Boston is well known for its Citizens Connect App, which is a mobile application that allows residents to submit problems such as potholes, graffiti, and other issues.
In addition to other cities, New Orleans is making moves to push the city and government into the 21st century. The city’s Information Technology & Innovation (ITI) department has outlined how it will strategically use technology to make processes more efficient. They have acquired a steady budget and outlined various goals for 2011-2012 to meet challenges that the city faces such as customer service, data management, and innovation. While the ITI department inherited problems from the past administration, they have been actively working to turn the perception of the words “technology” and “New Orleans” around. They may get some help with this in the form of a fellowship grant from an organization called Code for America.
How Code For America Can Help New Orleans
Code for America By The Numbers
Code for America, a non-profit organization, enlists people who are in the tech industry to help with public service projects. For years, Code for America has helped cities such as Seattle, Boston, and Philadelphia tackle ongoing problems that communities face by placing web developers, designs, programmers, and even entrepreneurs to help build applications. Code for America focuses on helping local governments become more effective through the use of technology. The organization feels that the problem with governments is that they are saddled with legacy systems, bloated budgets, and a dispirited IT staff. According to their website, 84 percent of cities face financial difficulties, 92 percent of local governments have trouble meeting citizens’ needs, and 60 percent of city workers are retiring in the next five years.
The organization sees the opportunity to make a difference in New Orleans and in 2012 the city has the potential to benefit from their Code for America fellowship grant (CFA 2012).
“New Orleans stood out because its proposal reflected an understanding of the power that technology can bring to cities,” said Jennifer Pahlka, founder and executive director of Code for America.
Interim GIS Manager Denice Warren Ross and Chief Information Officer Allen Square applied for the Code for America fellowship in February 2011, and the city was announced as a finalist in June 2011. In their application, they stated the technological challenges that the city faces. One of the main projects will be to develop a light-weight application to allows community stakeholders to submit bulk information to the city about their neighborhood, view existing relevant city data, and receive statuses for each of the ongoing issues in their neighborhood. From this, they will be better able to advocate and support their neighborhoods.
What Happens Next?
New Orleans is one of ten city finalists for CFA 2012. If New Orleans is selected, it will allow the city and Code for America to create a partnership by which fellows can come to New Orleans and work on solutions to the challenges outlined in the application.
Code for America finds the talent, places them in the city where they are needed, and lets these two parts collaborate on the best way to get the job done. They are now taking fellowship applicants from the New Orleans area and around the country; the deadline is July 31. The organization is looking for those with multiple skill sets that have a passion to help change government and contribute to civil projects. Selected fellows will receive a living-wage stipend, travel expenses, healthcare, and also the training and support to be positioned as a leader in business, public service, or both. The recruiting process is conducted across the country by Code for America. In the past, they have had 362 applications apply and have only allowed 20 spots for the fellowship with a 5.6 percent acceptance rate. This makes the applicants who are selected highly qualified, said Abhi Nemani, Director of Strategy and Communications for Code for America.
The fellows will meet up in San Francisco in January 2012 to attend the Code for America Institute, and then proceed to their respective cities in February. In February, fellows will partner with the city, learning how city government works, meet with community members, the developer community, and locals. For the next nine months, the fellows will be working with their selected city to develop a solution to a problem area that the city has defined. Alissa Black, the Government Relations Coordinator at Code for America and also the liaison for the New Orleans fellows sees a great opportunity to help the city move forward. “Our primary goal is to help build technology that makes government more efficient, transparent, and also engages the community,” Black said.
Technology That Will Empower People
Hopefully, New Orleans is selected as one of the CFA 2012 cities. Code for America fellows will be able to use their talents to create a platform, software application, or service that will empower the people of New Orleans.
