Code for America has announced its inaugural class of technologists meant to aid city governments across the nation with open-source, off-the-shelf solutions to save money and improve services.
According to CfA, these fellows will begin their service-year in San Francisco before getting their assignments to the 2011 Code for America cities, including Philadelphia, PA; Boston, MA; District of Columbia and Seattle, WA. The fellows will also receive support from a month-long Code for America Institute program, developed by author David Eaves, in which experts from technology and government will host training sessions on the vital intersection of politics and technology.
“The program is designed to join the best thinking from the web industry with the best thinking from municipal government,” said Jennifer Pahlka, founder and executive director of Code for America.
Beginning in February, the fellows will be on-site to work with their host cities to understand needs and develop project details. A launch conference will be held in September 2011 in San Francisco to announce the free applications and IT products developed through the program.
The fellows were selected through a rigorous process involving interviews, essays, and case problems with the input of a Fellow Selection Committee made up of industry leaders. Members of the selection committee included Irene Au (Google), Lane Becker (GetSatisfaction), Paul Buchheit (Facebook), Anil Dash (Expert Labs), Kelly Goto (Gotomedia), Nick Grossman (Open Plans), Dustin Haisler (City of Manor), Scott Heiferman (Meetup.com), Clay Johnson (InfoVegan.com), Matt Knox (Twitter), Michal Migurski (Stamen), Jay Nath (City of San Francisco), Craig Shapiro (GOOD Inc), and Rashmi Sinha (Slideshare).
Details about the specific Code for America projects and fellows can be found here.
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