Between winning tech awards and potentially grabbing super high-speed Internet, it’s clear that Boston is all about using technology to better govern our great city. That’s why it should come as little surprise that Boston was selected as one of five cities to participate in the first cycle of Code for America, a program that builds free applications aimed at improving U.S. city governments.
Inspired by Teach for America, Code for America (CFA) connects web-developers with city governments to build applications for a more connected and effective city government. For this first cycle, CFA asked cities all over the U.S. to apply with specific ideas for web applications to benefit any number of city government procedures.
Once proposals were reviewed, five cities were chosen: Boston, Mass., Philadelphia, Penn., Washington D.C., Seattle, Wash., and Boulder, Colo.
According to CFA founder and executive director Jennifer Pahlka, the final five were chosen specifically based on what they offer and the kinds of apps suggested for them.
“Each of these applicants demonstrated not only cutting-edge thinking and a willingness to invest in long-term change, but also a fantastic idea for a web app that will make their city (and any other city who wants to use it) more efficient, transparent and participatory,” she wrote in a recent blog post.
Gee. Sorry you didn’t make the cut, New York.
As reward for inspiring these great innovations, each city will have their idea made into a reality by developers hired by the CFA program. Developers will get to work in January of next year, and once finished, all the web applications will be free to use and re-purpose for other locations.
I’m constantly impressed with Boston’s commitment to utilizing technology and the rate at which government innovations are being sought out and implemented. In fact, the City of Boston is becoming so technologically advanced that I’m actually starting to worry that it’s becoming more machine than man. I hope I don’t one day have to report a story similar to Skynet becoming self-aware, but until then congratulations to the Boston city government for nailing the first cycle of CFA, and keep up the good work. We’ll worry about the robot revolution later.
To learn more about Code for America and how to get involved, visit codeforamerica.org.
