Voter co-founder Hunter Scarborough shares the vision and mission behind his new venture.
NIST releases open source mobile app test tool
The National Institute of Standards and Technology has released an open source tool, AppVet, that makes it easier for agencies to test mobile applications security and reliability.
Procurement app hōrd gets an upgrade
Northern Virginia-based development firm GovTribe recently released an upgrade to its federal procurement iPhone app hord.
PublicStuff builds a civic network that connects government and citizens
PublicStuff helps local governments turn service requests and inquiries into tangible community improvements by connecting people directly to their city representatives from their laptop, mobile phone or tablet.
Open data vital for San Francisco’s Bike Share
Finally, a bike-sharing program is coming to San Francisco!
San Francisco makes open data city policy
Today, open data and its power to transform a city and a nation by engaging tech savvy citizens will be on display at San Francisco City Hall. And just as importantly, companies that have been successful because of forward thinking open data policies will testify to our elected leaders about its importance.
Big feet: Walkonomics wants to crowdsource the friendliness of the world’s streets
Walkonomics mobile app rates and maps the pedestrian-friendliness of every street in San Francisco, Manhattan and England.
BillTrack50 wants to make it easier to search, engage with legislation
BillTrack50 provides convenient and user-friendly 50-state legislative data to both citizens and those with a professional interest.
Park.IT or ticket
Park.it creates happy drivers driving in cities like San Francisco, by helping them avoid parking tickets or tow away charges along with parking choices at their fingertips.
NationBuilder brings community software to government
Vice President of Community Adriel Hampton pitches NationBuilder Government, a unified web, communications and CRM database solution.
Captricity frees government data from paper captivity
Captricity solves the “paper problem,” unlocking digital, machine-readable data from paper.
‘We see this digital space of empowering our citizens as the next generation of city government.’
Great “Connected Empowerment” video featuring San Francisco Chief Innovation Officer Jay Nath and civic action platform, Neighborland.
Civic apps competition? There’s a book for that.
There’s been a great deal of discussion around the value of civic apps contests, and now there’s a book for that.
Data Challenge Spotlight: WhyGDP?
We’re told American success equals economic growth. The data tells a different story: GDP doesn’t predict better lives, but civic measures do.
Data Challenge Spotlight: Visualizing Health Reform
Visualizing Health Reform is the go-to source for factual, easy-to-understand information on health care reform in Illinois.
Data Challenge Spotlight: The Art of Community Wellness
The Art of Community Wellness uses civic health data to demonstrate the importance of arts education to communities, civic involvement and overall wellbeing.
How to join (or start) a civic tech movement where you live
For those of you interested in starting or joining the civic technology movement where you live, watch Code for America Brigade program director Kevin Curry discuss how designers and developers are doing just this everywhere across the United States.
Data Challenge Spotlight: Politify
Politify simulates of the financial impacts of the plans proposed by Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.
Appallicious joins with SF to launch park and rec iPhone app
Later today, as part of Innovation Month, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee will unveil SF Recreation & Park’s official iPhone App, SFRECPARK, developed for San Francisco by mobile commerce company Appallicious.
San Francisco set to appoint chief data officer in revised open data legislation
San Francisco will announce proposed revisions to open data legislation Monday that includes the creation of a chief data officer who will serve as the primary evangelist for making city data freely-available to the public.
SF tech icons make smarter civic technology pitch
sf.citi brings out the the tech heavyweights for a new video imagining what civic technology could do for a “smarter San Francisco.”
GovFresh Q&A: Neighbor.ly
Neighbor.ly is a civic crowdfunding platform for U.S. cities and civic-minded organizations.
GovFresh Q&A: Fix 311
Fix 311 aims to be a nationwide app for the 311 system using smartphones and GPS. Fix 311 also includes a CRM system to manage cases.
Palo Alto CIO on building the ‘digital city’
Palo Alto (California) Chief Information Officer Jonathan Reichental shares his vision of the “Digital City” with attendees at the Silicon Valley iOS Developers’ Meetup on May 21, 2012.
Raise Your Voice wants to help citizens better engage with legislators
Raise Your Voice founder Dan Busse shares how his new civic venture wants to change the way citizens and legislators engage with one another.
Give us the 140-character elevator pitch.
We are a tool, placed in online news and blogs, that promotes open dialogue between citizens and legislators in response to current issues.
What problem does Raise Your Voice solve for government?
By enabling average people to quickly and easily voice their opinions to their elected officials – from the news, when they’re most inspired – officials get a larger sampling and a better, unfiltered understanding of how their constituents feel.
What’s the story behind starting Raise Your Voice?
I conceived Raise Your Voice during the debates on health care reform. As an Emergency Physician, I grew increasingly frustrated watching the town hall meetings, well meaning attempts at open dialogue, were hijacked by special interests and degenerated into shouting matches. It became clear to me that there were too many layers – pundits, interest groups, and media, between people and their elected officials, so I designed Raise Your Voice to give the average citizen direct and easy access. I placed it in online news, because that’s where people are most inspired to act. We got some small funding and launched in November 2011.
What are its key features?
Our main attribute is that, in being placed in online news and blogs, we make ourselves available when people are the most inspired about current issues (who hasn’t yelled at the news?).
Other key features include:
- an address book that includes federal, state, local, and county officials (since all politics is local)
- a “widget configurator” that allows people to generate and download the javascript code to place our button on their sites
- the ability to share their communications throughout their social networks
- we are working on integrating an advocacy platform, so people writing about an issue can see other groups working in their area (i.e. I write about logging and the spotted owl then see links to the Sierra Club and Wilderness Society sites)
- we have a multitude of features we are working on to make interaction easier; all aimed at opening up government.
What are the costs, pricing plans?
We are free.
How can those interested connect with you?
CivicSponsor helps citizens crowdfund their public spaces
CivicSponsor wants to disrupt the traditional way we fund our public spaces. Here, its three co-founders outline how their new venture aims to help citizens and public servants think outside the taxpayer box.
For GovHub, all politics is personal
When no one in Nick Gaines’ UC Berkeley freshman political science class could answer the question “Who is your state senator?,” he tuned in, dropped out and started GovHub with co-founder Adam Becker.
Hacking taxis and ‘making life in SF a little better’
Last February, officials from San Francisco collaborated with the California College of the Arts and Mix & Stir Studio for the SF Taxi & Mass Communication Challenge, a 24-hour hackathon focused on “design-driven technology solutions to real world problems.”
Voter ID and Civic Innovation
Since 2008, there has been a wave of voting law changes that impose barriers to the ballot box. Georgia Rep. John Lewis, a veteran of “Bloody Sunday,” called the new laws “the most concerted effort to restrict the right to vote since before the Voting Rights Act.”
The right to vote is being chiseled away by voter ID laws that require voters to show government-issued photo ID in order to vote.
In December, the Department of Justice blocked South Carolina’s voter ID law on the grounds it would make it harder for minorities to vote in violation of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Mississippi and Texas voting ID laws also must be pre-cleared but Texas is not waiting. The Lone Star State filed a federal lawsuit in an effort to speed up a decision.
Strict photo ID requirements will be in place in at least five states – Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Tennessee and Wisconsin — In November. With Election Day less than nine months away, voters without an official photo ID cannot wait for the challenges to play out at the Justice Department and in the courts.
In Wisconsin, for instance, voters must navigate “The 4 Proofs.”
I am a founding member of the Election Protection Coalition. Still, looking at the infographic makes my head hurt. More worrisome, it discourages voters from completing the application process. So I presented the problem of TMI (read: disenfranchisement by design) at Random Hacks of Kindness and the Hackathon for Social Good. Citizen programmers developed solutions to quickly provide voters with information on how to get a voter ID.
During Social Week Washington, DC, I gave a demo of the Cost of Freedom web-based app developed by Kin Lane, API Evangelist for CityGrid.
Users in Wisconsin can forget about “The 4 Proofs.” Instead, in four clicks or less, they will be able to access information about the state’s voter ID requirements, how to obtain a certified copy of their birth certificate (the document that’s typically produced to establish one’s identity), and the location, hours and directions to the Office of Vital Records using public transit.
I also gave a live demo of the Cost of Freedom text-based app developed by Jack Aboutboul, Twilio’s API Evangelist. Twilio is making an in-contribution of text message services to promote voter education.
To commemorate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we plan to launch the Cost of Freedom App on April 4, 2012.
I will post regular updates about the Cost of Freedom Project and other initiatives that are using civic innovation to protect the right to vote. The conversation about voter ID also gives us an opportunity to raise awareness about disruptive technologies in the public sector beyond election administration.
For more information, please visit us at Facebook.com/CostofFreedom. You can sign up to receive notice when the Cost of Freedom App is launched. Continue reading
Honolulu launches 311 app
Honolulu launched a new 311 application, Honolulu 311, now available on iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile and Blackberry. The service was developed by CitySourced.
San Francisco posts Open311 RFP
San Francisco has published a request for proposal to integrate Open311 with the city’s CRM software, Langan. Bid submissions are due February 3.
A city as a computing platform
Temple University Director of the Center for Design+Innovation Youngjin Yoo has an excellent “A city as a computing platform” talk from TEDxPhilly held November 8, 2011.
Is there a civic app for that?
The 2011 GovFresh Awards are going strong, but entries and voting in the apps categories could use a lot more love.
2011 GovFresh Awards entries and voting now open
Every day, tech-minded citizens across the country are doing good by their communities, literally geeking out about how they can help re-define the relationship government has with its citizens, using technology as a democratic tool to empower both.
13 ways citizen developers are coding a better America
Code for America has published videos of CfA Fellows demoing their apps during the Code for America Summit held October 13-14 in San Francisco.
YouTown launches Android app
Civic mobile app YouTown is now available in the Android Market.
Open Town Hall aims to keep online public forums civil
In 2007, Robert Vogel and Mike Alvarez Cohen started Peak Democracy to “build public trust in government through online public comment forums that are civil yet meet government freedom-of-speech and transparency laws.”
Mobile democracy: How governments can promote equality, participation and customer service
There’s a lot more to democratic government than holding elections and town hall meetings.
Cleaning up the neighborhood: A San Francisco case study
What if you could make litter, graffiti, and other problems in your neighborhood go away just by using your phone?
Gov 2.0 Radio: Reno.gov Web Manager Kristy Fifelski
Kristy Fifelski of GovGirl.com and Reno.gov joins us on Gov 2.0 Radio to discuss Reno’s planned inaugural civic hackathon, her GovGirl video series, the upcoming National Association of Government Webmasters conference and the new NV.gov.
Time for government to plug into one platform?
In a new blog post, Gartner’s Andrea Di Maio asks if it’s time to pull the plug on government Websites?
The 411 on the 311: Q&A with Commons founder Suzanne Kirkpatrick
We asked new 311 iPhone app Commons co-founder Suzanne Kirkpatrick to share her thoughts on the new venture, 311 and trends in open government and Gov 2.0.
New mobile app Commons gets creative with 311
TechPresident’s Becky Kazansky has a great overview of Commons, a new 311 iPhone app that makes use of gaming and social features to better engage citizens.
Missouri town uses YouTube to re-define public access television
The city council of St. Charles, Missouri has launched Discover St. Charles, a YouTube channel that delivers department updates to citizens using short video clips.
Bring DontEat.At to San Francisco and save public health dollars
Today on Gov 2.0 Radio, Allison Hornery of CivicTEC in Sydney pointed to a new app by New York University computer science student Max Stoller that mashes up NY health inspection data with Foursquare, and provides a text message warning if the restaurant isn’t making the grade. It’s called DontEat.At.
New video features SF open data, Gov 2.0 entrepreneurs
San Francisco Academy of Art multimedia graduate student Fabricio Sousa produced a great video on open data and Gov 2.0 featuring Zonability founder and CEO Leigh Budlong and Gov 2.0 Radio host Adriel Hampton.
YouTown: Local gov on the go
YouTown is a mobile application that wants to make it easier for you to access your local government information all in one place.
Blockboard puts the whole neighborhood in your hands
Blockboard is the latest start-up building a location-based mobile application that aims to give you a hyperlocal view into everything happening in your neighborhood.
SF Routesy founder on open data, advice to developers and government
GovFreshTV talked with Routesy founder and developer Steven Peterson about his experiences creating the app and asked him to share his advice to civic developers and government.
Free EcoFinder iPhone app simplifies SF recycling
EcoFinder is a free iPhone app that helps San Francisco residents and businesses find recycle locations throughout the city, including electronics, appliances and mattresses.