By Nicole Neditch, Senior Director of Community Engagement, Code for America
Since before the launch of the volunteer Brigade program, local groups of technologists organized into what has become known as the Brigade Network — a grassroots movement of community members holding regular meetings, or “hacknights — to work on projects and host events that benefit their communities.
Since 2012, the network has grown to more than 75 cities in the US, and many more throughout the world, collectively activating 50,000+ volunteers. Members have developed and deployed hundreds of apps, made municipal data meaningful and actionable, and engaged citizens to help make government work better for everyone. Most importantly, Brigades have given thousands of people a way to productively participate in government with not just their voices, but also their hands. They have demonstrated that government can work for and by people.
Fast forward four years later, and it’s no surprise that the recent report from the Omidyar Network and Purpose noted that 63 percent of all civic tech events on Meetup were organized by Code for America Brigades.
Moving beyond showing what's possible
Omidyar’s Engines of Change report points out that the scale of people participating hasn’t yet reached the mainstream, but we’re not sure if that is what’s necessary. What is necessary is that civic technology, as a tool, is having a positive effect on millions of people’s lives.
What the civic tech movement is trying to achieve is exceedingly difficult. We all have struggled with unsustainable apps that fail to serve the people in our communities. Make no mistake, the power of the Code for America effect, as Mark Headd described it back in 2011, was monumental. And it was the right thing at the right time. Creating apps in the way that we all did then was exactly the right thing to start a movement. It helped to gain converts, to learn from each other and practice our skills together, and to show what was possible. But in 2016, a good number of apps don’t end up serving the functions or the people for which they were intended.
Together, we must get past the demonstration effect and shift our precious resources of time, skills, and passion towards truly fulfilling the promise of “government that works for the people, by the people, in the 21st century.”
Now is the time to make services work for the people who need them most. We need to prove that this approach can have an impact on millions of Americans, make government more effective and efficient, and can drive down unnecessary costs. This means working together towards a shared vision. That is scale.
Take time to flip through the Engines of Change report and share your thoughts using #enginesofchange. Thank you to the Omidyar Network for investing in Code for America’s work and supporting the civic tech movement.