Stories from the Open Gov

Code for America was founded in 2009, since then it has grown into a national tour de force, driving massive government change and spawning other "Code For"’s all over the world.

We had a chance at this year's Code for America Summit to sit down with founder Jennifer Pahlka to reflect back on the journey to get here and to look forward to what is next both for Code for America and for her, including a soon to be released book. Yes, you heard it here first!

Jennifer Pahlka’s Twitter account

https://twitter.com/pahlkadot

Code for America’s Twitter account

twitter.com/codeforamerica

Richard Pietro’s Twitter account

twitter.com/richardpietro

Derek Alton’s Twitter account

twitter.com/DerekAlton

ReOpenGov Twitter account

twitter.com/re_open_gov

ABOUT

Stories from the Open Gov is a podcast published by www.reopengov.org and is dedicated to telling the stories about what Open Government & Open Data look like.

Your hosts are Richard Pietro and Derek Alton, Open Government & Open Data practitioners for the past 10 years. Listen and learn how Open Government & Open Data are becoming a reality!

MUSIC ATTRIBUTION - Introduction & conclusion

Singing Sadie - I Can't Dance

freemusicarchive.org/music/Singing_…3_I_Cant_Dance

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US)

creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

In our crazy messy world, we need a reality check on open governments!

Who better to give us this reality check than writer, digital governance expert and long time open government advocate Alex Howard.

We had a chance to sit down with Alex at this year's Code for Canada Summit where we discussed not only the current health of democracy but also brainstormed solutions to strengthen our civic capacity.

Alex Howard’s Twitter account

twitter.com/digiphile

The Digital Democracy Project’s Twitter account

twitter.com/DigitalDemocrcy

Code for America’s Twitter account

twitter.com/codeforamerica

Richard Pietro’s Twitter account

twitter.com/richardpietro

Derek Alton’s Twitter account

twitter.com/DerekAlton

ReOpenGov Twitter account

twitter.com/re_open_gov

ABOUT

Stories from the Open Gov is a podcast published by www.reopengov.org and is dedicated to telling the stories about what Open Government & Open Data look like.

Your hosts are Richard Pietro and Derek Alton, Open Government & Open Data practitioners for the past 10 years. Listen and learn how Open Government & Open Data are becoming a reality!

MUSIC ATTRIBUTION - Introduction & conclusion

Singing Sadie - I Can't Dance

freemusicarchive.org/music/Singing_…3_I_Cant_Dance

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US)

creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

We spoke with Amanda Renteria, Code for America CEO, moments after the conclusion of the 2022 Code for America Summit and discuss what is next for the organization and how the pandemic changed how we see hope in government.

Amanda Renteria’s Twitter account

twitter.com/AmandaRenteria

Code for America’s Twitter account

twitter.com/codeforamerica

Richard Pietro’s Twitter account

twitter.com/richardpietro

Derek Alton’s Twitter account

twitter.com/DerekAlton

ReOpenGov Twitter account

twitter.com/re_open_gov

The Voice of Stories from the Open Gov is Maurice Mendes

ABOUT

Stories from the Open Gov is a podcast published by www.reopengov.org and is dedicated to telling the stories about what Open Government & Open Data look like.

Your hosts are Richard Pietro and Derek Alton, Open Government & Open Data practitioners for the past 10 years. Listen and learn how Open Government & Open Data are becoming a reality!

MUSIC ATTRIBUTION - Introduction & conclusion

Singing Sadie - I Can't Dance

freemusicarchive.org/music/Singing_…3_I_Cant_Dance

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US)

creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

How can governments more effectively work with civic tech communities to deliver results? Great question, we are glad you asked.

This has been a big theme at this year’s Code for America Summit. We sat down to discuss this with Jessica Cole, co-founder and CEO of U.S. Digital Response (USDR), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that helps governments, nonprofits, and public entities respond quickly to critical public needs.

Jessica Cole’s Twitter account

twitter.com/jessunscripted

US Digital Response’s Twitter account

twitter.com/USDResponse

Code for America’s Twitter account

twitter.com/codeforamerica

Richard Pietro’s Twitter account

twitter.com/richardpietro

Derek Alton’s Twitter account

twitter.com/DerekAlton

ReOpenGov Twitter account

twitter.com/re_open_gov

The Voice of Stories from the Open Gov is Maurice Mendes

ABOUT

Stories from the Open Gov is a podcast published by www.reopengov.org and is dedicated to telling the stories about what Open Government & Open Data look like.

Your hosts are Richard Pietro and Derek Alton, Open Government & Open Data practitioners for the past 10 years. Listen and learn how Open Government & Open Data are becoming a reality!

MUSIC ATTRIBUTION - Introduction & conclusion

Singing Sadie - I Can't Dance

freemusicarchive.org/music/Singing_…3_I_Cant_Dance

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US)

creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

#opendata #civictech #cfasummit #opengov #govtech

The Code for America Summit has given us two days of incredible sessions, keynotes and community as we explored the future of government service delivery in a post pandemic world.

Join us as we sit down to unpack all that we heard, what it means and where we go next.

To help us with this analysis we had three friends join us:

Jessica Cole’s Twitter account

twitter.com/jessunscripted

Maya Love’s Linkedin account

linkedin.com/in/maya-love/

Tiasia O’Brien’s Twitter account

twitter.com/tiasiaobrien

Code for America’s Twitter account

twitter.com/codeforamerica

Richard Pietro’s Twitter account

twitter.com/richardpietro

Derek Alton’s Twitter account

twitter.com/DerekAlton

ReOpenGov Twitter account

twitter.com/re_open_gov

The Voice of Stories from the Open Gov is Maurice Mendes

ABOUT

Stories from the Open Gov is a podcast published by www.reopengov.org and is dedicated to telling the stories about what Open Government & Open Data look like.

Your hosts are Richard Pietro and Derek Alton, Open Government & Open Data practitioners for the past 10 years. Listen and learn how Open Government & Open Data are becoming a reality!

MUSIC ATTRIBUTION - Introduction & conclusion

Singing Sadie - I Can't Dance

freemusicarchive.org/music/Singing_…3_I_Cant_Dance

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US)

creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

It is day two of the Code from America Summit, and the place is a buzz with energy and ideas. Join us as we wander the summit floor and talk with people to find what the summit theme “Building a Path Forward Together” means to them and hear their highlights.

We hear from:

Maya Love, Data Science Fellow at Coro

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/maya-love/

Maani Stewart, Senior Policy Analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Alex Howard, Director of the Digital Democracy Project

Twitter: twitter.com/digiphile

Earnest Salgado, GSI for University of Chicago

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/earnestsalgado/

Krista Canellakis, Digital Service Program Lead at US Digital Response

Twitter: twitter.com/kristallakis

Code for America’s Twitter account

twitter.com/codeforamerica

Richard Pietro’s Twitter account

twitter.com/richardpietro

Derek Alton’s Twitter account

twitter.com/DerekAlton

ReOpenGov Twitter account

twitter.com/re_open_gov

ABOUT

Stories from the Open Gov is a podcast published by www.reopengov.org and is dedicated to telling the stories about what Open Government & Open Data look like.

Your hosts are Richard Pietro and Derek Alton, Open Government & Open Data practitioners for the past 10 years. Listen and learn how Open Government & Open Data are becoming a reality!

MUSIC ATTRIBUTION - Introduction & conclusion

Singing Sadie - I Can't Dance

freemusicarchive.org/music/Singing_…3_I_Cant_Dance

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US)

creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

What’s happening on the ground at this year's Code for America Summit? We wanted to find out, so we wandered around with a mic and asked people two questions:

What does the theme of the summit: “Building a Path Forward Together” mean to them?

What has been one of the highlights of the summit?

Get a window into the best parts of the summit from five people who were there:

Michelle Partogi, Service Designer at Code for America

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/michellepartogi/

Matthew Adendroff, Data Science Lead for Open Cities Lab

Twitter: twitter.com/opencitieslabza

Heather Benninghoven, Strategy Analyst for Benefits Data Trust

Twitter: twitter.com/HBenninghoven and twitter.com/BeneDataTrust

Hallie Martenson, Development Manager for Benefits Data Trust

Twitter: twitter.com/HallieMartenson

Felix Gilbert, President of Xcell

Twitter: twitter.com/felixgilbert

Code for America’s Twitter account

twitter.com/codeforamerica

Richard Pietro’s Twitter account

twitter.com/richardpietro

Derek Alton’s Twitter account

twitter.com/DerekAlton

ReOpenGov Twitter account

twitter.com/re_open_gov

ABOUT

Stories from the Open Gov is a podcast published by www.reopengov.org and is dedicated to telling the stories about what Open Government & Open Data look like.

Your hosts are Richard Pietro and Derek Alton, Open Government & Open Data practitioners for the past 10 years. Listen and learn how Open Government & Open Data are becoming a reality!

MUSIC ATTRIBUTION - Introduction & conclusion

Singing Sadie - I Can't Dance

freemusicarchive.org/music/Singing_…3_I_Cant_Dance

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US)

creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

Day 1 of the Code for America Summit was jam packed. Join us as we do a breakdown of the key themes and trends and breakdown what this means for the future of civic tech.

To help us with this analysis we had two friends join us: Ben Treviño the Brigade Program Director for Code for America and Mohith Rao the Brigade Captain for OpenSTL.

Ben Treviño’s Linkedin account

linkedin.com/in/ben-trevino-35930a11/

Mohith Rao’s Twitter account

twitter.com/localtechsupp

Code for America’s Twitter account

twitter.com/codeforamerica

Richard Pietro’s Twitter account

twitter.com/richardpietro

Derek Alton’s Twitter account

twitter.com/DerekAlton

ReOpenGov Twitter account

twitter.com/re_open_gov

ABOUT

Stories from the Open Gov is a podcast published by www.reopengov.org and is dedicated to telling the stories about what Open Government & Open Data look like.

Your hosts are Richard Pietro and Derek Alton, Open Government & Open Data practitioners for the past 10 years. Listen and learn how Open Government & Open Data are becoming a reality!

MUSIC ATTRIBUTION - Introduction & conclusion

Singing Sadie - I Can't Dance

freemusicarchive.org/music/Singing_…3_I_Cant_Dance

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US)

creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

#opendata #civictech #cfasummit #opengov #govtech #cfabrigades

One of the key themes for the Code for America Summit is Diversity Equity and Inclusion but what does this actually mean and how do we do it meaningfully so it's not just window dressing? To help us unpack this meaty and complex topic we enlist the help of three key and entertaining thinkers in the space here at the summit.

Due to scheduling, this was recorded in two parts:

Part 1:

Brian Whittaker is the newly minted Acting Chief Innovation Officer for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. He is is well known in Federal tech circles with over 10 years of experience leading IT transformation projects across the government.

Angelica "Angie" Quirarte is the Federal Partnerships Director for the Tech Talent Project designed to diversify the tech talent being brought into governments.

Part 2 (at the 19:12 mark):

Victor Udoewa is the Chief Experience Officer & Service Design Lead for NASA. That's right the organization who put people on the moon, and Victor gives us a teaser of what is coming next.

Brian Whittaker’s Twitter account

twitter.com/BrianTwittaker

Angie Quirarte’s Twitter account

twitter.com/abquirarte

Victor Udoewa’s Linkedin account

linkedin.com/in/udoewa/

Code for America

twitter.com/CodeforAmerica

Richard Pietro Twitter account

twitter.com/richardpietro

Derek Alton

twitter.com/DerekAlton

ReOpenGov Twitter account

twitter.com/re_open_gov

ABOUT

Stories from the Open Gov is a podcast published by www.reopengov.org and is dedicated to telling the stories about what Open Government & Open Data look like.

Your hosts are Richard Pietro and Derek Alton, Open Government & Open Data practitioners for the past 10 years. Listen and learn how Open Government & Open Data are becoming a reality!

MUSIC ATTRIBUTION - Introduction & conclusion

Singing Sadie - I Can't Dance

freemusicarchive.org/music/Singing_…3_I_Cant_Dance

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US)

creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

We sit down with Octavia Abell, the founder and CEO of Govern for America at the 2022 Code for America Summit.

Octavia shares the story of Govern for America and its work to build the next generation of public servants. She also tells us her reflections on this year's summit and how we can build a path forward together.

Octavia Abell Twitter account

twitter.com/octavia_abell

Govern for America Twitter account

twitter.com/GovForAmerica

Code for America

twitter.com/CodeforAmerica

Richard Pietro Twitter account

twitter.com/richardpietro

Derek Alton

twitter.com/DerekAlton

ReOpenGov Twitter account

twitter.com/re_open_gov

ABOUT

Stories from the Open Gov is a podcast published by www.reopengov.org and is dedicated to telling the stories about what Open Government & Open Data look like.

Your hosts are Richard Pietro and Derek Alton, Open Government & Open Data practitioners for the past 10 years. Listen and learn how Open Government & Open Data are becoming a reality!

MUSIC ATTRIBUTION - Introduction & conclusion

Singing Sadie - I Can't Dance

freemusicarchive.org/music/Singing_…3_I_Cant_Dance

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US)

creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/