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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN""http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
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<title>In Praise of the Hyperlink</title>
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@import url("css/style.css");
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<div id="speech">
<p>Let me just get this out of the way. Hacking isn't evil. You remember the scene in Apollo 13 where they had to literally put the square peg into the round hole or else everyone was going to die of carbon monoxide poisoning? That's hacking. And yes HACKING SAVES LIVES.</p>
<p>The rest of this is either tale of good citizenship in the digital age or a humbling, tragic comedy. You don't have to read this all. I just want to show you that I'm a regular guy from around here. And I put this up here because you should know who is trying to convince you that this is a good idea.</p>
<p>This is the idea. I wasn't around when this speech was made but it's an enduring concept, really. For us it's about giving back to your city, your community. There are technically gifted people all over the country who think like this. Some are paid modest stipends through fellowship programs. Many are volunteers.</p>
<p>So, yeah, it's like the Peace Corps for Geeks. But instead of sending folks out in the world to to teach and build wells we send them into city governments to teach agile software development and to build apps.</p>
<p>For the volunteer program - which just started this past January after we realized there are so, so many people who want to do this - we set out with these bold visions evoking civic volunteerism at it's finest.</p>
<p>But we knew there would be some hesitancy on the part of local gov to take civic tech volunteerism seriously. And, as an organization we've always been sensitive to the fact that there are lots of civic heroes working hard every day inside government. This isn't really about us coming in to save anyone. We want to lift you up.</p>
<p>After a couple of years at Code for America and 10 months into the Brigade what we've found is that, yeah, this is the real deal. This matters. People care about what we do because they see the effects.</p>
<p>True, many of us will hack for beer. And chicken wings. Don't forget a whole bunch of us are vegetarians. I forgot once. Just once. The truth is that there are value propositions everywhere you look. You just have to get creative.<p>
<p>Yes, hackers hacking is civic engagement. Moreover engagement happens through the apps that civic hackers build. It's happening. It's real. You should embrace it.</p>
<p>But you might be wondering...why is this necessary? Why do we need civic tech volunteerism? There's a lot of cynicism that surrounds this space. A lot of people are already angry at government. How much love do you think the folks working IT support feel? None is how much.</p>
<p>But the truth is that expectations are super high and resources are super scarce. Citizens are all running around with mobile phones. The government is still using computers from 10 years ago. And they're plenty who are occupied and downright troubled over how to just keep their network running so teachers can get their email.</p>
<p>So, you see? We understand what's important. I know a lot of this might seem unconventional. Maybe you're still not sure if we're serious about this. If we're responsible. We are and I'm going to show you a small bit of what I mean.</p>
<p>This is Drew Carpenter. This year he redeployed one of our fellow's open source apps, Adopt-a-hydrant to Syracuse, NY. Drew lives in Lexington, KY. I asked him why he did it. He said "because that's where it snows." Now we're working with the city's existing community service program to get the hydrants adopted before winter.
<p>I don't know if you know this but there are adopt-a-hydrant programs all over the country. Adopt-a-hydrant isn't a solution looking for a problem. Adopt-a-hydrant is the time-tested solution made for the web and for citizens who are increasingly digital natives.</p>
<p>It's happening right here in Hampton Roads, too. Last February we held a 3 day event called HRVA Hack Fest. We worked with Hampton Roads Transit to put realtime bus location data onto the web. In about 3 days Portsmouth resident Ben Schoenfeld showed how that data could be used in a mobile rider app to locate buses.</p>
<p>Think people don't care about that stuff? Don't tell that to these kids in Detroit who rely on public transportation to get to school every day. The fact is that it's hard to rely on public transportation but we can make it easier to manage and we might even make it more attractive for more people to use public transportation. Not that Hampton Roads has a transportation problem or anything.</p>
<p>Then imagine what you could do if you engage people where they are about things that affect their daily lives and imagine you can do that through a text message? Because it's possible. City planning just took on a whole new dimension.</p>
<p>So, how do we do this? How do we make civic hacking work for everyone? We've found that it helps to provide specific direction. It's not that people want to be told to do. It's that they don't have time to figure out what to do. We've figured it out. Join us and find out.</p>
<p>Right now we're running a campaign that gets straight to that point. We're challenging our volunteers to redeploy these apps. It's super simple. Then we're working with volunteers to create citizen engagement through the apps.</p>
<p>You can join us. You should join us. I want you to join us. Visit brigade.codeforamerica.org and drop us a line. Thank you. Keep calm and hack on.</p>
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