Here is a guest post by Robert Davis, who was recently honored by the White House. Read my earlier post on the honor here.
By Robert Davis
This past week, I visited Washington D.C. as a White House Champion of Change. Myself and 14 other individuals were honored for our involvement in open government and civic hacking. This small group is a reflection of a much larger movement, and it was unfortunate that only a handful of us were able to participate on the panels. The work being done all over the U.S. and, as I learned, internationally to empower citizens to help their communities is more real than ever before. I was pleased to hear the viewpoints from Greg Fischer, Mayor of Louisville, KY, and the U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park, both praising this movement that I've been lucky enough to participate in for just over a year.
A good chat with fellow community-lovers tackling tough problems always seem to re-energize me. Smart, passionate people sharing new ideas had surely made for some great discussions. Although I did not get the chance to meet our President, I was lucky enough to meet some inspiring leaders who are certainly making their mark. Below are some notes jotted as I was on the way home.
“Sharing is Caring”
First and foremost, the need for communication between working groups from different cities has never been more important. The systems or tools that are created to solve one problem, can usually be mirrored and remixed. For National Day of Civic Hacking, a fellow Miamian and developer ninja Cristina Solana and I, "forked" or copied and repurposed, the legislative tracker used in Minnesota for Florida. You can demo our tracker here, and please share feedback! The code was open, courtesy of the MinnPost and has also been reused in New York state. To reiterate, from one open source code base came three unique and useful programs in three different states. Knowing what other cities, and its citizens, are working on is vital in the effort to work smart and efficiently. Whether it is feeding the hungry or stopping gang violence through mediation, there’s no need to recreate the wheel. Learning from each other is much better than trying to figure it out for ourselves, alone and isolated, so share what you are working on!
“The Community-Minded Crowd”
As a second point, it’s important to note the financial ecosystem around civic startups and community projects is experiencing a much needed face lift. Reapplying for new grants every few months or so can get old quick, and there are only so many foundations to ask for help. Thankfully, financing new ideas recently got a whole lot easier, as things like Neighbor.ly, Citizinvestor, and the Awesome Foundation have grown in popularity. Crowdfunding, usually small amounts from many stakeholders, can spread the risk while still providing valuable resources for fledgling projects. Sometimes in fact, these crowdsourcing arrangements can provide much more important things like publicity as well as access to mentors and technical expertise. At the event, Brandon Barnett of Intel made a very surprising announcement. Coined the “Innovation Pipeline,” Intel promised to continue providing financial support for worthwhile projects. As it was one of the first supporters of National Day of Civic Hacking, I’m proud to see another avenue for financing become available. If you know of any additional sources for support not listed here already, feel free to contribute. Hopefully this list will evolve and remain open so others can use it as well.
“Back to the Drawing Board”
Lastly, we must be honest with ourselves in asking the right questions. This hit me hard after our breakout sessions. Greg Bloom, one of the key organizers of Hack for DC, and ironically a Miami transplant who now lives in our nation’s capital, mentioned that civic hackers have “a great power and great responsibility to question their assumptions.” As there are many concerns with the use of public data, Greg explained that “helpful apps should be conceived through dialogue with people who need help.” We discussed whether projects neglect harsh realities like the digital divide. Concluding that a better understanding of the problem with input from those having personal experience in some way, is often a better starting point than trying to create something useful by simply leveraging open data. In addition, if those who we intend to help are not involved from day one, the likelihood of adoption is diminished. Inclusion should begin first and foremost, instead of building something then trying to find people who need it.
As I look back, my trip to DC was just what I hoped for, an opportunity to meet new people looking to change the world in their own way. We all see things that can improve, and collectively we can take steps to make it a reality. I'm excited to continue work in South Florida and share what was discussed here at the Champions of Change event. Hopefully, we can create champions out of every citizen sooner, rather than later.
In the civic hacker community we need to do better sharing experiences as well as failures. It’s also becoming easier to access financial resources, but with varying degrees of success. We need to continue being mindful of possible adverse affects of our creating, and get real experience before building. With barriers of entry being removed every day, it’s never been a better time to start a project and change the world.