April 2012
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Building The New Civic Hackathon
Sometimes, a word can’t do justice to an idea. To some, the word “hackathon” means a somewhat narrow, one-dimensional kind of event that attracts software developers cloistered away to tinker with new APIs – fueled by pizza, Red Bull and the incessant beats of the very latest dubstep jam. And while hackathons of all varieties… Continue reading
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Open Government and the Bully Pulpit
Last week in Honolulu, the Mayor got on a bus. And while this may seem like a small thing, it’s just the latest example of how mayors and municipal leaders are using the weight of their offices to advance the agenda of open government. Mayors are not often known for their prowess at writing code.… Continue reading
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Code for America Launches Civic Accelerator
Several weeks ago, I wrote a post about civic accelerators that were spinning up on the East Coast. Following that post came the formal launch of the Urban Apps & Maps Studio in Philadelphia. But another accelerator program in Baltimore, that had been in the formative stages, seems to have hit a dead end with… Continue reading
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Phones: The Key to the City
The ordinary telephone is among the most important and ubiquitous technologies in the world. Several weeks ago, I had the pleasure of speaking at inciteXchange – an annual conference organized by the Center for Design and Innovation at Temple University’s Fox School of Business. The focus of the event was to bring together speakers on… Continue reading
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Great Cities and the Shadow of Teotihuacan
Great cities have always had an influence beyond their borders. This is true not only of contemporary cities like New York, Paris and Beijing but also of ancient cities. The influence of Rome can still be seen today in the form of ancient roadways and aqueducts. But whether exporting engineering or religion like ancient Rome,… Continue reading
About Me
I am the former Chief Data Officer for the City of Philadelphia. I also served as Director of Government Relations at Code for America, and as Director of the State of Delaware’s Government Information Center. For about six years, I served in the General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Services (TTS), and helped pioneer their work with state and local governments. I also led platform evangelism efforts for TTS’ cloud platform, which supports over 30 critical federal agency systems.
Civic Innovations 