Now Recruiting: Civic Startups
codeforamerica.org
Now Recruiting: Civic Startups
1–10 of 14 posts
Re: Now Recruiting: Civic Startups
#2[deleted]
Re: Now Recruiting: Civic Startups
#3This is an interesting opportunity, but there's a lot of opportunities for competent people right now.
I wish this site would present a clear list of reasons to pick a civic startup over a social media or mobile startup.
Re: Now Recruiting: Civic Startups
#4Are the people mentioned on the team noteworthy? A cursory glance at the names doesn't ring any bells.
Re: Now Recruiting: Civic Startups
#5This is an interesting opportunity, but there's a lot of opportunities for competent people right now. I wish this site would present a clear list of reasons to pick a civic startup over a social media or mobile startup.
Well they do show government spending on IT in the graphic on the page. Also, a lot of people start civic projects for the sake of the positive feelings they get for providing civic responsibility. Kind of like why a lot of people work for non-profits for less money than they could using their skills for more commercial endeavors.
Re: Now Recruiting: Civic Startups
#6Are the people mentioned on the team noteworthy? A cursory glance at the names doesn't ring any bells.
Peole I know what they do offhand: Carl Tashian was an engineer at Zipcar, co-founder of Our Goods, DJ Patil is a big data scientist and worked at linkedIN (now at Greylock I think), Danese Cooper is the open source diva and the CTO of wikimedia, Andrew Hoppin was the CIO of New York State Senate and is on the board of openplans, new organizing institute, etc, Bryce is the co-founder of OATV, Nigel Jacob works for Boston...it is actually a pretty impressive list, and that doesn't even include the fact that they got Ron Conway and Aneesh Chopra to headline it as leaders.
Re: Now Recruiting: Civic Startups
#7A few months ago I had a converastion about some of my open data civic work with Brad Burnham. He challanged me to really think about how I could disrupt goverment to get them to release new data and to innovate. He noted that you never want to be in the business of asking permission of the slow-moving giant to make your business work--so I should figure out what I can do without the government's permission. It's great advice on the whole, but the reality is that the slow-moving giant might really be technology companies (that are often also consulting firms) that have no reason, and maybe no ability, to innovate with government.
There just aren't that many firms in the enterprise solutions space that work closely with government: Accenture, IBM, Booz Allen Hamilton, Deloitte. What I love about this CfA accelerator is that it might get people to focus on a business sector that has huge upside if only you can break through. Technologists should get together and try to break up the slow-moving giant's dance with governments: it is the one of the ways we're going to get a government than might be both better and cheaper. This seems like a great first step.
Re: Now Recruiting: Civic Startups
#8This is an interesting opportunity, but there's a lot of opportunities for competent people right now. I wish this site would present a clear list of reasons to pick a civic startup over a social media or mobile startup.
Civic duty and/or bettering government/political systems would be most apparent reason. Code for America mirrors itself to the Peace Corps, but for geeks, if that gives you any indication.
Re: Now Recruiting: Civic Startups
#9Are the people mentioned on the team noteworthy? A cursory glance at the names doesn't ring any bells.
Peole I know what they do offhand: Carl Tashian was an engineer at Zipcar, co-founder of Our Goods, DJ Patil is a big data scientist and worked at linkedIN (now at Greylock I think), Danese Cooper is the open source diva and the CTO of wikimedia, Andrew Hoppin was the CIO of New York State Senate and is on the board of openplans, new organizing institute, etc, Bryce is the co-founder of OATV, Nigel Jacob works for Bo…
Neat! Thank you for the info. I wish they had included links to each person's internet presence on the main webpage.
Re: Now Recruiting: Civic Startups
#10This is an interesting opportunity, but there's a lot of opportunities for competent people right now. I wish this site would present a clear list of reasons to pick a civic startup over a social media or mobile startup.
I think it just needs the right kind of people. I, for one, am very motivated by the idea of working with civic causes to help people and government connect. Subject-specific accelerators like this aren't for everyone, when compared to something like YC.