Technology’s Role in Creating a Better Government - 3 videos

3 videos from the civic tech space:

Google is a big supporter of Code for America and we've invited their co-founder Jennifer Pahlka to do an interview with Stephanie Hannon for the Women TechMaker program.

"Coder and activist Jennifer Pahlka believes that apps, built quickly and cheaply, are a powerful new way to connect citizens to their governments. Google's Steph Hannon chats about the future of Code for America and how to get involved."

We've also invited her to do a Techtalk at Google campus, and this is the video.

"Jennifer Pahlka is the founder and executive director of Code for America. She recently served as the US Deputy Chief Technology Officer in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. She is known for her TED talk, Coding a Better Government, and the recipient of several awards, including MIT’s Kevin Lynch Award, the Oxford Internet Institute’s Internet and Society Award, and the National Democratic Institute’s Democracy Award. She spent eight years at CMP Media, where she ran the Game Developers Conference, Game Developer magazine, Gamasutra.com, and the Independent Games Festival. Previously, she ran the Web 2.0 and Gov 2.0 events for TechWeb, in conjunction with O’Reilly Media. She is a graduate of Yale University and lives in Oakland, Calif. with her daughter, her fiance, and seven chickens. 

Can government be run like the Internet, permissionless and open? Coder and activist Jennifer Pahlka believes it can — and that apps, built quickly and cheaply, are a powerful new way to connect citizens to their governments — and their neighbors."

Julia Kloiber works at Open Knowledge Foundation and is the project lead for Code for Germany, which she describes in her recent TED talk "Let's build better digital tools for our cities!"

"When it came to getting public consensus on a complex plan to convert the epic Tempelhof Airport into something new, Berlin sought an effective way to communicate the nuances of the various proposals. The solution? A computer coder synthesized the information from all the options into a simple infographic, leading to an informed vote by the public. Julia Kloiber argues for the release of government data so coders can unscramble it for the public good - in Berlin and beyond."

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of my employer. -Fumi Yamazaki