Civic Tech Digest Week of 4/17
Former Microsoft CEO Releases Trove of Data | From Smart Cities to Smart Citizens| Birmingham Makes State History with New Policy Act
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By releasing this weekly digest of Civic Tech news, we hope to cut through the noise and keep you up to date on the most important developments in the world of government, data/technology, and innovation.
1. Steve Ballmer, Former Microsoft CEO, Wants Us to Know How the Government Spends Money
Steve Ballmer just unleashed a trove of data via USAFacts, the first nonpartisan effort that compiles federal, state, and local data from over 70 sources in order to create an integrated and comprehensive look at revenue and spending. The goal? To figure out how the government spends its money and put that information into the hands of citizens everywhere.
2. Helping Refugees with Technology
Refusing to be overwhelmed by the scale of the refugee crisis, German professor Carmen Bachmann found a way to help by creating a website that would make it possible for refugee scientists and social scientists to directly get in touch with German academics in their fields.
Her project demonstrates the critical need for human touch in civic tech — initially there were no users signing up until Bachmann directly went to the refugee camps and explained the project to refugees.
3. From Smart Cities to Smart Citizens
This insightful interview with Mara Balestrini, one of the leaders of the Making Sense initiative under FabLab Barcelona, highlights how technology can be used to empower citizens and strengthen communities.
The state cannot impose a set of technologies that citizens cannot make sense of. So if we want smart cities, we need smart citizens, which means guaranteeing access to opportunities to develop those skills. Some of these programs originate out of goodwill or private initiatives, but some should be enforced through public policy and law. We need to be militant about this in order to guarantee the accessibility of our own cities.
4. Accountability Group Begins Capital Projects Monitoring 16 States
Nigeria’s BudgIT is a prime example in civic tech. Through its social platform, Tracka, BudgIT allows citizens to monitor and track the implementation of capital projects, such as roads, schools, and hospitals, that are listed in the budget, but not always executed.
While many cities are increasingly proactive in launching smart city initiatives, BudgIT is here to show that civic tech can empower bottom-up efforts to improve governance and get the basics right.
5. Birmingham Makes State History with New Policy
In recent years, many cities have adopted open data portals and policies, but mostly larger cities like New York, San Francisco, or Philadelphia.
Birmingham became the first city in the state to legally require their agencies to open their data, setting a precedent and hopefully enabling the creation of solutions around public safety, 311, planning and engineering, crime, and violence reduction.
That’s it for this week. Follow CivicTech for America on Medium to get notified when this digest is released every Friday. See you next Friday!
By Cherie Chung, Patrick Han, and Kelly Lui
