How this thing started — Code for All’s journey from creation to future visions

Sometimes an organisation evolves into something much more expansive than its original intentions. The most functional of beginnings — monitoring the new Code for Country* organisations — has lead to inspiring and radical processes of sharing and adapting civic technology across countries and styles of government.

This is the story of Code for All, a worldwide civic technology organisation, which has grown from a monitoring body, to a club for Code for Country members, to becoming a worldwide civic tech leader and a facilitator of technology exchange.

In case this doesn’t sound like much, this is something governments can struggle to do even within departments.

Code for All is made up of representatives from the partner organisations.

In the beginning…

Code for All was created in 2013 by Catherine Bracy of Code for America, as an organisation to keep track of, learn from and connect the newly forming Code for Country organisations that were being created around the world.

When the Code for Country organisations started forming, they built upon the Code for America model, and adapted it to local situations. They were free to take elements that worked from Code for America, and add to, subtract from and change this model to suit local circumstances.

Using the model allowed countries to set up a civic tech organisation with proven processes and tactics and successes overseas, and to test it out and make it work in the new local setting. Broadly speaking, civic tech solves problems for and with citizens, often related to government services. Because this is a complex area, having the supporting model which Code for America developed was valuable to anyone wanting to start this in their own country.

Some elements that were included in the Code for America model and have been used directly or adapted include: small groups of fellows working directly on technological solutions for up to a year; working in collaboration with government or local councils, and offering supporting civic tech related educational and support programs.

So, Code for All was initially a way to learn from the new organisations, share tactics and knowledge, and have an overview of the different models that were being used around the world.

What Code for All does

Code for All exists to amplify and share what members are creating. According to Code for All’s mission statement, “member organizations achieve greater impact, success and scale through collaboration inside the network.” It exists to strengthen networks, share and re-purpose members’ projects, and expand the reach of civic technologies the member organisations are creating.

Although now Code for All is starting to support its own activities, such as international physical exchanges, in the beginning years it was purely supporting member organisations’ work.

Using the values of democracy, support, collaboration and openness, Code for All aims to carry out a few main functions:

• improving government and civil society (not politics),
• building for and with citizens,
• showing government what is possible,
• operating in public, including open source, and encouraging government to do the same, and
• operating as a global community, reusing materials, and creating a larger ecosystem.

We are an international network of civic tech organizations that drive change through digital technology, citizen participation, collaborative decision-making and good governance to deliver solutions for social challenges while improving the relationship between governments and residents. — Code for All

The early years — growth and evolution

After its creation, Code for All grew from being mostly managed by Code for America while learning from the other organisations, to being more of a civic tech club for the Code for Country members. It became more independent and self-led, and was a connecting support between different organisations working in the same field of civic tech, across the world.

It started to facilitate knowledge sharing and feedback, reusing knowledge that others had acquired through practical activities: tool replications, methodology adaptations and training each other. Members could communicate with each other online, and occasionally meet up at events such as Code for Country summits in person.

Not only did this reuse of knowledge limit costs, but it also gave unique insights into different contexts and environment in different countries. Through the process it made this knowledge more nuanced. — Krzysztof Madejski, ePanstwo Foundation / Code for Poland

Code for All connects members and makes them stronger. Having this knowledge and support is valuable when there are developers, designers and civic hackers working with governments and citizens — and attempting to work and communicate in complementary styles, while building government capability with different ways of working. It is a big ask and a daily negotiation at times, so having tactics that have been tested, and allowing knowledge to be shared helps everyone work together better: ideally making solutions for citizens, better and more efficiently.

Working with government can take many forms — the civic technologists often use different ways of working than what government is used to.

Looking forward — vision and identity

In 2017, the second Code for All global summit was held in Taipei, and it was a chance for members to physically be in the same place together, and to workshop the purpose and identity of Code for All to create a unified vision.

Out of this event a vision formed: to “support our member organizations in their work to empower residents and help our civic institutions to be more open, democratic, and equitable in the services they provide to the public.”

According to attendees, it was a turning point for Code for All to move from being a club mostly working between members, to a true global civic tech network. Bogdan Ivanel of Code for Romania said that Code for All is now positioned “as an enabler and partner for civic technologists around the world”, and that the 2017 summit was the impetus for moving into having more public visibility, embracing the role of being the largest civic tech network worldwide and being at the core of the civic tech debate.

Bogdan Ivanel, managing director of Code for Romania, says, “having the network allows members to see what works, what doesn’t and where and how and curate these learnings for others.”

It is a lot of power potentially and can be used to good effect for citizens and government worldwide. Since the 2017 summit Code for All has also been able to receive funding for staff to coordinate the network and for physical exchanges of members to learn from fellow Code for Country organisations.

We are at a moment in time where many feel at the national level under siege and international collaboration is even more important now. — Bogdan Ivanel, Code for Romania

Continuing the journey

We are approaching the 2018 Heroes of Tech Code for All Summit in Bucharest at time of writing, and Bogdan says it “will be not a conference but a strategic event bringing together all the important names in civic tech to discuss all the strategic topics, from impact to scaling to donors.”

Seeing topics that will be included, Code for All’s future directions seem relevant and leading edge, cooperative and self-aware. These include:

• Open data & open source tech,
• Community building,
• Scaling from local to global,
• Mapping problems to solve,
• Designing for social good,
• Creating tools and education for others,
• Funding strategies,
• Storytelling and communication,
• Fighting burnout, and importantly,
• Celebration and acknowledgement of everyone’s work to get here.

Some of the other values expressed in Code for All’s way of working are experimentation, autonomy, diversity and co-creation. There’s a mix of idealism and practicality which seems to be a strength when working in a field that hopes to make life better for citizens, but often works within a strict and established government framework.

Knowing this environment, knowing strategies that help, and continuing to grow and share technology and resources through summits and communication will be key in evolving alongside the organisations, governments and countries Code for All works with and within.

Code for All is open to new partners and co-creators. You can get involved!

* ‘Code for Country’ is a shorthand way of referring to all the member organisations such as: Code for Romania, Code for America, Code for Australia, etc. Reference for who are members/partners