A New Tool for Cross-Brigade Community
tl:dr; The brigade contact directory is available now at http://c4a.me/brigades. Send feedback to brigade-info@codeforamerica.org.
When I went to my first Open Oakland meeting four years ago last week, I had no idea that I was at but one brigade of many. Fortunately, I got hooked on a project that very first night, and slowly learned the structure of the network and about Code for America’s role in the civic tech ecosystem.
Now, four years later, I’m happy to get to introduce myself to you as the new Developer Evangelist for the Brigade Network. It’s my job to develop technology for “users” of the network, so to speak– brigade members, leaders, and those who might be interested in raising their hand in the civic tech movement.
Coming Together as a Network
The Brigade network is a national movement of volunteers working to build a government that works for the people, by the people, in the 21st century.
One of the most common refrains we’ve heard from brigade captains is a strong desire to work collaboratively and build a national community. Almost without fail, brigade captains are passionate about leveling up their own brigade by applying best practices from the broader network. Especially during and after events like the inaugural Brigade Congress, this energy is palpable and we must create a way for these conversations to continue.
While there is still much more work to be done in sharing knowledge between brigade captains, a necessary first step is that brigades must be able to easily contact each other.
Announcing the Brigade Contact Directory
To that end, today Code for America is releasing a directory of contact information of brigade captains. It is available at http://c4a.me/brigades and it’s also linked on the official Brigade website’s resources page.
By using the directory, anyone in the brigade network will have access to the most-recent contact and social media information that CfA has. This will be a great jumping-off-point for deeper discussions about project collaborations, sharing knowledge, and inter-regional event planning.
We hope this will be a first step toward a more collaborative network of brigades and partner organizations. As we iterate, we’re looking for your feedback. What else do you need to collaborate across brigades? How can Code for America help facilitate this?
We’re excited to see what you all will do with this resource. Feel free to reach out to brigade-info@codeforamerica.org with any questions or thoughts!
We’d like to especially thank the user testers at Code for San Francisco and the National Advisory Council for providing feedback on how to make this product as usable as possible.
Don’t forget: Voting is now open for the 2018 National Advisory Council! Vote by February 9th, 2018!
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