What is this? This week in civic tech is a roundup of wins, what’s happening with the volunteers who power Code for America, and news from other organizations focused on making government work better for everyone.
City of Syracuse Launches Open Data Portal
Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner recently announced the launch of the City of Syracuse’s first open data portal, called DataCuse. The tool is meant to be a central hub for residents to access open data, maps, and visualizations about their city, including vacant housing, water main breaks, repaired potholes, and other relevant information.
Read the official statement from Mayor Miner on the portal.
Open Austin Presents City Initiatives at Open Government Partnership
Vickie O’Dell and Mateo Clarke from Open Austin, Austin’s Code for America brigade, (pictured above with City of Austin Chief Equity Officer Brion Oak and Chief Innovation Officer Kerry O’Connor) travelled to Washington, D.C. to present on the City of Austin’s initiatives including, “Improving policy to address homelessness,” at the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Subnational Pioneers conference. The OGP focuses on promoting transparency, empowering citizens, fighting corruption, and harnessing new technologies to strengthen governance. The event brought together participants from 15 countries who had to apply and be accepted to present on projects related to these objectives.
Learn more about the City of Austin’s OGP initiatives.
City of San Francisco Unveils Affordable Housing Portal
A team from the City and County of San Francisco spoke to volunteers at a Code for San Francisco hack night about the City’s design and development process to build a digital service to apply for affordable housing. The service, which can be found on the DAHLIA San Francisco Housing Portal, is making it much easier for people to find and apply for affordable housing in San Francisco. A project of the the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, the service has been used by more than 230,000 people to search for affordable housing since the initial MVP was released in February of 2016.
Explore the DAHLIA San Francisco Housing Portal.
Louisville Mayor Attends Civic Data Alliance IoT Hackathon
Brigade member Matthew Gotth-Olsen mugs for the camera as Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer speaks to volunteers attending the Civic Data Alliance Internet of Things (IoT) hackathon on July 22. The hackathon projects included designing an API to measure neighborhood air quality, and other topics affecting their local community. Volunteers came from as far away as Maine and San Francisco to participate.
Find out what else Civic Data Alliance, Code for America’s Louisville Brigade, is working on.
New Hiring Playbook Helps Governments Recruit and Hire Talent
Code for America recently released the Tools for Government Hiring playbook, featured in a recent Route Fifty article, to support governments improve how they recruit and hire talent. The playbook was developed in partnership with Genevieve Gaudet of Nava and Dave Seliger of Public School and is based on interviews with hiring managers, job applicants, and HR departments across the country.
Are you hiring for a government role? See how the playbook could help.
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