2018 Code For America Summit Closes In Oakland, With Focus on Delivery-Driven Government, Criminal Justice and Community Programming

OAKLAND, Calif., June 1, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Closing out a three day event that gathered technologists, policy experts, civic leaders and designers from around the world, Code For America called on the over 1,200 attendees to step up, speak out, and strive to make government work for the people in the digital age.

"The time for action is now," said Code for America founder and executive director Jennifer Pahlka. "We need to move beyond good intentions, into better implementation. This week, we saw 1,200 technologists, policy experts, civic leaders and designers from across the country and around the world meet in person to tackle our biggest challenges. No one is coming. It is up to us."

On the final day of the Summit, Code for America made new announcements and explored key themes including:

Working For Delivery-Driven Government

In this first Code For America Summit since November 2016, founder and executive director Jennifer Pahlka described how government technology advocates and practitioners must work for delivery-driven government, addressing how the public's trust in government is at historic lows in the United States.

In a paper distributed to attendees (which can be found on Medium here), Pahlka wrote: "The movement to modernize government technology has been focused on the delivery of government services using modern tech and best practices. But that is only half the solution; now we must also learn to drive policy and operations around delivery and users, and complete the feedback circuit." Pahlka outlined how our current system often does not include the necessary instrumentation to see where government programs are heading, and course-correct along the way.

Pahlka outlined three principles of delivery-driven government:

• Understand and Meet User Needs
• Real-Time User Data, Not Years-Old Estimates
• Iteration, From Intention Through Implementation

Making Good on Democracy's Promises

Following on the heels of the announcement of the partnership with the San Francisco District Attorney's office to automatically expunge the eligible records of cannabis convictions under proposition 64, Code For America, in collaboration with the California State Bar Association, published Closing the Delivery Gap: Making good on the promise of California's record clearance laws to remove barriers to opportunity for 5 million Californians.

In the report, authors Jenny Montoya Tansey and Katherine Carlin, Esq. examine the impact of criminal records on everyday lives, how difficult it has been to date to clear eligible records, and how Code for America's Clear My Record Program has enabled thousands of Californians to remove barriers to a better life via a mobile-first site and process. This report also includes criminal justice reform policy recommendations, including:

• Automating the record clearance process;
• Publishing more state-level data and analysis on the population of Californians with criminal convictions;
• Improved public outreach;
• Addressing fines and fees;
• Improving access to criminal records;
• The role of the California State Bar.

Deploying Community-Focused Fellows via the Brigade Network

At the Summit, Hashim Mteuzi, senior manager of the network talent initiative, announced that Code For America is supporting four city government partnership projects piloted in Code for America Brigades. The recognized Brigade programs are:

Code for Asheville

• Fellows Patrick Conant and Jesse Michel are developing a comprehensive resource that collects and enables data-driven research and analysis of outcomes along racial lines and makes the information accessible to the Asheville community.

Code for Austin

• Fellows Rohan Mathur and Britney Lyons will develop an application that aggregates affordable housing data in one place, allowing individuals and services to review information about not just affordable inventory, but available inventory.

Code for Hawaii

• With the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) investing $8.2 billion in a 20 mile, 21 station elevated rail system, fellows Ben Trevino and Stephanie Chang are improving the discovery and integration of solutions to improve transit sustainability in projected people movement, energy use, operational cost, and environmental impacts for local and native populations.

Code for San Jose

• Fellows Julie Kim and Nira Datta will conduct user research on a well-used city app, with a particular focus on the needs of non-English speaking residents. They will also help government staff set up an in-house usability testing program to continually test digital services with residents.

About Code for America
Code for America uses the principles and practices of the digital age to improve how government serves the American public, and how the public improves government. Code for America helps government work as it should in a digital age, starting with the people who need it most.

MEDIA CONTACT
Amy Widdowson Mains
[email protected]
415-766-0338

SOURCE Code For America