Code For America Fellowship launches in Miami-Dade County
From left to right: Mathias Gibson, Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez, Ernie Hsiung, and Sophia Dengo
(MIAMI, February 21, 2015) – Miami-Dade County introduced The Code for America Fellowship team on Saturday, February 21, 2015, at the Miami Ad School, located at 571 NW 28 Street, Miami, FL 33127.
The Fellowship pairs local governments with teams of mid-career, civic-minded technologists for one year. Miami-Dade County and fellows will seek solutions to local challenges by engaging with the community, building applications, and testing the results. Over the past four years, the Fellowship program has produced more than 55 web apps with 30 municipal governments and 103 Fellows.
The applications are tangible results of a process that builds much more than a piece of technology. By working in an iterative user-centric, data driven way, the program strengthens key capabilities within local government and communities that ultimately shift how cities think about, and use technology to deliver public services.
In Miami-Dade County, the fellowship will work closely the Regulatory and Economic Resources Department to make it easier for citizens and businesses to navigate our community’s regulatory environment. The fellows kick-off with a month-long research effort consisting of meetings with service providers and community stakeholders in the public and private sector. Furthermore, the team will co-host CodeAcross 2015, a weekend of civic hacking events, focused on developing new technology and promoting open data practices throughout municipal governments. Miami Dade County will play a key role at the event, officially announcing various open-data initiatives.
“Being Code for America’s first government partner in Florida is one more sign of Miami-Dade County’s emergence as a hub for technology and innovation,” said Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez. “This collaboration will drive a more open government, stimulate economic development and improve the delivery of regulatory services to our community. Code for America is an organization that has successfully advanced these capabilities through technology and innovation and the organization will be an important partner in our ongoing work to make Miami-Dade County more open, transparent, and efficient.”
Eight partners from a diverse pool of more than 40 were selected for the 2015 Fellowship. In addition to Miami-Dade County, other government entities include; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Indianapolis, Indiana; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Somerville, Massachusetts; Vallejo, California; West Sacramento, California; and RVA Community Partners in Richmond, Virginia.
Locally, the program was generously supported by the Miami-based John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Miami Foundation, and the Downtown Development Authority.
Miami-Dade County is pleased to welcome three talented technologists for the year. They include:
- Ernie Hsiung – Hsiung is a front-end developer and community organizer with an interest in actual and virtual communities. Hsiung is a Miami-Dade County resident that was co-captain of Code for Miami, a local Code for America civic hacking brigade.
- Sophia Dengo – Dengo is a web developer and designer based in San Francisco, California. After spending a few years creating interactive interfaces for CNN.com in Atlanta, she relocated to the West Coast for new challenges. Dengo has a background in multimedia journalism and museum studies.
- Mathias Gibson – Gibson is a public policy researcher passionate about social justice, urban citizenship, and community. Most recently, he worked for the City of San Francisco’s 311 office where he contributed to various projects geared toward increased interdepartmental efficiency and external services such as DataSF and SF311 Mobile.
Hsiung, Dengo, and Gibson are part of a cohort of 24 Fellows taking leave from jobs at large and small tech companies, their own businesses, and government to use their skills for good during a year of public service.
Code for America
Code for America is a national non-profit that believes that government can work for the people, by the people, in the 21st century. In collaboration with communities, companies, and government, we build open source technology and organize a network of people dedicated to making government services simple, effective, and easy to use. More at www.codeforamerica.com
Nationally, Code for America receives generous support from Omidyar Network, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Google.org, the James Irvine Foundation, and many other foundations, corporations, and individual donors that support national and local programs.