Civic Tech in a Time of Technopessimism
Since 2016, the technology industry has been looking for answers. Code for America might have one.
“When I look back at 2010 me, I think I had this naïve idea that tech would save government,” confessed Jen Pahlka, the founder of Code for America, a civic-tech nonprofit.
In its early days, Code for America’s mission was to persuade people at the big tech companies to take a year or two away from their Silicon Valley gigs to serve the public, building technologies for all levels of government. A lot of the time, they built apps. , Pahlka referenced a Boston city app that allowed citizens to “adopt” the responsibility for digging out a fire hydrant after a snowstorm.
