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The latest news from Code for Canada, and updates on the country's growing civic tech movement.
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Applications for the 2018 Code for Canada Fellowship are open!
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Curious what it's like to be a Code for Canada fellow? Hear from our current fellows about what it's like to use your technology and design skills for good.
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Applications for the 2018 Code for Canada Fellowship are now open! We’re looking to recruit a new batch of web developers, UX designers, and product managers who want to make a difference in communities across Canada, and help governments deliver 21st century public services.
Code for Canada fellows spend 10 months inside government, working alongside staff to scope problems, conduct user research and build digital solutions to important civic challenges. Work with us and discover how agile development and user-centric design can find a place in government.
We’re accepting application on a rolling basis until July 2nd, 2018.
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New Digital Justice Lab launches in Canada
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The social media platforms and search engines we use are facing a range of equity and social justice stress tests. There are questions about social media ads and disinformation that sway election results, and concerns about search algorithms that produce gender or ethnic biases.
A new voice has joined the growing chorus of Canadian organizations calling for greater attention to digital rights issues. Nasma Ahmed, a former Open Web fellow with the Ford-Mozilla Foundation, has established the Digital Justice Lab, which aims to connect the disparate members of Canada’s digital rights community and build a more equitable society online.
Ahmed will be working with community partners this summer to build digital justice values and principles, as well an eventual “living document” that can trigger further discussion on digital rights issues in Canada.
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Canada announces Smart City finalists
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New Digital Inclusion report released in Ontario
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The internet continues to change how Canadians work, live, and play, but not everyone is reaping those benefits equally. This February, the Public Policy Forum (PPF) worked in conjunction with the Government of Ontario to hold the 2018 Digital Inclusion Summit. The two-day event focused on sharing knowledge and best practices about digital inclusion, and pointed the way forward for new research and policies. PPF recently released a comprehensive report about the event, and discussed core learnings from speakers and participants. You can watch the entire summit here.
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More Code for Canada Open Houses on the way
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Code for Canada's Fellowship Program Manager, Lia Milito, speaks at one of our first Open Houses.
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Boston is putting people first for its smart city plan
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“Smart city” planners often get flack for not including the public in creating the cities of the future. But the city of Boston is trying to change that. The city government is experimenting with a new community outreach project that lets the public define their vision for a smart city. Boston’s smart city team calls the project “Beta Blocks,” and looks to create a bottom-up platform for frank discussion between the public and the government on smart city issues.
The Beta Blocks project has already achieved impressive results. They’ve started talking with the public about the pros and cons of sensor nodes in the city, created a smart city request for information system, and even Robot Block Parties for kids to understand how A.I and automation will affect the cities they grow up in.
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Some light civic tech reading (and watching)
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- In a new blog post on the Harvard Kennedy School’s Digital HKS platform, Canada’s David Eaves looks at how government digital service units -- like the Canadian Digital Service here in Canada -- can channel “promising successes” at the project level into “deeper digital transformation” at the enterprise level.
- A new report by GovTech.com spotlights the pioneering work of Chi Hack Night, the civic hacking event that served as a model for dozens of civic tech communities in North America. Starting in 2012, Chi Hack Night has become a magnet for public servants and volunteer technologists to collaborate on civic tech projects.
- After taking a year off in 2017, the Code for America Summit made a successful return to Oakland this June. The 2018 Summit covered some of the most pertinent issues facing the U.S. civic tech community, including formulating policy with “tech at the table”, and how to bring about a government technology procurement market that works for multiple stakeholders. You can watch the entire three-day summit here.
- Last week, the New York-based Personal Democracy Forum (PDF) wrapped up it’s two-day celebration of all things civic tech. Co-curated by Danielle Tomson and Micah Sifry of Civic Hall, the annual forum looks at how recent political and social events are shaping the direction of the burgeoning civic tech movement. PDF 2018 grappled with the impact of the #MeToo movement, and the current U.S. administration’s attitude towards digital service units. You can watch the entire two-day forum here.
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GET INVOLVED
How you can help
We're working hard to ensure governments across our great country keep pace with technology and deliver the best services possible for their residents. But we can't do it alone. Here's how you can lend a hand.
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1. Help spread the word! Follow Code for Canada on social media, and share our efforts to grow the civic tech movement!
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2. Share your stories! Are you a government innovator or civic tech practitioner with a success story to tell? Let us know, and we can share it with our audience of engaged residents, public servants, community advocates and technologists! You can get in touch at hello@codefor.ca!
3. Join your local civic tech group! You can find the one nearest you on our website. If there’s not one near you, Code for Canada’s Civic Tech Toolkit can help you start one!
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Thank you to our partners!
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