Civic Tech – WAKE INNOVATES

It’s fall in the Triangle and that means one thing…Civic Tech

August 14, 2017

Civic Tech, Improving Government & Citizen Service

When someone asks you “What does fall mean to you?” people will talk about fall foliage, football or kids going back to school. However to a group of citizens here in the triangle, it is civic tech season. In the fall the civic tech movement holds most of its events. This past Saturday the season was kicked off with Civic Spark day held in Durham. Civic Spark day is part of NC OpenPass, which is the collective name of the…

Local “Brigades” are leading the civic tech movement

June 8, 2017

Chris Mathews

All, Civic Tech

There is one point that is worth debating when civic tech people get together and that is whether civic tech flows from local to national or national to local. I feel fairly strongly that everything starts local and goes from there. Code for America does offer those of us in civic tech a framework and an umbrella to gather under, but the work is done locally. The reason I mention it is that there is a national advisory council of…

Civic Tech for March 2017

April 6, 2017

Chris Mathews

Civic Tech, Improving Government & Citizen Service

Members of Wake County’s innovation group helped plan and lead two meetups in March around Civic Tech. Both were well attended and innovative and entrepreneurial spirit that is alive the Wake County. The first event was the planning kickoff event for NC OpenPass, the umbrella term for the civic tech events in North Carolina. It was held at Google Fiber’s new space in downtown Raleigh. On the Agenda: • Update on NC Open Pass and partnership with NC Datapalooza •…

User Design in government innovation

April 4, 2017

Paula Richardson

Civic Tech, Improving Government & Citizen Service, Innovation

The article below from Wired in 2014 was one of the first articles that got me interested in innovation and it is still one of my favorites. It showed me how wholesale changes to something as seemingly mundane as parking signs can be made using design principles. Even the simplest topics benefit from getting the input of the customers! I think that there might be something for us to learn in this example when it comes to technology and government.…

Wake County Design Blitz

March 23, 2017

Bill Greeves

Civic Tech, Disruptive Technology

Great article today about the second annual Wake County Design Blitz, in which high-school students came together to design prototypes focused on using wearable tech to address major issues such as homelessness, hearing loss and water purification. Great stuff and it is amazing to see how much creativity comes out of our high schools these days. I don’t know about you, but I was not doing anything so valuable to society as these kids are!