The document summarizes the Code for America fellowship project in Santa Cruz, California from January to December 2012. It describes the goals of building a small business permitting portal called OpenCounter and implementing an open data initiative and portal. It provides details on community engagement activities, ancillary projects like a bike registration tool and IT skill building series, and concludes that the fellowship team collaborated successfully with the city on sustainable projects to improve citizen experience through technology.
Anna Broberg, CEO en mede-oprichter van Mapita (het Finse bedrijf achter Maptionnaire) vertelt over het verhaal achter Maptionnaire en deelt enkele internationale praktijkvoorbeelden van Maptionnaire 2.0.
Learn about how URBAN-X Cohort 02 company Citiesense organizes the most accurate information about neighborhoods in cities – such as storefront vacancy, sales, foot traffic, and more – to better inform local market demand and neighborhood dynamics.
Smart city case study of Columbus, Ohio: Key lessons, challenges and enablers...Kasper Groes Ludvigsen
Smart city case study of Columbus, Ohio: Key lessons, challenges and enablers from "America's first smart city".
This case study highlights technological enablers of Columbus's smart city initiatives as well as the challenges faced by the city and the key lessons learned. I carried out the case study in the course Smart Cities and Communities at Stanford University in cooperation with two classmates.
21st Century Cities, Technology & Innovation - An OverviewAbhi Nemani
A "101" primer from EthosLabs.us on what makes a 21st century city work, and what it can accomplish -- including dozens of case studies/examples, and tips on how to get started.
EthosLabs is a government innovation consultancy designed to help cities and startups work together to embrace this opportunity. If your city or company is interested in working together, get in touch: hello@ethoslabs.us
Slides from US Ignite Smart Gigabit Community lighting rounds. Part of the US Ignite Wednesday afternoon sessions at the 2017 Smart Cities Connect conference in Austin Texas.
Rethinking and Reshaping Broken Systems - New Profit Gathering of LeadersCode for America
At the 2015 New Profit Gathering of Leaders (#NPGathering15), Code for America Founder and Executive Director Jennifer Pahlka, Black Girls CODE Founder & Executive Director Kimberly Bryant, and Pigeonly CEO Frederick Hutson talked about the importance of rethinking and reshaping broken systems. Through the lens of technology, they discussed how problems that get solved have everything to do with who’s doing the solving: their experience, perspective, and insights into whom they’re solving problems for.
This is Jennifer Pahlka's deck from the talk. For more details about the event, visit: http://www.newprofit.org/npgathering15-reshaping-broken-systems-rethinking-who-is-in-the-lead/
Anna Broberg, CEO en mede-oprichter van Mapita (het Finse bedrijf achter Maptionnaire) vertelt over het verhaal achter Maptionnaire en deelt enkele internationale praktijkvoorbeelden van Maptionnaire 2.0.
Learn about how URBAN-X Cohort 02 company Citiesense organizes the most accurate information about neighborhoods in cities – such as storefront vacancy, sales, foot traffic, and more – to better inform local market demand and neighborhood dynamics.
Smart city case study of Columbus, Ohio: Key lessons, challenges and enablers...Kasper Groes Ludvigsen
Smart city case study of Columbus, Ohio: Key lessons, challenges and enablers from "America's first smart city".
This case study highlights technological enablers of Columbus's smart city initiatives as well as the challenges faced by the city and the key lessons learned. I carried out the case study in the course Smart Cities and Communities at Stanford University in cooperation with two classmates.
21st Century Cities, Technology & Innovation - An OverviewAbhi Nemani
A "101" primer from EthosLabs.us on what makes a 21st century city work, and what it can accomplish -- including dozens of case studies/examples, and tips on how to get started.
EthosLabs is a government innovation consultancy designed to help cities and startups work together to embrace this opportunity. If your city or company is interested in working together, get in touch: hello@ethoslabs.us
Slides from US Ignite Smart Gigabit Community lighting rounds. Part of the US Ignite Wednesday afternoon sessions at the 2017 Smart Cities Connect conference in Austin Texas.
Rethinking and Reshaping Broken Systems - New Profit Gathering of LeadersCode for America
At the 2015 New Profit Gathering of Leaders (#NPGathering15), Code for America Founder and Executive Director Jennifer Pahlka, Black Girls CODE Founder & Executive Director Kimberly Bryant, and Pigeonly CEO Frederick Hutson talked about the importance of rethinking and reshaping broken systems. Through the lens of technology, they discussed how problems that get solved have everything to do with who’s doing the solving: their experience, perspective, and insights into whom they’re solving problems for.
This is Jennifer Pahlka's deck from the talk. For more details about the event, visit: http://www.newprofit.org/npgathering15-reshaping-broken-systems-rethinking-who-is-in-the-lead/
Presentation about 2014 Code for Americal Fellowship project, Citygram.
Watch the video online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpO32d5IUTI&list=PL65XgbSILalVoej11T95Tc7D7-F1PdwHq&index=20
Get involved with Code for America: www.codeforamerica.org/action
Whether they are websites, town hall meetings, or customer service counters, designing interfaces to government to work for real people requires both deep empathy and acute analytic skills. This session dives into some of the ways that local governments are starting to integrate a user-centered approach to delivering services — and what becomes possible when they do so.
Jess McMullin, Centre for Citizen Experience
Watch the video online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFxOfw536Ms&index=56&list=PL65XgbSILalWFStqV0z0N9pvftstJ8AAh
Get involved with Code for America: http://www.codeforamerica.org/action
Alternative Funding Models for Civic Projects- Rodrigo DaviesCode for America
When a community needs to reinvent itself, who funds the transformation? Are the established tools— municipal bonds, CDFIs, and foundations among them— working in the new era of lean urbanism? Learn about innovative financing mechanisms— like social impact bonds and crowdfunding— that can help drive civic innovation at scale.
Rodrigo Davies, Center for Work, Technology and Organizations, Stanford University
Watch the video online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6roHOXEjtc&list=PL65XgbSILalVoej11T95Tc7D7-F1PdwHq&index=6
Get involved with Code for America: http://www.codeforamerica.org/action
Alternative Funding Models for Civic Projects- Neighbor.lyCode for America
When a community needs to reinvent itself, who funds the transformation? Are the established tools— municipal bonds, CDFIs, and foundations among them— working in the new era of lean urbanism? Learn about innovative financing mechanisms— like social impact bonds and crowdfunding— that can help drive civic innovation at scale.
Jase Wilson, Neighbor.ly
Watch the video online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6roHOXEjtc&list=PL65XgbSILalVoej11T95Tc7D7-F1PdwHq&index=6
Get involved with Code for America: http://www.codeforamerica.org/action
Zac Bookman, OpenGov CEO, and Jonathan Reichental, Palo Alto CIO, discuss the technological challenges governments face, and new solutions that help administrators save time, improve decision-making and build trust. Join the session to learn how leading governments across the country are finding innovative ways to be more digital, data-driven and efficient.
Open Your Government to the Promise of Cloud-Based Innovation and Collaboration
Peak Academy: Building a Culture of Innovation in GovernmentCode for America
The Denver Peak Academy trains employees throughout the City and County of Denver how to identify and eliminate waste and improve their daily municipal operations. In this training, learn techniques based on lean and agile principles that build personal initiative to help government staff reform and innovate their department’s internal processes. Be prepared for a hands-on learning experience to understand how Denver has helped create a culture of innovation with their City colleagues through the Peak Academy.
David Edinger, Chief Performance Officer, City & County of Denver, CO
Scotty Martin, Peak Academy- Peak Analytics, City & County of Denver, CO
Watch the video online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUnUXlF4oWc&index=3&list=PL65XgbSILalVoej11T95Tc7D7-F1PdwHq
Get involved with Code for America: http://www.codeforamerica.org/action
Civic Design: User Research Methods for Creating Better Citizen Experiences
Building tech tools informed by input from real users is essential. Without feedback from the intended users, you’re making design and tech decisions in the dark. User testing can help! Learn how to carry out effective user testing to build better civic tools.
Cyd Harrell, UX Evanglist, Code for America
Kavi Harshawat, 2014 Code for America Fellow
Watch the video online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipjLBcBD21I&index=21&list=PL65XgbSILalVoej11T95Tc7D7-F1PdwHq
Get involved with Code for America: http://www.codeforamerica.org/action
How you can develop open data under the constraint of limited resources. Presented by Emily Shaw, National Policy Manager, Sunlight Foundation; Alish Green, Policy Associate, Sunlight Foundation, and Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak, Pittsburgh City Council
Watch the video online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bPtIfWSkLY&list=PL65XgbSILalVoej11T95Tc7D7-F1PdwHq&index=11
Get involved with Code for America: http://www.codeforamerica.org/action
Cities are leveraging technology to better connect with its constituents. However, cities are at risk of isolating key segments of its populations without closing the digital divide. We will explore the digital divide’s impact on civic technology and the role of cities in increasing access to high-speed Internet.
Sheila Dugan, Marketing and Communications Manager at EveryoneOn
Watch the video online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yUi_dKovJ8&list=PL65XgbSILalVoej11T95Tc7D7-F1PdwHq&index=1
Get involved with Code for America: http://www.codeforamerica.org/action
Cities and Startups: Cultivating Deep EngagementCode for America
Cities and Startups: Cultivating Deep Engagement
FastFWD, City of Philadelphia
Story Bellows, co-director of the Philadelphia Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics
Watch the video online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRKUCCHj-08&list=PL65XgbSILalVoej11T95Tc7D7-F1PdwHq&index=4
Get involved with Code for America: www.codeforamerica.org/action
Sam Hashemi and Ryan Shepard share how the City of Atlanta is working to reduce the number of people receiving infractions for missed court appearances in Atlanta by using technology to get the right information to the right people at the right time.
Watch the video online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwJplmFgVZo&list=PL65XgbSILalWFStqV0z0N9pvftstJ8AAh&index=3
Get involved with Code for America: www.codeforamerica.org/action
City of Charlotte 2014 Fellows Tiffany Chu and Twyla McDermott share their work on Citygram, an app to help local government make open data about neighborhoods useful and relevant to residents.
Watch the video on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFu8BJHmrEM&index=27&list=PL65XgbSILalWFStqV0z0N9pvftstJ8AAh
Get involved with Code for America: http://www.codeforamerica.org/action
140 Characters, Not Flying Cars: Maybe We Got Just What We Needed After All- ...Code for America
140 Characters, Not Flying Cars: Maybe We Got Just What We Needed After All
John Lilly, former CEO of Mozilla, gives a keynote addressing how technology is changing the relationships we have with each other, and what this means for how we think about the division between government and citizens.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVVrc75QHKo&list=PL65XgbSILalWFStqV0z0N9pvftstJ8AAh&index=58
Defaulting to Open: How Open Data Can Build Trust in Government
Ryan Buell, Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School on learnings from Boston about how open data can increase residents' trust in their local government.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CofaLJZB1ag&index=45&list=PL65XgbSILalWFStqV0z0N9pvftstJ8AAh
Sascha Haselmayer, CEO, Citymart on efforts to pilot outcomes-based procurement in Barcelona.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1mQW80YCzE&index=22&list=PL65XgbSILalWFStqV0z0N9pvftstJ8AAh
2014 Code for America Fellow Jeremia Kimelman and Senior Advisor & Chief Policy Officer of City of Chattanooga Stacy Richardson present their work on open data standards in Chattanooga and how the impact it's had on the community and coalition building.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBAf2kwLx4k&index=38&list=PL65XgbSILalWFStqV0z0N9pvftstJ8AAh
2014 Code for America Fellows Sam Hashemi and Tiffany Chu demo TransitMix, an intuitive tool to help transit planners quickly design routes, identify tradeoffs, and communicate with the public.
Watch the video online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enMF-bbQOp8&index=51&list=PL65XgbSILalWFStqV0z0N9pvftstJ8AAh
Get involved with Code for America: www.codeforamerica.org/action
City of Lexington 2014 Fellows Lyzi Diamond and Jonathan Hollinger discuss what became possible when they joined datasets already held by the City to create a richer, fuller picture of a specific place.
Watch the video online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh-cpTGCuTQ&list=PL65XgbSILalWFStqV0z0N9pvftstJ8AAh&index=25
Get involved with Code for America: www.codeforamerica.org/action
Alt. GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using ...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
A tale of scale & speed: How the US Navy is enabling software delivery from l...sonjaschweigert1
Rapid and secure feature delivery is a goal across every application team and every branch of the DoD. The Navy’s DevSecOps platform, Party Barge, has achieved:
- Reduction in onboarding time from 5 weeks to 1 day
- Improved developer experience and productivity through actionable findings and reduction of false positives
- Maintenance of superior security standards and inherent policy enforcement with Authorization to Operate (ATO)
Development teams can ship efficiently and ensure applications are cyber ready for Navy Authorizing Officials (AOs). In this webinar, Sigma Defense and Anchore will give attendees a look behind the scenes and demo secure pipeline automation and security artifacts that speed up application ATO and time to production.
We will cover:
- How to remove silos in DevSecOps
- How to build efficient development pipeline roles and component templates
- How to deliver security artifacts that matter for ATO’s (SBOMs, vulnerability reports, and policy evidence)
- How to streamline operations with automated policy checks on container images
Unlock the Future of Search with MongoDB Atlas_ Vector Search Unleashed.pdfMalak Abu Hammad
Discover how MongoDB Atlas and vector search technology can revolutionize your application's search capabilities. This comprehensive presentation covers:
* What is Vector Search?
* Importance and benefits of vector search
* Practical use cases across various industries
* Step-by-step implementation guide
* Live demos with code snippets
* Enhancing LLM capabilities with vector search
* Best practices and optimization strategies
Perfect for developers, AI enthusiasts, and tech leaders. Learn how to leverage MongoDB Atlas to deliver highly relevant, context-aware search results, transforming your data retrieval process. Stay ahead in tech innovation and maximize the potential of your applications.
#MongoDB #VectorSearch #AI #SemanticSearch #TechInnovation #DataScience #LLM #MachineLearning #SearchTechnology
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 5DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 5. In this session, we will cover CI/CD with devops.
Topics covered:
CI/CD with in UiPath
End-to-end overview of CI/CD pipeline with Azure devops
Speaker:
Lyndsey Byblow, Test Suite Sales Engineer @ UiPath, Inc.
Securing your Kubernetes cluster_ a step-by-step guide to success !KatiaHIMEUR1
Today, after several years of existence, an extremely active community and an ultra-dynamic ecosystem, Kubernetes has established itself as the de facto standard in container orchestration. Thanks to a wide range of managed services, it has never been so easy to set up a ready-to-use Kubernetes cluster.
However, this ease of use means that the subject of security in Kubernetes is often left for later, or even neglected. This exposes companies to significant risks.
In this talk, I'll show you step-by-step how to secure your Kubernetes cluster for greater peace of mind and reliability.
Full-RAG: A modern architecture for hyper-personalizationZilliz
Mike Del Balso, CEO & Co-Founder at Tecton, presents "Full RAG," a novel approach to AI recommendation systems, aiming to push beyond the limitations of traditional models through a deep integration of contextual insights and real-time data, leveraging the Retrieval-Augmented Generation architecture. This talk will outline Full RAG's potential to significantly enhance personalization, address engineering challenges such as data management and model training, and introduce data enrichment with reranking as a key solution. Attendees will gain crucial insights into the importance of hyperpersonalization in AI, the capabilities of Full RAG for advanced personalization, and strategies for managing complex data integrations for deploying cutting-edge AI solutions.
How to Get CNIC Information System with Paksim Ga.pptxdanishmna97
Pakdata Cf is a groundbreaking system designed to streamline and facilitate access to CNIC information. This innovative platform leverages advanced technology to provide users with efficient and secure access to their CNIC details.
Communications Mining Series - Zero to Hero - Session 1DianaGray10
This session provides introduction to UiPath Communication Mining, importance and platform overview. You will acquire a good understand of the phases in Communication Mining as we go over the platform with you. Topics covered:
• Communication Mining Overview
• Why is it important?
• How can it help today’s business and the benefits
• Phases in Communication Mining
• Demo on Platform overview
• Q/A
“An Outlook of the Ongoing and Future Relationship between Blockchain Technologies and Process-aware Information Systems.” Invited talk at the joint workshop on Blockchain for Information Systems (BC4IS) and Blockchain for Trusted Data Sharing (B4TDS), co-located with with the 36th International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE), 3 June 2024, Limassol, Cyprus.
Removing Uninteresting Bytes in Software FuzzingAftab Hussain
Imagine a world where software fuzzing, the process of mutating bytes in test seeds to uncover hidden and erroneous program behaviors, becomes faster and more effective. A lot depends on the initial seeds, which can significantly dictate the trajectory of a fuzzing campaign, particularly in terms of how long it takes to uncover interesting behaviour in your code. We introduce DIAR, a technique designed to speedup fuzzing campaigns by pinpointing and eliminating those uninteresting bytes in the seeds. Picture this: instead of wasting valuable resources on meaningless mutations in large, bloated seeds, DIAR removes the unnecessary bytes, streamlining the entire process.
In this work, we equipped AFL, a popular fuzzer, with DIAR and examined two critical Linux libraries -- Libxml's xmllint, a tool for parsing xml documents, and Binutil's readelf, an essential debugging and security analysis command-line tool used to display detailed information about ELF (Executable and Linkable Format). Our preliminary results show that AFL+DIAR does not only discover new paths more quickly but also achieves higher coverage overall. This work thus showcases how starting with lean and optimized seeds can lead to faster, more comprehensive fuzzing campaigns -- and DIAR helps you find such seeds.
- These are slides of the talk given at IEEE International Conference on Software Testing Verification and Validation Workshop, ICSTW 2022.
Essentials of Automations: The Art of Triggers and Actions in FMESafe Software
In this second installment of our Essentials of Automations webinar series, we’ll explore the landscape of triggers and actions, guiding you through the nuances of authoring and adapting workspaces for seamless automations. Gain an understanding of the full spectrum of triggers and actions available in FME, empowering you to enhance your workspaces for efficient automation.
We’ll kick things off by showcasing the most commonly used event-based triggers, introducing you to various automation workflows like manual triggers, schedules, directory watchers, and more. Plus, see how these elements play out in real scenarios.
Whether you’re tweaking your current setup or building from the ground up, this session will arm you with the tools and insights needed to transform your FME usage into a powerhouse of productivity. Join us to discover effective strategies that simplify complex processes, enhancing your productivity and transforming your data management practices with FME. Let’s turn complexity into clarity and make your workspaces work wonders!
Goodbye Windows 11: Make Way for Nitrux Linux 3.5.0!SOFTTECHHUB
As the digital landscape continually evolves, operating systems play a critical role in shaping user experiences and productivity. The launch of Nitrux Linux 3.5.0 marks a significant milestone, offering a robust alternative to traditional systems such as Windows 11. This article delves into the essence of Nitrux Linux 3.5.0, exploring its unique features, advantages, and how it stands as a compelling choice for both casual users and tech enthusiasts.
zkStudyClub - Reef: Fast Succinct Non-Interactive Zero-Knowledge Regex ProofsAlex Pruden
This paper presents Reef, a system for generating publicly verifiable succinct non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs that a committed document matches or does not match a regular expression. We describe applications such as proving the strength of passwords, the provenance of email despite redactions, the validity of oblivious DNS queries, and the existence of mutations in DNA. Reef supports the Perl Compatible Regular Expression syntax, including wildcards, alternation, ranges, capture groups, Kleene star, negations, and lookarounds. Reef introduces a new type of automata, Skipping Alternating Finite Automata (SAFA), that skips irrelevant parts of a document when producing proofs without undermining soundness, and instantiates SAFA with a lookup argument. Our experimental evaluation confirms that Reef can generate proofs for documents with 32M characters; the proofs are small and cheap to verify (under a second).
Paper: https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/1886
2. Introduction
Santa Cruz, California was the smallest city to participate in the Code for America program --
but it’s a small city with a big appetite for the future. It’s a small city with a large base of
talented and committed civil servants and residents. And most importantly: it’s a small city
with a big heart.
The 2012 Code for America
Fellows that partnered with the
City of Santa Cruz -- Ruthie
BenDor, Jim Craner, and Tamara
Shopsin -- recognized these traits
from their first conference call
withheir City partners. Over the
next ten months, the Fellows and
City staff worked together on a
number of projects already demonstrating great benefits for the residents, business
community, and civil servants of Santa Cruz. With a keen focus on sustainability, the Fellows
are confident that the work they performed will remain beyond their Fellowship, and hopefully
spread to other cities seeking to solve the same problems by using new technologies.
The Residency
In late January, the Santa Cruz Fellows finished their pre-Residency training and embarked
on the 70-mile journey to Santa Cruz. At the time, the team’s primary goal was to build a
small business permitting website to ease the registration and compliance burden for local
small businesses. This goal is a perfect example of Code for America’s vision -- leveraging
technology to make common citizen/government interactions more efficient.
The Fellows began the Residency in style by attending the 2012 NEXTies -- a gala civic
awards event held at the Museum of Art and History by local cultural group Santa Cruz NEXT.
Our first night was a night of firsts:
• Jim and Ruthie met Mayor Don Lane and City Contact Peter Koht for the first time
• we had our first Penny Ice Creamery ice cream
• and we had the first of many wonderful conversations with the people of Santa Cruz.
The Residency had two main goals: getting to know the people and processes in City Hall
and getting to know the small business community that would be the primary users of our
application.
Peter Koht spent several days leading us through City Hall and the various departments that
make up the municipal government, then made us at home at our temporary office in the IT
Division. The IT staff, led by City CTO Chris Stathis, was incredibly welcoming and we began
conversations that would lay the groundwork for hosting and integration of our future
applications. Forging connections with city technology staff to support CfA’s work on a long-
term basis is a critical component of a successful Fellowship engagement.
Unlike larger cities in the Fellowship, Santa Cruz City Hall is incredibly intimate: it was not
3. uncommon to run into the Mayor or a few City Council members a few times a week. At the
end of our Residency month, we all truly felt like we were part of a city-wide team and that we
had sincere support from elected officials and department staff.
As part of our efforts to help transform the small business startup process, we conducted four
formal focus group sessions with members of the Santa Cruz small business community.
During these sessions, we listened to architects, restaurateurs, retail shop owners, and other
entrepreneurs describe what they experienced when launching their small businesses in
Santa Cruz. These experiences in the community, combined with our research into the
“behind-the-scenes” operations in City Hall, yielded a solid foundation for our application
planning efforts.
4. OpenCounter - Permitting Portal for Small Businesses
The primary mission of the Santa Cruz Fellowship team was to deploy a tool for local
entrepreneurs to ease the regulatory and compliance burdens associated with launching a
new business. Starting a new venture can involve a bureaucratic maze of red tape, visits to
City Hall to complete paperwork, and stymied attempts to figure out local laws and
regulations. By building a citizen-centric tool focused on the entrepreneur's experience, we
hoped to measurably reduce the time and costs involved with local permitting and regulatory
compliance.
The Santa Cruz Fellows met with dozens of business owners, civic and commerce
organizations, and City employees of multiple departments in an attempt to fully understand
the intricacies involved with starting a business. We also met with local government
employees in neighboring municipalities to ensure that any solution we built could be reused
by other jurisdictions with minimal changes and customizations.
The resulting solution - OpenCounter - provides an intuitive, user-friendly interface to multiple
City processes, including zoning, permitting, and licensing. The tool offers a wizard to guide
entrepreneurs through the business startup process, offering links to non-City resources such
as state and county permitting, and collecting information to be submitted directly to City staff
and systems. As the application is rolled out, City staff will be eager to measure the improved
user experience for small business owners.
http://opencounter.cityofsantacruz.com
5. OpenData - Implementing Santa Cruz’s Open Data
Initiative
Like many cities, the City of Santa Cruz creates and records a large amount of data:
everything from maps of each City-managed park to daily rainfall recorded at the Loch
Lomond Reservoir. Over the past few years, many government agencies have made an effort
to publish this type of data to the public, making it "open" and freely available. This "open
data" can be used by students, researchers, businesses, website developers, journalists, and
any other interested community members.
In the summer of 2011, the Santa Cruz City Council passed a resolution to create an open
data portal and an associated initiative to open data sets held by City departments. Since the
goals of this project are closely aligned with Code for America’s strategic goals, this became a
joint project between the City and CfA. Fellow Jim Craner took the lead as project manager,
working closely with City staff to develop both an open data platform and internal policies for
staff publication of data.
The data server was launched in September 2012 with over fifty data sets culled from City
datastores as well as other sources, such as state and federal data catalogs. The City has
already approved funding for community engagement activities related to the open data
initiative for 2013 – a promising sign for this promising project.
http://data.cityofsantacruz.com
6. Ancillary Projects
Bike Lockers - Quick Win
Santa Cruz’s new bike lockers are a great feature for the
city’s many cyclicsts -- but they look like utility boxes.
Tamara worked with the Transportation Department to get
approval for a large bike logo on the exterior of each locker,
which she then painted. The project was a quick and easy
win for urban usability.
Read more at http://codeforamerica.org/2012/06/08/utility-
boxes/
Redesign of City Hall Departmental Maps
Tamara worked with the City’s Arts Director as well as numerous departments to update and
optimize the City Hall departmental maps used by visitors. In addition, she created an online
version of the map to be integrated into the city website.
Read more at http://codeforamerica.org/2012/08/28/quick-win/
Bicycle Registration Tool
Santa Cruz's municipal code states that bicycles ridden in the city need to be licensed, but
public awareness is so low that almost nobody -- not even bike shop owners -- has any idea
of this requirement. In 2011, only 180 bicycles were registered in the city of Santa Cruz, but
over 800 stolen bicycles were recovered. Right now, licensing and registering a bicycle
requires that one visit the Finance Department in City Hall, pay a $3 fee (that doesn't cover
the city's expense), and fill out a paper form that is manually input twice: once into the
Finance Department's record-keeping software, and once into the Police Department's
record-keeping software. By eliminating the fee, putting the form online, and integrating it
directly with the Police Department's record-keeping software, the city will actually save
money on each registration by eliminating the personnel time needed to process the
paperwork. By creating a mobile-ready online form, bike shops are able to register bikes for
customers who might not know where to find their new ride's serial #. This should increase
compliance and also make it more likely for stolen bicycles to be reunited with their owners.
IT Skill Building Series
As one of the smallest cities in the CfA Fellowship program, Santa Cruz's municipal IT
department has limited internal resources to adopt some of the new technologies that we're
utilizing this year. I planned and implemented an ITD Capacity Building program to survey
current skills, anticipated required skills for the next 24 months, and deliver training and
learning opportunities to IT staff around those skills.
IT personnel have begun to utilize their new skills in their own system maintenance and
configuration duties day-to-day. Personnel should be more equipped to sustain CfA-inspired
7. and -developed technologies, applications, and services following the end of the 2012
Fellowship
Textizen for Santa Cruz
Using the Textizen software built by CfA Team Philadelphia this year, we deployed a text
message-based polling system in Santa Cruz to help city employees get citizen feedback on
a variety of issues. Our first poll involved use of the city-operated tourist trolley service in
downtown Santa Cruz.
By providing opportunities for citizens to submit feedback via text messaging, Santa Cruz is
making it easier for citizens' voices to be heard by city government. In addition, mobile-based
polls have the potential to target larger numbers of respondents than traditional web-based or
landline-based polls.
Community Engagement
Code Across America: Santa Cruz Hackathon
As part of CfA’s national day of hacking in February, the Santa Cruz Fellows organized an all-
day hackathon hosted by local co-working facility NextSpace. Over 30 local hackers attended
this initial event, with a focus on designing and building applications to improve the citizen
experience. Many connections were forged and snacks consumed.
TechRaising: Santa Cruz
The CfA Fellows participated in this semi-annual event, a hybrid hackathon / designathon /
entrepreneur funding pitch / skill share. Dozens of local Santa Cruz techies and
entrepreneurs showed up to coordinate ideas, skills, and funding.
Meeting with Staff from Center for Data and Democracy
The CfA Fellows and our City contact had a meeting with the staff from the local Center for
Data and Democracy where we gave them information about CfA and specifically the work
we were performing in Santa Cruz.
Cruzio Bounce Hour
Cruzio is a local Santa Cruz ISP as well as a co-working facility for many entrepreneurs in the
Santa Cruz area. One of the company’s weekly all-hands idea-sharing meetings was devoted
to CfA’s mission in Santa Cruz, where the Fellows shared their observations and plans.
Santa Cruz Rotary Club Luncheon
Jim was invited to speak for about half an hour to the Santa Cruz Rotary Club, an audience of
well over a hundred people. He presented information about CfA’s 2011 activities as well as
the hopes for the 2012 Fellowship in Santa Cruz.
8. Santa Cruz Geeks Dinner
Jim and Ruthie were invited to attend the monthly Santa Cruz Geeks dinner, a regular dinner
party attended by technologists and technology professionals. Much of the evening’s
conversation involved discussions of the local technology scene and the upcoming CfA
Fellowship activities.
Santa Cruz City Press Conference
At the beginning of the Residency, the City of Santa Cruz held a press conference with Mayor
Lane to introduce the Fellows to the community. Local broadcast and print journalists
attended, leading to many amusing incidents of Fellows being recognized on the streets of
Santa Cruz. Each Fellow was given the opportunity to speak about CfA’s mission as well as
their personal objectives for the Fellowship year.
Conclusion
The Santa Cruz Fellowship team is incredibly grateful to our contacts in Santa Cruz City Hall,
especially Peter Koht, Economic Development Coordinator, and Chris Stathis, Chief
Technology Officer. In addition, we'd like to thank our program staff at Code for America for
their invaluable support and assistance throughout the year. This project was truly an
example of many dedicated individuals and organizations collaborating on a series of
sustainable projects, united by a shared vision of using technology to improve the citizen
experience.