Code for Los Angeles is the Los Angeles Code for America Brigade, a network of civic-minded technologists who contribute their skills toward using the web as a platform for local government and community service. At our first event, we would like to talk about what Code for America is about, the types of initiatives you would like to see, as well as do a little group workshop for one of our first initiatives, which is supporting the City of Santa Monica in Open Data!

1. Code for LA: Santa Monica

2. What is a Code for America Brigade?
We link the tech community with local
government to solve problems in our
community.

3. !
Our Network
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Meetups in > 50 cities
3000+ members
200+ locations
27 captains
41 brigades

4. Key Leadership Roles
Captains
o Vetted volunteers in a structured program who are deeply
committed to Code for America's mission in their city
o Captains must be endorsed by a Municipal Partner
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Municipal Partners
o Volunteers from local government who agree to endorse
and collaborate with a local brigade
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Community Organizers
o Volunteers with demonstrated ability & capacity for
organizing in support of Brigade activities

5. Key Membership Roles
Coders & Repo Managers
o Volunteers who get (or want to learn about) hackathons,
agile development, GitHub and open source, civic tech
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Graphics & UX Designers
o Volunteers who understand (or want to learn about) what
we mean when we say "let's make the interfaces to
government more beautiful and easier to use"
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Subject Matter Experts
o Volunteers who share knowledge with civic technologists
about in the inner workings of municipal government
operations

6. What types of activities can I help with?
ORGANIZE!
OPEN CIVIC DATA!
SHARE CIVIC TECH!
HELP GOVERNMENT GET OPEN!
CODE!

7. How we will organize Code for LA?

8. Monthly meetup with a focus city
Give developers a chance to meet
with city officials to propose open
data sets, or brainstorm ideas.
Later we may do a westside and eastside each month, or even individual cities

9. Hack night
Regular hack nights to give teams a place for
continual progress on their projects
Heavy focus on learning with mentors available for help

10. Goals
Make real apps that citizens really use
Provide an anchor of communication between civic and tech
Build a community that promotes openness, collaboration, and learning
Help local governments on open data and open gov initiatives

11. Metrics
How will we know if a brigade is effective?
Endorsed by local government partner and CfA
Meets on a regular basis, at least monthly
Maintains a clear plan of action, at least annually
Curates linked, open data for the common good
Implements open source, civic tech locally

12. What do I do?
Talk to people!
Discuss project ideas.
Find a project that sounds interesting.
Gather some interested people.
Find a time to discuss further.
Let Jeff or Yohei know so we can put it on http://codeforla.us