The theme of this year’s Code for America Summit promises to reinforce the unique professional acuities I have acquired during my first year in the School of Information and my summer internship, which have motivated me to pursue a career in civic technology. In light of this, I would like to take this opportunity to explain why the Summit is vital to my growth as a civic tech professional and to describe the leadership insights I hope to obtain from it.
I will start with some background and description of my work. In my first semester I took the course SI 582 - Introduction to Interaction Design, which launched an exploration into the design of community engagement services for young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder. For this conceptual project, I designed a radio program operating in conjunction with Michigan Public Radio and the organizational infrastructure of the state’s public education system. Over the summer I was a Product Management Intern at Gale Publishing, a part of Cengage Learning. As an academic service provider to public libraries and universities, Gale is transitioning from a traditional print publishing
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Furthermore, they enabled me to see how a diverse network of organizations and individuals can come together to create user-centered municipal services. What the Summit holds in store for me is a rare opportunity to participate in a dialogue with the nation’s best civic tech leaders about how we will shape the future of our work. I am particularly eager to attend workshops on “Bringing User-Centered Practices into Government” and “From Insurgency to the New Normal.” The former will leverage my focus on user experience design practices as they relate to public service initiatives, while the latter builds upon my interest in driving existing services toward digital transformation while maintaining an emphasis on the needs of end
According to the case, I work for Anne Nelson, the state’s CIO, and she has asked me to lead a team to research the ability to improve the state’s technological offerings by incorporating web services (Schneider, 2012). In theory, web services should allow departments to offer more functionality to their various customers, with lower cost and manpower, and Anne would like me to concentrate on four key departments within our state government.
Finding the right person for this design project did not start out smooth. Initially, I started out with 4 potential clients, first volunteer was not comfortable to share her personal issues affects her to sleep, second volunteer stopped responding to me, third volunteer resident in Japan, and due to her profession my last volunteer has a really busy
The kind of an IT solution that would help the government is one that provides the greatest benefit. Take for example the installation of sidewalks that provide energy. As people move around doing their business, they create energy and this energy can be stored and used later. There are so many places within the cities or municipalities where people walk. The sideways, the stadiums, and even jogging lanes. It would be a great idea to tap this energy.
"Writing with a Difference" in Chapter 1 of Mirror on America emphasizes on getting started in writing (14). Writing is a big task for many of us and starting to write is probably the hardest part. They explain a few methods in order to get moving and start writing, such as brainstorming, which includes doing outlines and clustering or webbing. These methods can help us put our thoughts together and narrow down topics giving us an advantage when writing. "Considering Purpose, Audience, and Attitude" are very important concepts to consider before beginning a paper (16). They break the paper into steps explaining and giving examples of each: hooking the reader, identifying a thesis, supporting the thesis, organizing the content,
I seek a PA program that will push me to reach my potential as a clinician and make me feel comfortable along the way. The Northwestern PA Program exceeds my criteria and has numerous qualities that led to my decision to apply. Given that the Northwestern PA Program is well established and has a strong history of PANCE pass rates, I am confident that the education provided will prepare me well as a clinician. Additionally, the curriculum, resources, community and active improvement of the program lead to my decision to apply to the Northwestern PA Program.
Is America perfect? Do I believe in it? The America I believe in is the land of the free and the home of the brave. I believe that America is free, and that you have a choice.
I believe we can make America great again. No, I am not talking about Donald Trump, or even the presidential position in our government. I’m talking about we the people of the United States. It is true that our government makes the laws, sets the boundaries, and decides what’s right and what’s wrong in the books, but we the people decide what’s right and what’s wrong in the eyes of society and I believe that is more important now more than ever before. I may be writing this paper because I am currently being educated in Sociology, or it could be the fact that I actually care and want to see a change in the behaviors and the morales of the people I surround myself with daily. If I were to ask the “average” student at HHS what the top three things they hate the most are, I wouldn’t hesitate to say that a majority of them would say people in one of those three things. It very well may be true, and it’s a valid response, but it’s sad to think that so many of us hate each other. It could be for a variety of
Information technology has changed the context in which governments must operate. Individual citizens and groups now have the ability to quickly organize and contest or influence the direction and mode of governance. From 24/7 news to flash mobs to blogs to political tell-alls, the rapid flow of information demands rapid results from systems of governance. How has information technology compressed the ability of governments and organizations across the board to implement long-term strategic planning? How has information technology redefined sovereign and cultural borders? How can the government leverage information technology to “fight back”? What kinds of skills and resources are needed by both the people sending the message
I saw this most prominently during the board meetings held by Civic Consulting. It was interesting to watch a number of highly accomplished experts from diverse professional backgrounds pondered the issues facing NYCHA and offerer advice and potential solutions that may be outside of the conventional wisdom of a government agency. I enjoyed learning about the ways in which government can incorporate tools developed by private forces to trigger organizational changes which ultimately help the government agency and its beneficiaries. What I appreciate most about this type of public – private relationship, particularly fostered by Civic Consulting is that it is more concerned with genuine government improvement, rather than the profit
America was once feared by every other country regarding everything, but now the only thing America is still superior in is the military, other countries have caught up or even surpassed us in every other category. Other countries have proven to be superior than America in various things such as school. In 2012, America was ranked 26th compared to other countries when regarding test scores. This is due to better curriculum and preparing students better for their future in other countries. It is an extremely large issue that the United States have dropped so far down in the rankings. Also, America has a very large obesity rate at 35 percent of the population being obese. This is due to the lack of physical activity which some people have. Most
The United States of America is a strong and unique country. We are built on a set of beliefs that have worked and have seemed to work well. That is what I admire about this country. However, I believe with that holds a stubbornness to not want to change and truly improve. For example, President Trump’s presidential campaign slogan was ‘Make America Great Again’, implying that the past was great, but right now is not. Meaning that he wants to stick to tradition rather than create progress. I believe that the U.S. continues to hold onto ideals that do not necessarily work with our country’s current situation. Personally, I have quite a few aspects that I would change, but what I will focus on is reforming the Electoral College, increasing voter turnout in the primaries, and balancing the access and integrity within our elections.
Seventy to eighty percent of the projects that Vector Communications works on fall under the core competency of public engagement. While ninety percent of these projects are concerned with infrastructure, the other ten percent are strictly business-oriented. On infrastructure projects, Vector puts together a proposal to
The impact of information technology has been tremendous within the public sector. Over the years, the growth and development of technology has caused the public sector to change. One of the most significant changes in technology has been the evolution of the information systems and how their development has reshaped the way the world uses technology. “It has been just over fifty years since the worlds first programmable computer became operational. It cost millions of dollars to build and processed an unprecedented 5,000 instructions per second. By 1971, Intel was able to pack 25 times that power into a single, two hundred-dollar chip. Today’s personal computers process
For the service learning project, I teamed up with three of my classmates to volunteer at a lady’s conference at Imani Restoration Centre church (IRCC) on the 16th of September, 2017. IRCC is a non-profit organization which is a Kenyan community founded that focuses on bringing African immigrants together to support and learn the things of God. Samuel Mwangi, the senior pastor of IRCC, said that through the counseling sessions that he holds at the church every Thursday, he discovered that most ladies go through the same challenges. Therefore, he thought it would be great for him to organize a lady’s conference, so that ladies could come together to share and support each other (Personal communication, September, 16, 2017)
1. Culture is perceived as a way of thinking that influences the behaviors of a group of people.