Following-up on our last post re: the appointment of Jennifer Pahlka as U.S. Deputy CTO at the White House, we wanted to revisit her 2012 TED Talk. Others agree; it has been viewed over 1.7 million times to date. The talk holds important and inspiring lessons for anyone working to make the world a better place. But it, like Code for America, also demonstrates the power of design and storytelling as well as technology.
A couple of years ago, I started a program to try to get rock-star tech and design people to take a year off and work in the one environment that represents pretty much everything they’re supposed to hate–government. It’s called Code for America, and it’s a little bit like a Peace Corps for geeks. We select a few fellows every year, and we have them work with city governments. Instead of sending them off into the Third World, we send them into the wilds of City Hall. And there they make great apps and work with city staffers. But really what they’re doing is showing what’s possible with technology today.
Click here to watch Jennifer Pahlka’s recent TED Talk at www.ted.com.
