A few months ago I left my position of 3 years to pursue a new and interesting project. This may sound funny but I’m happy to say I’ve decided on something particularly challenging called “America”. You are currently reading the words of Code for America’s new Senior Marketing Manager. Thanks to all those who’ve helped lead me to this decision.
For those who don’t know, CfA is headquartered in SF and is best known for leveraging the collective wisdom of tech-savvy netizens to build government apps and infrastructure. Programs like the CfA fellowship, brigade and accelerator are reinforced by awesome staff members and leaders like Executive Director Jen Pahlka, Chief Strategist Abhi Nemani and Board Member Tim O’Reilly.
While I owe much of my decision to the amazing people within the organization, I have to admit Ryan Gosling’s recent refusal to eat his cereal also led me down this path. Both Gov 2.0 and Gosling’s cereal Vines have been called “memes” and I’m totally ok with that.
WHAT’S IN A MEME?
In a recent article, Tim O’Reilly and supporters of Gov 2.0 were criticised as a “meme hustlers”. But to me, memes can be more than just Ryan Gosling mashups and cat videos. They’re popular concepts reinterpreted by various subgroups and distributed amongst peers. So by this logic we might consider the civil rights movement a meme.
Most of us would gladly hustle for that and any other meme that contributes to a just and responsible society. That’s precisely why I’m joining CfA.
Since inception, CfA’s apps and projects have proven their value to society. It’s not just a good meme and a noble hustle, but it’s helping government become the platform to encompass the hopes, dreams and innovation of millions. As a marketer, it’s thrilling that I can contribute to a project that each of us can own and hack on in our own way.
If you’d like to Code for America or can offer insights on how to market, fundraise and partner, email me at dana[at]codeforamerica[dot]org. If you’re a marketer with ideas on how you can spread good, by all means keep hustling.
My friend Chris Heuer organized the H(app)athon Project event on March 20th and I’m happy he did. The event is a mini hackathon that combines quantified self, internet of things and Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Indicator. Basically we’re taking trending technology like Nike Fuel bands and real-time operational intelligence and applying them to improving people’s lives. 
What I find most interesting about this project is that while it applies to Bhutanese models, it doesn’t carry a sense of “otherness” that a number of “social good for tech” projects do. This project doesn’t have to be about saving others, it’s actually alright to save ourselves. It’s completely within our capabilities to hack on increasing our own standards of living, education, psychological well-being, health, work satisfaction, community vitality and ecological diversity. There’s even a personal indicator survey to help you determine your own happiness. While it may seem counter-intuitive to approach this from a selfish perspective, it’s completely natural.
In the Details: How to Lose Potential Leaders
I’ve worked as an anti-poverty and feminist organizer and I’ve seen where we lose people. It’s easy to rally around an injustice or grievance, but when we drill down into specificity — that’s the point where people diverge. The fact is, you can’t tear down one all-encompassing pseudo-solution only to prop up another one. Society isn’t a homogenous mass and I have my suspicions that it doesn’t want to be one.
Rather than offering partisan one-off solutions for healthcare, housing etc., it’s better to offer a platform and assume that iteration outside of an administration is inevitable. Don’t build apps and force them on people, build platforms and watch them grow.
The Civil Rights movement and the Green Revolution weren’t about a single issue being solved. They were conceptualized as larger platforms for civic engagement. The fact that there were offshoots meant that there could be leadership and recognition at a number of different levels. This feeling of ownership and achievement is very important. Administrative grunt work is a necessity and any self-respecting person should get their hands dirty. But let’s face it, we’re not all benevolent and selfless beings. When we work in social justice or volunteer with an organization, most of us want to do more than alphabetize the filing system.
The H(app)athon Project is part of a larger trend we’re seeing alongside groups like Code for America. We are looking at society as a platform waiting for a better app environment. But don’t take my word for it, Tim O’Reilly has been saying this for years.
The videos from our H(app)athon project brainstorm will be available here and for more on the project itself visit happathon.com.
If someone with a greater distribution than you republished an excerpt of your article and cited you, would you accuse them of copyright infringement? I wouldn’t — but then again, I like it when people read my posts. This doesn’t seem to be the case for a number of traditional publishers.
