Civic How to Know What Transmission You Have

Engines of Borough Entrepreneurship

Clever ways cities are turning civic enthusiasm into meaningful civic action and entrepreneurship

Information technology was the French observer, Alexis de Tocqueville, that noted that in our American democracy our imagined lines between private and public lives were too crude, too strict, for reality. What he saw when he documented the early on days of our young democracy was a society, structured around pocket-sized towns and bristling with associations of all kinds: political, civic, social, etc. Where there had been fires, a volunteer brigade was congealed to respond to future disasters; where bridges needed to be built, teams of people came together to get to piece of work. Associative — or customs — life in America was everywhere, and it was not one defined by ego or fancy; instead, by common need and collective resolve.

America was, in its own way, entrepreneurial.

While much has changed since then — burn departments are no longer volunteer run, and Public Works maintains our roads and bridges — the cadre thought remains. In a democracy, when people come up together, they can do great things, inside government and out. In the past, citizens stepped up where government had not. Now, thanks to new tools and technologies, we are seeing a deeper level of collaboration. We are seeing citizens and their public representatives work together to find the best way to meet the needs of their customs, to strengthen them, and to define a new kind of entrepreneurship for the 21st century: one that is decidedly civic, and biased towards innovation.

7 Tactics for Fostering 21st Century Civic Life

Taking a look across the country, you can meet a broad range of tactics and approaches to borer into this new opportunity for innovation. A few, though, common themes take emerged. Below is a working list of some tactics (I repeat: some — this is very much something I hope to go on to add to) clever cities and the communities within them accept proven to be effective:

Create a Space for Collaboration

"This is non the wisdom of the crowd, only the wisdom of someone in the oversupply. It'south non that the network itself is smart; it's that the individuals get smarter because they're connected to the network." — Steven B. Johnson

The borough technology space stands autonomously from other sectors in a meaningful way: more often than not, information technology's not nix sum. Cities are not competitive with each other, and unremarkably, civic organizations, entrepreneurs, or startups in a urban center are not either. Collaboration, thus, is not merely acceptable, but encouraged. For that collaboration to happen, density, and the random connections it enables, is crucial. Skillful people need good places to come up together.

1. Co-working / Maker Spaces: 1871 (Chicago), Borough Hall (NYC), Ctrl Commonage (LA)
2. Meetups: 1 Million Cups (Kansas Urban center)
3. Hackathons / Weekly Hack Nights: Chicago, LA, SF, etc

Ensure Institutional Support & Uppercase @ your back

"Silicon Valley has evolved a critical mass of engineers and venture capitalists and all the support structure — the police force firms, the existent manor, all that — that are all really geared toward existence accepting of startups." — Elon Musk

Just increasingly, it'south not only Silicon Valley that has that support construction. Cities beyond the state are leveraging their unique assets, be it their local industry, historic philanthropic base, or even immature angel investors, to amass capital letter resources for new entrepreneurs. And fifty-fifty going beyond writing checks by supporting homegrown startups with advice, mentorship, and connections.

1. VC / Institutional Funding: Arch Angels (STL); Goldhirsh Foundation (LA); Awesome Foundation, GovTech Fund (diverse cities)
2. Private sponsorship: Socrata (Seattle), Azavea (Philadelphia)
3. Local Accelerators / Incubators: Affect Hub (various cities), 1776 (DC), Smart Chicago Collaborative, TechStars (various cities)
4. New (crowdsourced) models of local financing: Neighborly

Open Doors & Seed Deep Roots

"The major fault line in the 21st century is not between right or left, merely between open up or closed." — Alec J. Ross [my accent]

A unlike kind of "revolving door" is emerging in cities across the state: instead of city officials leaving Metropolis Hall permanently for private sector employment, they are stepping out for a few hours to attend a local meet-up, or inviting civic innovators inside to become a existent look at civic challenges.

1. Connections to city hall: Agile Chief Innovation/Applied science Officers, FastFWD (Philadelphia), Entrepreneur-in-Residence (SF, Boston & LA)
2. Borough Internships / Fellowships: Mayor's Innovation Fellowship (SF), Code for America Fellowship (various cities)

Build a Pipeline for innovators / talent / energy

"…what I see cities and metropolitan areas doing now is outset to focus on the fundamentals…exercise you accept the skilled workers and collaboration between universities and companies and entrepreneurs and labor unions and so that you can really compete and prosper…?" — Bruce Katz

"If you build information technology, they will come," the saying goes. Non exactly. Hackerspaces and fellowship programs are merely as proficient as the people y'all get inside them. That'due south why cities are investing securely in their local intellectual "uppercase" — fostering talented entrepreneurs and and so encouraging them to stay and use their talents in their urban center.

1. Local universities, community colleges, or schools: Cornell Tech (NYC), CUSP (NYC), Harris School of Public Policy (Chicago)
2. Tech trainings / skill shares: Girls Who Lawmaking, RailsBridge, Library digital literacy programs (all in multiple cities)

Smooth a spotlight

Speculating on motivations can be a dicey game, especially when you lot start to intermingle borough and commercial interests. It's easy to think that entrepreneurs getting into the borough space are motivated by cash, and cash alone. But as so many cities have shown, there are ways to engage, encourage, and mobilize entreprenuers without putting dollars up. Let them know that the city is behind them, that the city supports them, and that they are helping their city. Leverage the city's vox as capital, its bully pulpit.

1. Media: Technical.ly (Philadelphia, DC, etc)
2. Contests: NYC Large Apps, LA2050, OpenDataRace (Philadelphia)
3. Mayoral / Glory recognition: Hack for LA & I.am.Angel Foundation, Mayor'southward participation in hackathons (multiple cities)

Erect New Borough (Digital) Infrastructure

You lot run into, greatness for a country doesn't require some huge monument for all to see. Information technology is not a journey to a particular destination — only a delivery to follow a grade of constant and never-ending improvement." — Sonny Perdue

Before at that place were town halls and public parks where citizens would congregate; those withal exist, to be sure, merely the chat has moved. Online. (In large part.) What'south needed then is investment in new kinds of civic infrastructure to facilitate participation — both big and small — in our digital historic period.

1. Civic Apps with Community Appointment: City Answers & Write-a-thons; LocalWiki; Textizen; Remix; Madison by OpenGov Foundation
2. Open information

Become to where people are

"…government of the people, past the people, and for the people.." — Lincoln

Equally new tools and interfaces sally in the borough space, there's always the tendency towards the new and shiny. This not only undermines the value of established groups and institutions, just misses the point entirely of the purpose of civic life — to exist of and by the people. That'due south why we're seeing really smart cities build for inclusion, exist it through relying on billboards or double-decker stops to get the discussion out, or knocking on doors to get user feedback, or connecting to existing networks of citizens and empowering them with new means for their central goals. These clever cities are connecting the digital and the analog to get the job done.

1. On-the-ground, continuous feedback: Borough User Testing Group (Chicago)
2. Ongoing outreach / user engagement: NYC311 (concrete ads), City Hall to Get (Boston)
3. Existing community organizations: LISC (Chicago), Neighborhood Councils (LA), CfA Brigades

Equally stated, this is a working list of themes and tactics (which is arguably a chip dated, given the step of change in the field, and certainly biased towards the cities I've worked with). Delight share your ideas, comments, or edits. — AN

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