Ryan Kelly is the Brigade Captain leading Rhode Island’s newly formed Code for America Brigade, a division of the national nonprofit organization that engages members of the local community in its mission to promote openness, civic participation and efficiency in municipal governments.
On Feb. 22, the Brigade held its first meetup at the Statehouse in Providence as part of Code for America’s international “Code Across” event.
Kelly spoke with Providence Business News about the Brigade and Code for America’s mission in the Ocean State.
PBN: What is the Code for America Brigade?
KELLY: The Code for America Brigade is an opportunity for residents and Rhode Island communities to use technology to tackle various civic and social issues. Local citizens volunteer their time and talents to help create technology-based tools and applications that promote solutions aimed at enhancing the common good. Rhode Island has just launch its first Brigade and join an international network working on similar issues.
PBN: What are some examples of applications that have been built by other Brigades, and what kinds of problems are they designed to solve?
KELLY: Brigades have done some amazing work in other cities and Rhode Island hopes to build on these successes. Code for America’s work is always non-propriety or “open-source,” which means that these products can be redeployed in other communities. Two notable examples include Oakland’s Open Budget, designed to visualize and share essential information about the budget process, and Boston’s Adopt-a-Hydrant application that allows citizens to “adopt” civic infrastructure such as fire hydrants and shovel them out after a snowstorm.
PBN: What were some of the big ideas that came out of the “Code Across” event in Providence on Feb. 22?
KELLY: I am very excited by the passion and excitement I saw in the room during last Saturday’s “Code Across” event. I felt it was a realistic discussion that highlighted many areas of civic life that could use a new injection of technology. Topics included unemployment, peer-neighborhood networks, environment, transportation and government interfaces. Some ideas that emerged included tangible tools such as local budget visualizations, job search sites, wiki pages and community-sharing sites. I would encourage anyone to join the conversation and attend our regular meetups as we start to form the first Rhode Island Brigade projects.
PBN: What are some of the skill sets you’re looking for in Brigade volunteers, and what kinds of people should attend Brigade meetups?
KELLY: First and foremost, we are looking anyone that is passionate about making a difference in their community. While many of the applications will need programming and developer skills, we cannot tackle such civic and social issues without a diverse and passionate group of coders and non-coders. If you find yourself watching or remixing the latest montage of cool cat videos and would rather spend that time building something for your community, then come join us at our meetups.
PBN: How will the Brigade intersect with the broader Code for America mission in Rhode Island?
KELLY: The Rhode Island Brigade is launching in conjunction with another national Code for America program called the Fellowship. The Fellowship is a service-year program where civic-minded developers and designers create small startup teams and partner with a local government on a specific project. Rhode Island is fortunate to have a great group of talented fellows who will be working on an education related project here in the state. The partnership between the Fellows and Brigade can help bring about sustainable collective impact for all of the projects.
