#civic tech

If you are passionate about using technology to make a positive impact on your community, civic tech is a great field to explore!

What is Civic Tech? Civic Tech enhances the relationship between the people and government with software for communications, decision-making, service delivery, and political process.

Here's the full Notion List ❀

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Links are taken from sifting through: Code for All & Code for America Find your local Code for America Brigade here

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New to civic tech? You’re not alone!

Over the past week, we’ve spent a lot of time reviewing documents, talking to teams inside and outside of the division, and mapping out the process and pain points as we understand them. We jammed on the issues that we’d identified so far and turned them into a succinct problem statement. 

What we’ve realized is that the state of many applications as they are first presented to MSP is that they are not yet fund-able ideas, but they contain “nuggets” of promise that catch MSP program staff’s interest. Then, a lot of important (and valuable!) work goes into bringing those ideas from “nugget” form to a state where they can meet all standards necessary to receive funding.

The problem seems to be that the already-intensive process of bridging the gap between nugget and fully-fledged idea. With no centralized system for documenting and storing information, the level of support that gets offered to applicants may differ based on the program consultants’ workload, the frequency/quality of communications, and their access to up-to-date information. It makes the process arduous and difficult to do at scale.

So: How might we make the process of bridging the gap between “nugget” and “fully-fledged, ready-to-fund idea” more consistent, intentional, and efficient without losing the co-creation experience? 

Our problem statement will certainly evolve as we dive deeper into our user research, particularly with applicants, who we haven’t had a chance to engage yet - but we think it’s a good start!

We’ve all heard the jokes - pronouns, safe spaces, wokeness etc. In my opinion it’s just outwardly being kind, but whatever, haters gonna hate. But, it does beg a valid question: when working at extremely progressive organizations, do they go overboard? How far is being kind and how far is being pushover?

Disclaimer: I’ve had the privilege of being in the upper management team of two such orgs, both I’ve felt have done a fantastic job of managing this potential issue. However, your mileage may very, so don’t think all super progressive places operate the same! I’m sure some are even more efficient places, and some places that are more poorly run.

So first off, both organizations I’ve been at have unions. I think this is a bright green flag, and leadership is consistently supportive of unionization and working with the reps. I think this is good for obvious worker rights and benefits, but also an important distinction between leadership and individual contributor - a line that can be often blurred when operating with large amounts of respect and kindness. Often, consultative decision (one leader makes a call after getting input from everyone) making is mistaken with collaborative decision making (everyone gets to make the final call).

Next, your team has to be strong. Both the ICs and management need to depend on each other to get work done as well as come to work with kindness and empathy. I think a lot of this falls on the leadership team, as a lot of how people determine how to interact is the example that senior members set for them. At RFS and MissonWired I believe management does a good job of this. Amanda Litman likes to push the idea of leading people first, which I totally agree with. Being empathetic and giving people psychological safety as well as trusting they will do their job comes with leadership that doesn’t micromanage as well as capable executors at all levels.

Finally, I like to think of these workplaces not as “safe spaces”, but rather brave spaces, to quote an idea from a former colleague. We need to be brave and dependable, and not be afraid to push the envelope. Being at a progressive place doesn’t mean never stepping on anyone’s toes, but being able to march the movement forward. Sometimes that will include toes being stepped on! And that’s okay - as long as people do it with consideration and acknowledge all parties have best interests in mind. With this idea in mind, we are able to ideate and innovate without being too bogged down by bureaucracy and wellness checks. Perfect is the enemy of good and the best workplaces have always acknowledged this - progressive places most of all.

So, you're living the dream. You did what everyone told you to do - you went to college, got a CS degree, got a few internships, and managed to get a job in Big Tech. Congratulations (sincerely as this is a huge accomplishment)! However, as you end your Leetcode premium subscription and take off your blue light filtered glasses for a moment to rub your tired eyes, you catch a glimpse of your phone's Apple News notification. It turns out that while you have been grinding away for a better future, the future itself seems to be deteriorating in front of our very eyes.

I get it, it's hard to think about when your priority has been economic stability. Software engineering presents a huge opportunity for class mobility, and tech workers are often immigrants or second gen immigrants, so every inch away from scarcity/poverty feel so much more important.

I want to be clear - this post isn't asking you to quit the job you fought so hard for, or become a hardcore full time activist. But, I want people who are having these thoughts to have resources and guidance that I wish I had when I was feeling these back in 2020. In our SF/NYC/Seattle(/increasingly rare remote work bubble), it's easy to think "this doesn't affect me", or "there isn't anything I can do about it", but these things can weigh on you especially when the news cycle is grim and the global future seems uncertain.

So, what the hell are we supposed to do?

Donate

It may seem inconsequential, but donations, especially recurring ones, help smaller nonprofits go a long way. Plus, FAANG and well funded startups often have very generous employee match programs, although these are often limited to 501c3 orgs (so no left leaning nonprofits basically). If you're looking for nonprofits doing work on the ground to really make a big difference, here's a few I recommend:

Run For Something - I'm a little biased but they recruit and support progressives to run for office at the down ballot level, who often go on to run for congress and more!

Working Families Party - A grassroots party also working to elect the next generation of leaders focusing on progressive values, notably who nominated Zohran Mamdani and have a nationwide presence

End Citizens United - An organization dedicated to limiting corporate influence in politics, which IMO is what got us into this mess in the first place

Talk to people IRL

I felt like when I was starting in the FAANG bubble, it was a time when DEI was celebrated in big tech, and employee resource groups for numerous communities got all sorts of funding, and we celebrated in the office Diwali to Lunar New Year and everything in between. However, when the pendulum swung the other way and it became less popular to emphasize diversity, it felt like no one wanted to even talk about the changes that were happening, both internally and in the outside world.

But, I want to emphasize that you aren't alone! And you likely are friends with other tech workers who feel this way too! So, socialize and chat about it. People have retreated to speaking to each other frankly only in very online spaces - we need to do work to rebuild community at the local and in person level.

Join a book club, join a board game club, go rock climbing and go out to dinner afterwards, go to a protest if you're brave enough - as long as you're chatting with others, you can build community, support kind acts, and perhaps find others who are having the same thoughts as you.

Work with us

Again, this isn't asking you to quit your job! But, if you're not working 996, you might have some spare time to do volunteer work. All sorts of nonprofits and campaigns are desperate for volunteers to do anything from remote data entry to helping canvass or table events. Which could help with talking to people IRL!

If you're looking to use your specific set of skills, I definitely recommend Tech For Campaigns - they get projects from specific campaigns and match your skillset to it, and make it clear what the time expectation is. I've worked with them for a project and it's really well organized!

However, if you're looking to be employed in the progressive tech space, it's woefully understaffed but desperately needed as well. You'll need to be ready for a paycut, as most nonprofits and progressive orgs don't give equity (they are notoriously not profitable), but they are definitely hiring!

Most nonprofits are looking for data engineering work and web development, and many have in house data teams that are mostly self taught folks coming from the digital side of campaigns! However when they're looking to scale, they definitely are looking for experienced engineers just like you!

If you're looking to switch jobs, I'd recommend checking the following job boards and applying to jobs as soon as they pop up for optimizing your chances:

All Hands - Curated job board of progressive civic orgs, and where I found my jobs in the space! The organizers have connections to most major orgs, so they often post them on the board in near real time.

Tech Jobs For Good - Not civic specific (but you can filter for it!), but another good collection of tech jobs that conceivably help society

Following everyone you see on LinkedIn relevant to civic tech - You should follow the employers you see on the above job boards! They'll often post jobs as links, but not as actual LinkedIn posts (as the latter is quite expensive)

Dream big

I will occasionally get LinkedIn messages from strangers who ask how I broke into the space, and that they want to have their careers make a difference instead of just working at a bank or whatever. I do my best to always answer these messages and take coffee chats with them because I really believe that it's important to nurture that motivation and ambition.

In the tech bubble, it's extremely common for starry eyed interns to dream about being the next Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, or Elon Musk (pre 2020 of course). One of my goals, and the goal of this blog specifically, is to get someone to dream about being the next tech founder of a nonprofit or startup that helps end world hunger, class inequality, and/or Citizens United. I would love to have had a coffee chat with the future CTO of the DNC (or whatever the mainstream party that represents progressives in the future is).