User:Ali.ahmed/sandbox

= Changes in Code for America  = The 2016 Code for America fellowship program is running in partnership with six cities: Kansas City, Missouri; Long Beach, California; New Orleans, Louisiana; New York City, New York; Salt Lake County, Utah; and Seattle, Washington. In 2015, fellows at Code for America designed a GetCalFresh.org, streamline the CalFresh application process. In California, 40% of people who are eligible for CalFresh, the state's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, were not receiving benefits. California has the second lowest participation rate in the country. GetCalFresh takes an average time of 11 minutes to complete and, as of 2016, is being used by 9 counties to help over 1,000 people. In addition, it leverages mobile phone access among applicants to encourage questions and answers all over text. Current efforts are focused on scaling this solution. Mischa Byruck (Director of Summit Partnerships)
 * Added this section, updating information for the fellowship program.
 * Added this passage on CalFresh, which Mischa Byruck spoke about in our class
 * Added Mischa in list of staff :)

= Changes in 18F  = Their purpose is to support agencies in transforming the way they deliver digital services and technology products. All of its projects are open source, meaning anyone can review and suggest updates to the code. The existence of the agency in general and such projects in paritcular has led to resistance from established government IT firms. In addition, the agency faces the additional challenge of staying fiscally solvent. According to a recent GAO report,
 * Added a line to the general description of 18F, nothing actually said what they do
 * Added a clarification
 * updated recent achievements and problems facing 18F

= Changes in City Innovate  = The following is my third article, it's made entirely from scratch and covers City Innovate Foundation!

= City Innovate Foundation = The City Innovate Foundation is an American non-profit foundation which tackles urban issues using entrepreneurship and technology.

To do this, City Innovate connects a diverse group of stakeholders to address the problem jointly. For each program, the foundation uses a model that brings together university researchers, corporate sponsors, and members of the government. Some of their notable partners include UC Berkeley, MIT, Microsoft, and the City of San Francisco.

City Innovate Foundation also operates the SUPERPUBLIC innovation lab and is responsible for its daily programming.

Programs
City Innovate's programs focus on creating and scaling technology solutions to urban problems. Commonly focused on advancing the 'smart cities' model of urban development, these programs share a common purpose of using big data, information aggregation to provide informed solutions for public officials.

Test and Learn Collider
In 2016, the collider focused on tackling urban mobility issues. The foundation is partnering with Miami-Dade county to optimize public transit services to 34 cities in Florida. It will be running the program at its Superpublic innovation lab in San Francisco, bringing together industry sponsors including Microsoft, Siemens, Lyft, Zipcar and Cubic Transportation Systems and expert partners from Swiftly, Bayes Impact, and Neighborland, to help come up with creative solutions given the data provided by the the county's Department of Transportation and Public Works. The program has already identified several areas of improvement, including open backend integration, an integrated payments platform for the various types of transportation that the county offers, new services integration using the plan of SECAV (shared, electric, connected, autonoumous vehicles), and equitable access. Funding will be provided by the county and corporate partners which benefit from the fundamental research.

In 2017, the collider will be focused on urban sensors and smart lighting.

Scale X Collider
Following the urban mobility 'test and learn' collider, City Innovate will be operating the Scale X Collider to scale existing solutions from counties that already effectively tackle certain urban issues. This collider will be focused on building a playbook, then adapting it to local contexts for implementation. Funding will be provided through corporate partners and local governments paying for the service.

P4 Accelerator
In 2017, the foundation will run the accelerator to help implement the Vision Zero initiative.

SUPERPUBLIC
SUPERPUBLIC is the West Coast's first collaborative workspace and Innovation Lab. It provides a physical space where anyone interested in using technology for societal benefit can meet and together tackle the most pressing urban problems. Similar to Union Hall, the space is also used for City Innovate's programs.

SUPERPUBLIC sits at the top of a federal office building at 50 UN Plaza across from Uber, Twitter, Square and other technology companies. It is located across the hall from the West Coast division of 18F. SUPERPUBLIC's annual budget is around $1,000,000 - raised by City Innovate and primarliy coming from corporate partners including Microsoft and Deloitte.

Bridge SF
Bridge SF is an annual conference hosted by City Innovate to bring together officials from both the government and the private sector to explore different civic technology solutions around a specific focus topic. Attendees have included public officials from advanced urban cities around the world, including Japan, Dubai, and Singapore. Private partners and bay area public officials attend annually to share best practices related to technology in city management.

Team

 * Kamran Saddique
 * Founder and Executive Director
 * Gert Christen
 * Chief Operating Officer
 * Luke Kim
 * Business Development Manager
 * Garrett Brinker
 * Policy Innovation Lead
 * Elyse Lee
 * Public Affairs Fellow
 * Kaitlin Podbielski
 * Product Manager / Qualitative Researcher
 * Ella Mitchell
 * Research Manager
 * Heather Chen
 * Data Scientist
 * Prithi Yadav
 * Urban Design Strategist