Jennifer Pahlka
Jennifer Pahlka
Jennifer Pahlkais the founder and Executive Director of Code for America. Previously she had worked at CMP Media with various roles in the computer game industry. She was the co-chair and general manager of the Web 2.0 conferences...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPublic Servant
CountryUnited States of America
geeks sort
In high school, I was sort of friends with the geeks and friends with the socials and everything else and not solidly in one camp. I've always lived on the borders.
business code enormous hits opportunity small spent teams tough trying web
Before I started Code for America, I spent my career around startups. First it was game developers, small teams trying to make hits in a tough business. Then, when I started working on the Web 2.0 events, it was web startups during times of enormous opportunity and investment.
across benefit consume contribute depends information people works
Everything that works on the Internet depends on a lot of people collaborating, but there's also these rules that you see across all the really successful platforms. Many, many, many more people consume the information or benefit from the information than actually contribute the information.
generally government local work
We have this idea of bureaucracy in local government, and it's generally things that we're frustrated at. It doesn't work the way we like it to work.
developer government
Right now, if you're a talented developer or designer, government is what you go into if you can't get a better job.
few means partly people
So few people vote these days, and I think it's partly because they don't feel like the institution really means anything to them. If you want them to vote, give them opportunities to do something else other than vote, to help.
grown tinker
There is a certain generation who have grown up being able to mash up, to tinker with, every system they've ever encountered.
additional centered certainly coming community game strong
There is certainly a strong game development community in Texas, centered around Austin, with a significant additional contingency coming over from Dallas.
building citizen society spent time
As a society, we haven't spent as much time building the citizen Internet.
given government people politics
Now, a lot of people have given up on government. And if you're one of those people, I would ask that you reconsider, because things are changing. Politics is not changing; government is changing.
I think there is a big disjuncture between what we are served up as consumers and what we are served up as citizens.
age cities functions industrial perform
Cities perform most functions in a very Industrial Age model.
created government people
It's really remarkable when you think about what we don't like about government, we, the people created. So if we created it, we can also fix it.
ability build complex evolving government needs quickly starting systems work
If there's one thing government needs desperately, it's the ability to quickly try something, pivot when necessary, and build complex systems by starting with simple systems that work and evolving from there, not the other way around.