2018 Code for America Summit

Slack to the Future

Half day
Part 1: (Re)-Introduction to Slack. Get to know Slack, whether it's brand new to you or you're already a serious ++pro user. What makes it a "Collaboration Hub"? What can it do for your organization? Who is using Slack and what are they doing on it (we'll have stories and we'll also ask for workshop attendees' stories)?

The focus of this conversation will be on getting everyone on the same page so we can move ahead with a common understanding. We'll also want to get to know the folks in the room to confirm we're having the most fruitful conversations.

Part 2: How we teach Slack to Slack employees We'll share our in-house curriculum for teaching Slack to new Slack employees, and we'll show you how to streamline your work so the right person can find the right information (or it can find them) whenever they need it.

The focus of this section will be on hands-on learning. The "Slacktualization" pyramid of maturity may make an appearance. We'll talk about finding the right balance of transparency and confidentiality for your organization, and about the MAYA acronym and change management.

Part 3: Let's collaborate! We'll break into teams and play some games to help you see what you can do with Slack. Add in apps. Create message actions. Build interactions with people and data. Try to find some easter eggs.

Then we'll review the games and reflect on what we each of us learned. There should be prizes. We'll also dig into the administrative side of Slack and give you a view into Slack's backend analytics and platform, and how they were essential parts to make the game work.

So Now You're A Manager

LED BY: Jen Dary
Half day

What does a successful day look like as a manager? What are the nuts and bolts of corralling humans? And how are you supposed to get anything done when your calendar is booked solid with meetings? So Now You’re A Manager is designed to support new managers through this kind of career transition, setting them up to be impactful, confident, knowledgeable leaders. After all, if you don’t see yourself as a leader, no one else will.

Helping the Helpers: Data-Driven Support for Community Vulnerabilities

LED BY:  
John Ridener, Open Data Community Liason, San Mateo County 
Patrick Hammons, Solution Engineer, Esri

DESCRIPTION: This hands-on workshop will focus on San Mateo County's Community Vulnerability Index (CVI) https://cmo.smcgov.org/cvi as a framework for data driven policy, storytelling, and as a means of supporting community services through mapping and data. The CVI serves as a means of engaging County departments, community-based organizations, and OpenSMC (the local Brigade) to identify potential service gaps and opportunities to connect local organizations to data and create a framework to explore associated data without barriers to data collection. Attendees will participate in a structured exercise to surface topics and community-based organizations they can assist in their missions through the CVI's framework and have an opportunity to work with Esri's Hub, Open Data platform, and ArcGIS online during the workshop.    

WHO SHOULD ATTEND: Brigade leaders/members who are looking for a data-driven way to identify potential projects and community partners based on need and government folks who want to establish a baseline for program evaluation and find data-driven means to identify potential populations and locations of need.  

Changing the Government from the Inside Out

LED BY:  
Amy Wilson, Director, Innovation.gov,
Brooke Dine, National Institute of Health
Julia Begley-Grey, Senior Advisor, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau   

DESCRIPTION: Culture change requires a movement, not a mandate--it takes an "all hands on deck" approach. Together, more than 1,000 innovators have banded together to co-create a shared definition of "innovation" in government on Innovation.gov and the Better Government Movement around how to learn, share, and build a 21st century government.

For this session, Presidential Innovation Fellow and Better Government Movement Amy J. Wilson and two other leaders in the Movement will lead you through how a collective movement is co-creating a better government from the inside out that delivers better results at lower cost for the people, by the people. It involves defining what we mean by a better government, telling stories of innovation, and finally creating spaces for experimentation and learning. She'll also lead a discussion around how can we infuse more public-private partnerships to spur deeper culture change.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND: Those looking to build a grassroots, intrapreneur-focused movement with empathy and inclusivity. Those curious about, dabblers in and professionals in innovation/21st Century Government need attend.

Staying in Government During Hard Times: A Group Therapy Session

LED BY:  
Kathy Pham, former product lead and founding team member of the United States Digital Service 
Jenn Halen, political scientist and government technology researcher, University of Minnesota and Harvard Berkman Klein Center 

DESCRIPTION: The ability to work in our government and influence change at levels ranging from local to federal is a privilege that not everyone in the world has. Regardless of who is in power or what decisions are made at the top, it is still our government to build, fight for, and sustain. Come for a talk and moderated discussion to share stories about staying in government during hard times.

Difficult Data, Difficult Discussions

LED BY:  
Eric Jackson, Digital Services Architect, City of Asheville

DESCRIPTION: We often prefer to focus on the more upbeat uses of open data, like powering entrepreneurship, informing the public, and improving government services. But the data that garner the most interest can also be data that touch on deep divisions in our communities: issues of policing, of economic and racial disparity, and of the best uses of our scarce resources. Putting the data out there invites the community to use it to challenge what government is doing.

We faced such challenges in Asheville in 2017, with data-centered discussions of arrests of homeless members of our community and racial disparities in traffic stops. Code for Asheville members were in the thick of it, both as members of the community and members of City staff. In this session, we’ll talk about that experience and then lead a conversation on ways to turn difficult discussions about difficult data into constructive engagement that helps our communities move forward.     

WHO SHOULD ATTEND: Government staff, community activists, and brigade members working in areas where data-driven conversation is both needed and challenging (e.g., policing, economic development, housing, transportation, etc.)