Up Next: Code for America Summit in San Francisco

Code for America

This week we’re taking part in the Code for America Summit, a yearly three-day gathering of civic innovation. Microsoft is proud to be a capstone sponsor of the event and to support Code for America’s vision of improving government, serving citizens and strengthening local economies. These are top priorities for us as well, so we’re looking forward to getting inspired and sparking new connections that will help us do more to benefit the places where we live and work.

At the summit in San Francisco, you can find us in the breakout session “The New C-Suite: Partnerships and Impact,” which will take place Wednesday, Sept. 24, at 9 a.m.  We’ve gathered an impressive panel of city leaders from Los Angeles, Austin, and Puerto Rico, who will offer first-hand views on what works and what doesn’t when trying to transform government – and offer views on why.  The discussion will also focus on how to affect and assess impact, sustainability, scale, and partnerships at the intersection of government services and innovation.

We also are giving a talk at the ignite session on Wednesday evening at 8:00 p.m. that will preview some exciting new research on online communities in civic tech coming out of Microsoft Research’s FUSE Labs. Most importantly, we are looking forward to learning from you and having some informal conversations at the Summit. Please join us at the Microsoft Lounge, which will be open during the Civic Tech Fair, plus lunchtimes, the plenary session breaks, and the receptions, including the closing reception we are sponsoring on Thursday evening.

If you’re attending the Summit, come find us — we’d love to meet you. For those who can’t attend, learn more about how we’re helping communities use technology to improve daily life for residents by following the conversation @MicrosoftSV and on our Facebook page.

Across Microsoft, we partner with civic organizations, governments, and other companies to move cities forward, and below are some Microsoft resources that may be of interest.

  • Microsoft Open Technologies, a resource for open source code and open technical standards and technical bridges between Microsoft and non-Microsoft technologies
  • CityNext, Microsoft’s work with partners to define and deliver innovative solutions that support safer, smarter, healthier and modern cities and improve productivity/efficiency in state and local governments
  • BizSpark, how to access free software, support, and visibility that help startups succeed
  • Azure, Microsoft’s cloud services, and the new Azure Government Preview, a cloud platform designed to meet U.S. government demands
  • Power BI, analytics and visualization tools for Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Disaster Response, technology solutions, tools, and practices to support humanitarian relief and disaster management efforts
  • Microsoft Ventures, a global effort around providing mentorship, technology guidance, seed funding, joint selling opportunities and other benefits to startups
  • YouthSpark, a global initiative to connect youth with opportunities for education, employment, and entrepreneurship; this includes the TEALS program in the U.S. which places computer scientists in high school classrooms across the country