Code for America Tech Awards

Code for America has launched an awards program to recognize great tech-based projects going on in US government agencies. There are still a few days to submit your application, to be eligible for an award & participation in the Code for America conference this autumn in the Bay Area.

The Code for America Technology Awards recognize outstanding products and implementations of government technology. Winners will be announced on stage at the Code for America Summit, September 30 – October 2 in Oakland, CA.Applications are open from June 23 through July 13, 2015.

Code for America does great work in pairing excellent developers & technologists with government agencies to develop new concepts, standards, and products that improve these agencies’ effectiveness. It’s great to see them become a leader in civic technology, and bring together people from different sectors of public service (including law & the justice system) to set priorities around innovation, technology, & standards.

Interested in applying for their Tech award? You have to have a piece of software that’s in use by a US (federal or state) government agency, and have the software open for use by other agencies. It doesn’t have to necessarily be open source, but it must be modular — not totally customized to one specific agency.

All the details here:

Selection criteria

The Technology Awards will go to companies, government entities, civic technologists, and others that are building or implementing software for the public sector in the United States. The software does not need to have been created in 2015. To be eligible for an award, the software must be:

  1. Currently used by at least one U.S.-based government agency
  2. Available for other government agencies to use. For example, it could be available through well-documented open source code or available for purchase through a vendor.
  3. At least one team member or representative must be available to attend the Code for America Summit and accept the award.

Applicants will be selected based on their alignment with Code for America’s Government Technology Principles. Some principles will be more relevant for certain technology than others, but in general we will be looking for technology that is designed for and with people, delivers a significant improvement in pricing and value, enables data-driven government, uses and promotes open standards, and/or leverages existing technology.

Focus Areas

We encourage applicants with software that solves problems in Health, Safety & Justice, Economic Development, and Citizen-Government Interaction. Read more about the Code for America Focus Areas to learn about our work in these areas