Code for America City of Philadelphia fellows and direction announced

 
The seven fellows who will work on an application to increase communication between the City of Philadelphia and residents as coordinated by the Code for America initiative have been announced recently.
From 360 candidates, a group of 20 were chosen to start in January 2011 training, visiting and then developing products to increase efficiency, productivity and accountability of four inaugural city governments. After a month of meeting with city officials, the seven fellows that Philadelphia has been issued will, like the rest of their colleagues, do their development work in the Bay Area headquarters of CFA.
See the timeline of the program’s inaugural year here. Below, meet Philly’s fellows and read a rough description of what they will be working on.
Two of the fellows are from Philadelphia:

• Aaron Ogle is a software developer for Azavea in Philadelphia where he builds location-based web applications for local governments, nonprofits, and universities. He specializes in solving urban sustainability problems with such applications as PhillyStormwater.org, a web app to support Philadelphia’s new green stormwater management program, and Walkshed.org, a webapp to precisely map the walkability of multiple cities in real-time.
• Mjumbe Wa Watu Poe has worked for the last five years developing software tools for researchers at the University of Pennsylvania for modelling and simulating social phenomena. Recently, he has been building a set of applications called “Phillyware” to help people better use and affect their city and consulting for a firm developing a collaboration tool for high school educators. He graduated in 2005 with a BS in Computer Science from Harvey Mudd College.

The other fellows tentatively scheduled to work with the City of Philadelphia:

• John Mertens is a developer and designer, specializing in user experience and open source solutions. Most recently, he was a web developer at Alientation Digital, one of the top digital agencies in Scotland, where he built over 50 unique websites per year. In addition to traditional websites & e-commerce sites, he also built a civic app for self-evaluation of all Scottish Social Service workers. He earned a BS in Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics from Iowa State University.
• Matt Lewis currently is a search marketing analyst for a digital ad agency in San Francisco. He has a wide array of experiences in politics, business, and technology. He has worked as a community organizer for the Newsom for Progress campaign, as well as an equity analyst for a boutique financial analysis firm, where he undertook the redesign of the corporate blog, retailgeeks.com. He graduated from Claremont McKenna College in 2009 with a degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE).
• Michael Evans is a web developer from Mountain View, CA. As a self-taught open source programmer, he has focused on data visualization and GIS systems with projects such as NYC Graffiti Snapshot, which helps users explore graffiti trends with interactive maps and charts, and SF Crime Snapshot, a combination of heat maps and street maps illustrating crime density in San Francisco. He earned a BS in Physical Chemistry from UCLA in 2005.
• Pete Fecteau works mainly in the interactive design and development field creating and administrating dozens of websites for a major non-profit organization. He has experience designing numerous social networks, apps, and templates using open source software. His latest side project involved creating a mosaic of Dr. Martin Luther King using record-breaking 4,242 Rubik’s Cubes. He studied at Kendall College of Art & Design and graduated in 2007 with a BFA in Digital Media.
• Tyler Stalder is a web developer, specializing in internal application development and design. Tyler received his bachelor’s degree in Information, Networking, and Telecommunications from Fort Hays State University, while also co-founding two web companies, including an election forecasting service and a technology consulting firm. He currently volunteers with Youth Entrepreneurs of Kansas, helping students develop business skills and entrepreneurial thinking.

Meet the rest of the CFA fellows here.
Additionally, some details about what these fellows will work on for the City of Philadelphia:

Philadelphia is looking to re-imagine the way citizens communicate within their city. Code for America fellows will develop a web app that engages individuals and enables them to develop groups and networks that support neighborhood services. Residents will have access to critical information about their neighborhoods, connect with other citizens that are interested in similar issues or services, all while informing and staying connected to government so it can better serve its citizens. [Source]

See the focuses for the teams from the other inaugural CFA cities:

• Boston
• Seattle
• Washington D.C.