Code for America puts City of Philadelphia on short list for 2012 fellowship

Updated 6/9/11 @ 12:12 pm EST with more details from Code for America
As the inaugural fellows for Code for America, the year-long, service-driven, municipal government coding fellowship program, ramp up their final few months on the Philadelphia team, the city has been put on the short list to have another crew next year, according to a press release.
In the current 2011 cycle, fellows working with three city governments, including Philadelphia, are in the new nonprofit’s San Francisco headquarters working on projects informed by spending February in their respective cities, talking to government officials and community leaders. The seven-person Philadelphia team is developing a web-based application meant to empower community leaders to better plan and executive civic initiatives across neighborhoods. Details on that have remained somewhat fuzzy, though it’s hardly the only work these fellows have done.

In addition to that single application, fellows have served as de facto consultants and subject matter experts, involving themselves in various smaller city initiatives throughout the year. The City of Philadelphia is paying $225,000, which covers stipends for the fellows, though CFA and city officials have consistently said the consulting benefit is in the millions of dollars. Other costs, like travel, have been covered by foundation support from the likes of the Knight Foundation and the Omidyar Network.
Twenty cities applied to follow Philadelphia, Seattle and Boston (Boulder, Colo. dropped out after being unable to secure the necessary matching funding) in this, the kickoff year, and now the field has been narrowed to 10, including Philadelphia, the only of the three now with a chance to double dip.
Chosen 2012 cities will be announced in the fall and will include between five and eight locations, depending on funding and other details, said CFA spokesman Abhi Nemani. Seattle and Boston did not apply again for 2012.
The other 10 2012 finalists are as follows: Austin, Chicago, Detroit, Honolulu, Macon, New Orleans, New York, Raleigh and Santa Cruz.
Technically Philly is currently confirming details on what the other finalist cities are, what the timeline is now and other questions. More to come on current Code for America fellow work.