Celebrating civic innovation [Technical.ly Podcast]

A more connected citizenry, a more efficient government, a more distributed network of successful startups.

Those are the lofty, big-picture goals from this month’s Technical.ly Podcast.

• First we hear from Steve Case, currently touring the American heartland, stopping in four under-appreciated cities to shine a light on startup scenes that don’t have nicknames yet. Technical.ly’s Christopher Wink asked Case — the D.C.-based investor and former CEO of AOL — how government and business leaders across the country are fueling the “rise of the rest.”
• Then it’s an audio “Exit Interview” with Mark Headd, Philadelphia’s former chief data officer who recently announced that he’s heading home, to Syracuse. Technical.ly Philly lead reporter Juliana Reyes talks with Headd about lessons for other CDOs, the frustrations that led him to leave city government and the remarkable growth of the city’s civic hacking scene (of which he’s continued to be a part).
• After that, we risk “existential crisis” with a talk by civic technologist Laurenellen McCann from last month’s Code for America Summit. She asked attendees of the nation’s leading civic tech conference: “What is community?” The opening salvo is just part of a broader challenge to build “with, not for” the people civic tech aims to serve.

Now, all this is really just an appetizer for a main course Technical.ly is serving later this month.

Our Rise conference, held Oct. 22-24 in Philadelphia, will convene leaders in civic innovation from across the Northeast. In this month’s podcast, we get the scoop on how the event will empower attendees to make their communities better.

All that, some sweet tunes and this month’s Delaware-themed “Technical.ly TIL.”

Listen below, download the episode or subscribe to the Technical.ly Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher.