Code for America will be in Philadelphia in 2012; launch Change by Us

Code for America, the startup nonprofit aiming to offer city governments small teams of top tier technologists in year-long fellowships, will again work with the City of Philadelphia in 2012, the city announced last week.
Philadelphia was short-listed back in June for being the only city in the country to have fellows in each of the first two years of the group’s existence. In 2012, Code for America will also deploy fellows in Macon, Georgia, Detroit and Chicago.
Well-timed with the news of next year comes an update on the work being done by the current set of Philadelphia fellows, who first landed in Center City in February.

After months of interviews, strategic planning and additional smaller projects, the Code for America fellows designated to Philadelphia and Seattle will be modifying and launching locally Change by Us, a tool to put citizen ideas in front of local government eyes. It’s an online marketplace for volunteer initiatives.
The local versions should be live in the coming months, with a beta version having already launched in Seattle.
The Change by Us app was built by New York-based media design firm Local Projects and national urban advocacy non-profit CEOs for Cities and launched in New York City in July. The project was made possible with funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Technology for Engagement Initiative and The Rockefeller Foundation.
Several fellows, including Mjumbe Poe, Aaron Ogle and Tyler Stalder from the Philadelphia team, are generalizing the tool to be shared publicly as an open source project.