How an attorney with little tech background built mobile app CyclePhilly

Corey Acri wasn’t sure if he knew enough programming to join Code for Philly.

Acri, 34, had spent nearly six years as an attorney in New York City and was now doing design work for Drexel’s School of Law. The Northern Liberties resident wanted to improve his coding skills. He knew some CSS and HTML and had done some C++ years ago.

“Is Code for Philly right for me?” Acri wrote in an email to Chris Alfano, who co-organizes the weekly Code for Philly civic technologist meetup.

Alfano was encouraging — no prior experience necessary, he said. So Acri attended the meetup, came up with an idea to collect bike route data via mobile app and nearly one year later, CyclePhilly launched.

Read Acri’s take on how Code for Philly helped him build CyclePhilly on his blog.