This email newsletter wants to help DC and Silicon Valley understand each other

When former Senate Press Secretary Jamie Corley moved to the Bay Area, she brought all kinds of understanding and expertise in Washington, D.C. politics with her. And, she discovered, this expertise was a hot commodity.
It became clear to her, she reflected to Technical.ly, that “the two worlds are on a collision course.” That is, they’re going to intersect (more than they already do!) and yet they don’t understand each other.
So Corley reached out to her D.C.-based friend Christyn Lansing, another former Senate Press Secretary, and together they got to thinking about how they might be able to encourage understanding between the coasts. And about a month ago they launched that how — a twice-weekly email newsletter called The Bridge.
The Bridge is simple — it’s a bunch of links to stories at the intersection of politics and tech (Trump’s upcoming “tech talk” was featured in Tuesday’s edition, for example), a few job listings in both tech and politics and, often, a short interview with a personality from either world. 1776’s Erin McPike was recently featured, for example.

Bridging from @PhilzCoffee in Palo Alto. Mint Mojito, please! pic.twitter.com/clIJDkp5yD

— TheBridge (@TheBridgeWork) December 12, 2016

The duo is “constantly trying to translate between the two worlds.”
What are the big differences in need of translation? Interestingly, Corley and Lansing say, much of what they see as a gap between D.C. and Silicon Valley boils down to the language people in each location use to describe who they are and the work they do. Beyond that, the duo see more similarities than differences — both locations are full of really idealistic, hard-working people who want to change the world. If only we understood how to talk to each other.
And while the newsletter is a major focus for now, The Bridge isn’t, and certainly won’t always be, just virtual. Lansing and Corley recently held their first Bridge-related event in D.C. at the Consumer Technology Association’s innovation space. The topic of conversation? How to translate political experience into a career in the tech world. “Events are going to be a really important part of our business,” Corley and Lansing told Technical.ly.
“Our obvious target audiences are people who work directly at the intersection of politics and tech — executives, lobbyists — or people looking for a career switch,” Corley said in a press release about the newsletter launch. “But at the end of the day, who doesn’t want to read about a job at the CIA or a day in the life of a Silicon Valley exec?”