There is a worldwide challenge in jobs and salaries provision concerning the number of graduates the education system produces annually. In most developed countries where both economy and industry grow at a high rate, there even worse problems. With the competition on the rise in the world of technology, the United States government encounters this as one of its predicaments. Tech companies and the government have a gap in salaries and job errands. This gap requires to be bridged.
Founded in 2010, Code for America (CfA) is a countrywide charitable association aimed at hiring digitally skilled experts to work in government projects. The project gets graduates from high-ranking universities to work in needy societies for at least two years. The organization initiated a movement known as the civic tech. Graduates in this programme can work part-time or full-time in these government projects.
Young people with tech expertise are often eager to work on more meaningful things while others desire more than just one job for life. These two factors create room for civic tech in the technology network. Though voluntary, CfA stands as an equivalent to the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) along with the General Services Administration’s 18F. CfA was founded by Jen Pahlka who worked as second-in-command federal CTO in 2013. The CfA, however, only works for the state and local government.
The civic tech, in some way, can involve organizations such as Medicaid, criminal justice, SNAP, and labor force development in its operations. However, the federal government is not a client in this project. CfA has since 2011 been holding annual conventions with the most recent one held in May 2018. Pahlka estimated that the 1,200 in attendance comprised of federal employees. Speakers in the summit’s sessions consisted of Raj Shah from the Defense Department and Enrique Oti who is an Air Force liaison on behalf of DoD.
The hosted summit majors on social services and poverty eradication. According to the Post, DOD speakers appeared in this summit for the first time. Pahlka is a member of the DOD’s Defense Innovation Board. She had a discussion that would benefit the civic tech project as well. The summit attracted concerns from the public through social media. In the Medium website, Aaron Wytze seemed disturbed on how would helping the DOD relate to civic tech.
The inclusion of departments such as the DOD changes the motive of the project. It now seems to support war and killing of innocent human beings. For instance, in Qatar, the Defense Department has been involved in bombings and missile campaigns against ISIS. According to the writer, withholding invitations to civic summits would be necessary to enable more energy and focus on the objective.
