Silicon City and Civic Hall

It was definitely an interesting trip to the Silicon City exhibit because especially for me, a techno-optimist, visualizing how technology has been changing since the very start with Morse Code was like satisfying my thirst for knowledge on changes in technology. I call myself techno-optimist not in terms of the positive/negative cultural and economic effects technological innovation brings, (but surely there are numerous aspects of such effects to argue about), but in terms of how the flow of innovation and ideas affect the development of technology in its evolution. In 1880’s population of American have become so great that counting the census data became too slow. The 1880 census data was projected to finish long after that year and overlap with the next census. In order to effectively tabulate individual census data quickly, accurately, and cheaply, Herman Hollerith developed an electrical tabulating machine. Using this machine, people needed to just feed the machine with coded punch cards and the machine will automate the count. This simple yet effective innovation of technology revolutionized the analysis of census data for several decades. It is these causes and effects of the technology of how the problem is fixed by the simple innovative idea that attracts my interest for technology and call myself techno-optimist.

Years have gone by and now in the 21st century, in this digital age, the internet seems to be the new thing where many innovations are taking place. The government, as many might already know, often times lag behind in its updates with technology for the public. John Paul Farmer, the former senior adviser for innovation at the White House Office, founded the Civic Hall in order lead a group who has the information and experiences with civil tech to better aid the public and the government.

The visit to the Civic Hall was a great experience because we met with enthusiastic leaders in civic tech who seek to help the society. We learned about several websites and apps that allow a more efficient and easier public participation with the government. The Benefit Kitchen, for instance, allows a simple calculation for eligibility for benefits for low-income families from the federal, state and local benefits. Another interesting point John mentioned during the meeting was that many of the services we use like GPS and Weather receive data from the government. He envisions future where many other data can become accessible for public consumption. The third thing that I found interesting was the civicgraph.io. An open platform where interested parties, investors, individuals can visualize what works with what and what funds what. Such open source allows insights into the growing tech community and also allow its members to know who is working with who and what their respective focus areas are.