Code For America: 'The Peace Corps For Geeks' 58
rjmarvin writes "Cities are taking coding to the streets through projects like Code for America and CityNext, working with governments on multiple levels to better serve constituents with mobile and cloud technologies. The 'Peace Corps for geeks' is using technology to make everyday life in cities run more smoothly, providing a way to 'connect technologists and designers with their government to solve important problems and reimagine how government could work.'"
Geekcorps? (Score:4, Interesting)
Worth a mention:
http://www.iesc.org/geekcorps [iesc.org]
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No, you're missing the point. The Government is supposed to provide all of those things. The Government takes a little more of our money, and in exchange we don't have to worry about those needy people.
Just think about it... one day we won't need charities or shelters. The Government will do it all.
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Who do you think pays for the Peace Corps? Or more accurately, AmeriCorps?
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I spent a LOT of time helping needy people. While there are a LOT of people that need out of real reasons and want the help, there are a LOT more that are just sponges looking for a handout. And we are to ignore the fact that the single mom with 3 kids that really needs 2 loaves of bread, but instead hand out one loaf to each even the ones that are obvious not in need. Back in the 80's over HALF of what we did to help went to the local military either directly, or they just stole it from the people we ga
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Just keep on killing assholes. Give our servicemen a cash bounty for each one killed.
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You're forgetting that those "assholes" carry the support of their followers, often because of promises that they'll wipe out the Other Guys (Jews, Communists, Taliban, homosexuals, Republicans) who are the ones really causing the problems. In the locals' eyes, those warlords are legitimate leaders, and now America's just killing them off to further its own oppressive regime.
Pretty soon, our well-compensated servicemen have just exterminated half a country for the capital crime of wanting to be free from th
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Shhhhh, this is Slashdot, not Sparta
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Or let you enjoy a bout of Cholera or bring Amoebic dysentery http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amoebic_dysentery [wikipedia.org] home as wonderful reminders of digging latrines for people who look at you funny and still just squat and shit in the street.
Peace Corps is not all roses and feel good happy. A LOT of the people you help resent your help and continue to live in unsanitary ways because they are used to squatting in a bowl and throwing it out the window at the neighbors. You cant bring civilization to people that do
Re:Here's a better idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Absolutely true, but what's your point?
Peace Corps specifically does a long pre-volunteer process to get local support for the work. The people may not care about the volunteers' work, but the local chief does, and they'll listen to him. The locals understand that the volunteers are trying to help, and they're bound by the local customs to accept it. Sure, there are some funny looks, but once that granary protects the crops from rodents and other thieves, it's appreciated. Finally, starvation is less of a problem in the village, and the locals accept help.
No, it's not all roses and happiness. Nobody ever said it was. It's usually hard work in some of the harshest climates on Earth, trying to work through corrupt governments and isolationist locals. Sometimes, it outright sucks. You see people mistreated or dying, and you can't do anything about it because the customs demand it. Then other days, you see someone benefiting from your work, and they have a better future because of it. That's the moment that makes it worthwhile.
You have to realize that volunteering isn't about solving the world's problems. Giving a village a granary or teaching better farming techniques isn't going to magically make everything better. Once your project's complete, you know it might be destroyed by a civil war next year. Ultimately, you can't bring civilization to people who don't want it. That's not the real point of the project, though.
The locals aren't uncivilized. They aren't savages who need Western technology to save them from their heathen ways. They're people. They're people who, for various people-related reasons, have a harder life than they could. The Peace Corps and other volunteer organizations exist not to mold them to our ways, but to offer them a better life, and hopefully inspire a peaceful search for a brighter future. If that one granary inspires a local to learn about safer food handling, they might be able to promote using a new latrine, or even convince street vendors to wash their hands before preparing food. With less disease and starvation, they can move up Maslow's Hierarchy, and worry less about whether they'll die tomorrow or not.
Volunteers don't bring civilization to the world. They bring the world to civilization.
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okay lets try this we have
KONG: good with breaking things and glaring at other things (plus hes good with heavy lifting)
MIKE: carpenter/general contractor
JOHN: electrician
SAUL: hes a talker and good with arranging "things"
BOB: pure geek and can throw together networks that are "bullet proof"
what you do is put them and some supplies in C-130 and fly them out to Randomstan. When they land
KONG can help with digging trenches and moving stuff around (until he is needed for "other" things. SAUL can talk with the
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I disagree, people should do what they are good at. It's not the best thing to ask a surgeon to go out on the fields to work as a farmer just to "feed the hungry". Programmers should write programs and Linux/UNIX engineers should design, architect and construct systems.
That the poor people need is knowledge, trade, business and markets. IT can provide this, like auction markets where farmers and shopowners can put bid and ask prices on grains, meats, etc. Where people with useful skills can market their ser
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People forget about that. Despite popular belief, the internet isn't just a source of ultra-porn, it also has information about how to grow crops more efficiently and fix your own equipment.
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Re:"reimagine if government could work" (Score:4, Interesting)
I know you're being sarcastic here, and let me say -- I Approve. But, beneath sarcasm is usually a helping of truth and what you say is no different.
We laughed our collective asses off so hard we pissed ourselves when Gen Y tried Kony 2012 [wikipedia.org] on Facebook and Youtube as a way to solve the problems of mass genocide in a third world country. Yup. They actually believed that copy-pasting a video clip and some crappy mspaint-edited bitmaps was going to lick that whole 'world peace' thing.
And now we're having "Code for America"... and suddenly everyone's acting all serious about it. The government doesn't need to be "reimagined". It needs to be rebuilt. It's got way too many defective components -- corrupt politicians, rich people who build massive computer networks for the sole purpose of targeted advertising (Obama and Romney both did. Obama succeeded; Romney imploded on the launch pad -- so I don't wanna hear anything about conservatives or liberals blah blah. They both did it. Deal.), we've got a bill under consideration in Congress where the only way anyone feels comfortable voting for it is if they're promised their vote will be anonymous until after they're dead, because it could affect the interests of the people who fund campaigns. I mean, guys, if this isn't a red flag, I don't know what is.
At all levels of government, there is stark and obvious signs of corruption -- your vote is largely meaningless. You're being asked to choose between Candidate A; "I am for those things which Candidate B is only slightly less enthusiastic about", and Candidate B; "I am in favor of things slightly different than that of Candidate A!" ... It's like choosing between coffee dispensed from the left pot, or coffee dispensed from the right pot. It's the same. Fucking. Coffee.
And everyone knows this. No amount of "reimagining" or "clouding the intarwebs" is going to fix this. In fact, the only way to achieve the ambitious goals these people think a few ipads will accomplish is mass armed insurrection. I'm talking bullets, bodies, military tanks crushing people's houses, fire, looting... all that shit. But peacefully talking about it over (wait for it)... the internet? Please.
I don't know how much clearer I can be on this point:
You can't solve people problems with technology.
You solve people problems with people.
The end.
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Re:"reimagine if government could work" (Score:4, Insightful)
And in fact my daughter and I have been having this same conversation lately. I'm actually happy she's a philosophy major.
Your daughter, probably the same age as my sister. I wrote this to her, and by extension, her generation, not long ago. I'm reposting it here as free to share, provided you properly attribute it to me;
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The only solution to bad government is NO goverment. We need to shrink the size of government till it fits in a bathtub and then DROWN whats left. Only by freeing the true power of the free market can mankind truly be saved.
Yay, Central Planning (Score:1)
Some small things will get done if they take money from people who would do better stuff and use it to do stuff that these central planners think of, but really the reason the Peace Corps can do some good is that most of the work requires minimal training; if they get a bunch of post-high-school kids who think they can code but don't have any ideas for their own better projects, they're not going to get a very good product out of it.
Sure... (Score:1)
"Coding Corps?"
Sure! Solve the worlds problems and feed the poor, unshackle the chains of oppression!
With some code!
Sure...
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Turf War (Score:1)
Misnomer (Score:1)
At best it's AmeriCorps for geeks. Peace Corps is a much different level of commitment. There are geeks in the Peace Corps, so really, Peace Corps is already "Peace Corps for geeks".
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Patent Trolls (Score:2)
$35k for 11 months in Silicon Valley? (Score:1)
It's a trap (Score:3)
Why? Because:
1) "cloud", it's usually nothing but a vendor lock in
2) executed by companies with no interested in empowering the community
The people will not get better by these projects. Remember: the government is there to serve the people.
Code for the world instead (Score:1)
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Peace Corps volunteers do not work inside the US.
Good point. The Peace Corps works outside the US, trying to improve life for people who are unfortunate enough to live in some other "country".
Code for America shouldn't be called 'Peace Corps for geeks' then, but rather
...for people who can't teach
...for people who aren't people persons
... for guys
Something like Teach for America...
Anything I missed?
Umm... (Score:2)
taking coding to the streets
Most of us call that "getting fired".