The Rise of Citizen Developers and the Reshaping of Social Good
This is a guest post by Joel Reyes, a Microsoft Technology Evangelist working with Public Sector focused on Windows Phone and Windows 8. In his career working as a developer, project manager, people manager, consulting, and evangelism, Joel has seen first-hand the impact of software in the life of corporations and individuals alike. His enjoys local community involvement. His blog is www.joelcitizen.com .
Most of human history has been characterized by the influence of the few over the many. Just consider the individual who figured out a roundly-shaped object called wheel, and how it transformed the whole of human existence. The advent of the industrial revolution significantly broaden human empowerment towards change. However, not until the information age did this transformational power achieve true global reach.
Today, we live in a world of instant global communication, ultra-fast computers and mobile information access at the point of need. This connectedness has created a powerful new realm, one where the many influence the many. A web of interconnected pathways that, over time, will create a global consciousness. This technology-enabled trend is leading to partnerships between government and citizens. A setting of voluntary, mutual collaboration for social good centered on The Citizen Developer.
A citizen developer is an individual involved in the creation of applications intended for the public using open data from all levels of governments. The citizen developer is not necessarily limited to public domain, but the trend is slowly finding its way into the commercial world. Gartner, Inc. estimates that citizen developers will be responsible for building at least a quarter of new business applications by 2014. It defines a citizen developer as “a user who creates new business applications for consumption by others using development and runtime environments sanctioned by corporate IT.”
The concept of a citizen developer is rapidly evolving, in its current form could be any of the following:
· A Software Developer
· A Designer
· A Policy Wonk
· A Data Analyst
· A Concerned Citizen
· An Idealizer
Social projects pursued by citizen developers typically exhibit one or more of the following:
· Leverage available open data at any level of government.
· Capitalize the contribution of subject matter experts in a particular public domain.
· Promote iteration as a way of re-imagining new solutions with limited scope.
· Are driven by a legitimate desire for social good and local impact.
Social good and local impact, are key motivators fuelling the movement. No longer is this the exclusive domain of philanthropists. Rather, philanthropies are recognizing that citizen developers can be a powerful liaison in achieving broad impact. For instance, the Gates and Melinda Foundation funds inBloom which depends heavily in the contributions made by citizen developers through regional hacathons and other activities.
Technology visionaries recognize the heighten importance of citizens involvement with technology. Recently Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and others appeared in a video from code.org promoting the need for students of all ages to learn programming. A recognition of the importance of citizen development present and future.
Over time, citizen developers, through the empowerment of technology, social media, open data and open interaction could break the barriers between government and citizens and creating a reality where government and citizens define new levels of collaborative partnership that can yield tremendous mutual benefits. A win-win scenario where citizen participation helps governments fine-tune their decisions and policies while citizens enjoy more livable society with broader opportunities for all.
The citizen developer is a global phenomenon. In fact, CIO Magazine reports that the United States is falling behind in this emerging trend. However, many organizations in the United States are achieving impact at the national level as the result of activities supported by local and regional citizen developers. Following are a few of them:
· Code for America – Offers nationwide coverage to “change the way cities work through technology and public services”.
· inBloom.org – Nationwide focus in transforming education to “inform and involve each student and teacher with data and tools designed to personalize learning”.
· CrisisCommons – “seeks to advance and support the use of open data and volunteer technology communities to catalyze innovation in crisis management and global development”.
· github – “enables the sharing of code with the world and contribute to the millions of public repositories”.
· Code.org – “A non-profit foundation dedicated to growing computer programming education”.
The scope of solutions and the technologies used are not the domain of a given platform. Instead, this is an all-inclusive movement where solutions are built using different frameworks and tools, and targeting different cloud and mobile platforms. Technology providers are taking notice and are quietly getting involved in supporting the movement. Soon new tools and approaches will emerge to formally support the particular needs of citizen developers for both social good and commercial enterprises.
The citizen developer movement will mature into a powerful global platform of collaboration between citizens and governments, workers and enterprises. One fostering continues learning and knowledge sharing. It will give birth to a society where each and every individual will be truly empowered to reshape our world for the betterness of the many.