Documenting the History of Civic Tech DC
For 14 years, Civic Tech DC has existed in evolving forms, shaped by its organizers, projects, and community needs. Yet like many volunteer-driven communities, its history has never been fully documented. This absence is not unusual; when you are in the midst of running events and responding to community needs, the reflective practice of recording history comes later, if at all.
However, without that history, hard-won lessons about what works, what fails, and what communities value can easily be lost. Documentation is also important for the people dedicating their time and energy who want to understand the broader story they are contributing to.
Inspired by the origins of the U.S. Digital Service, this is a working, reconstructed history of Civic Tech DC. It is not comprehensive, and much of it is pieced together from public artifacts like social media traces, articles, and conversations. However, it is a starting point and will continue to evolve as new perspectives and records surface.
Civic tech organizations are built on the shared belief that technology can strengthen democratic institutions. But sustaining these communities over time requires more than good intentions; it requires resilience and stewardship among its members.
Before becoming an established nonprofit in 2023, Civic Tech DC was first known as Code for DC.
In 2012, Code for America, a national civic tech organization, created its Brigade program, a network of local volunteer chapters.
Code for DC was the DC chapter, co-founded by Matt Bailey and Justin Grimes. Like many other brigades, Code for DC was created to support technologists who wanted to use their skills to tackle civic challenges and strengthen the local community. Similar organizations in the region also emerged, including Code for Baltimore in April 2017.
In October 2013, the federal government shut down over political disputes surrounding the Affordable Care Act. During this time, organizers hosted a hackathon to offer furloughed employees and others a chance to work on community-centered projects. While the definition of civic tech is broad and not limited to government work, the community has always maintained strong connections to the public service space.
This year, the community built Our DC Schools, a tool to help residents understand how proposed changes to DC school boundaries and student assignment policies would affect them. The app was created in response to the difficulty residents faced interpreting spreadsheets and policy documents released by the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education. Residents could enter their address, compare school boundary proposals, and share feedback on the plans.
In the News
- Curious about how the proposed boundary changes will affect you? Check out this new app
- Code for DC launches OurDCSchools.org
In May, Code for DC also participated in Funk Parade’s Tech Embassy, a pop-up, hands-on science fair for DC tech and art created by residents for residents.
The event expanded the idea of civic tech beyond coding by combining art installations, DIY maker activities, and community storytelling into one creative space.
New year, new meetup. On January 14, the organization kicked off its first meetup of the year. At face value, the group may have seemed geared toward coding experts, but organizers consistently emphasized that civic tech required collaboration across many different skill sets.
As co-captain Steve Reilly shared in September:
“It’s the collaboration of people with disparate skills, channeling those towards completing projects, that makes Code for DC work. Lawyers, journalists or even curious members of the D.C. community could lend important knowledge and perspective.”
This philosophy was reflected in how meetups were structured, from beginner-friendly project explanations to onboarding sessions at each meeting.
On June 4, the organization hosted a hackathon for the National Day of Civic Hacking. As part of the event, Code for America prepared six challenges focused on understanding what digital government services are like and how they differ across the country.
Community organizer Joshua Tauberer later reflected on the impact of the event in his article Why We Hack.
2017 was a major year. More than 20 hack nights were hosted, along with a FOIA Party and multiple collaborative events.
In September, organizers hosted a hackathon in collaboration with DataKind DC, the DC Department of Human Services (DHS), the DC Office on Aging (DCOA), the Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA), and the Department of Health (DOH), focused on applying open data to health and human services challenges. One major theme was DC’s ongoing rat issue, which had gained additional visibility following Mayor Muriel Bowser’s “Rat Riddance” initiative. Participants analyzed 311 rat-related service requests to identify spatial and temporal patterns in complaints. Another project area focused on CFSA, where participants developed a reusable “eligibility blueprint” tool for social services. The prototype used a configurable decision-tree system to help users determine eligibility for programs across agencies.
In the News
- Civic Tech Strengthens Cities on National Day of Civic Hacking
- A Reusable Tool To Determine Social Services Eligibility
This year also saw the development of Housing Insights, a tool providing information about subsidized affordable housing projects across the DC region.
The platform combined affordable housing data with contextual information such as public transit access, zoning, and neighborhood characteristics to help policymakers and advocates better understand housing affordability challenges. Developed in collaboration with the DC Department of Housing and Community Development, Urban Institute’s NeighborhoodInfo DC, CNHED, and Living Cities, the platform was nominated for Technical.ly’s Product of the Year Award.
In the News: This map visualizes DC affordable housing data
At the end of the year, co-organizer Joy Whitt was named one of DCA Live’s 2017 New Power Women of Tech.
In March, Open Data Day brought together more than 400 community-led gatherings worldwide focused on open data and open mapping for civic impact. Code for DC turned one of its regular hack nights into an Open Data–themed session where projects explored public datasets through mapping and visualization tools like GeoJSON. The event also included workshops from Mapbox on map-building with open datasets and a demonstration from the Sunlight Foundation about the U.S. City Open Data Census project.
Also in March, organizers presented at the DC Open Government Summit on how 311 service request data could be used to map rodent activity throughout the District.
In July, the organization began hosting CryptoPartyDC, part of the global CryptoParty movement focused on helping people learn practical digital security and privacy skills.
Events were hosted by different members of Code for DC.
In August, organizers hosted the National Day of Civic Crafting, welcoming dozens of Washingtonians to help define what civic tech meant to them. That same month, Cyrus Sethna appeared on the Civic Tech Chat podcast.
By the end of 2018:
“We built community by hosting 1,000 neighbors who made 122 commits across 12 repositories and ate over 2,000 slices of pizza.”
More Fun News: Co-captain Kate Rabinowitz was named one of DCA Live’s 2018 New Power Women of Tech.
The Clean Slate Expungement Project helped individuals navigate the complex legal process of record expungement following marijuana decriminalization and legalization in Washington, DC.
In November, organizers and community partner Rising for Justice were featured on Civic Tech Chat.
In September, the organization hosted a prototyping workshop in partnership with the Apple Carnegie Library, where attendees learned design and prototyping techniques for civic applications.
The year closed with:
- 24 events
- 100+ volunteers
- 80+ commits to master
- 30+ pull requests
- 16 forks
More Fun News: Volunteers JC Remick and Rae Ganes were recognized as 2019 DCFemTech Awardees.
In January, organizers partnered with other Code for America groups, including Civic Tech Toronto, to discuss active projects ranging from the Clean Slate project to collecting public feedback on land usage at the former RFK Stadium site in collaboration with the office of DC Councilmember Charles Allen.
The organization also hosted a Day of Service in recognition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
In September, Code for DC participated in the 8th annual National Day of Civic Hacking, focused on helping communities access social safety net services during COVID-19.
The organization launched DC Crash Bots (now known as Data-Driven Streets), a project combining DC police crash reports with DC Fire & EMS dispatch data to identify unrecorded “ghost crashes.” The project created a more complete, data-driven understanding of street safety in Washington, DC.
Crash Bots was featured and nominated for the 2021 Technical.ly Awards.
The pandemic hit hard. In June, Code for DC went on hiatus.
In March, Code for America formally ended its financial and organizational ties with local brigades, requiring affiliates to discontinue “Code for” branding.
Rather than disappearing, new organizers stepped in to rebuild the community by recovering tools and domains, resolving transition challenges, and securing a new fiscal sponsor. In October, on the organization’s 11th anniversary, Code for DC officially reemerged as Civic Tech DC.
As co-director Sheldon Bachstein explained:
“It’s more clear about what we’re doing and it’s also more inclusive because it’s not just about coding… we try very intentionally to be open to people who are not coders.”
In the post-pandemic period and following the organization’s transformation, Civic Tech DC doubled down on its volunteer spirit and collaborative roots. Organizers expanded outreach to local government and nonprofit partners while developing more consistent programming.
In March, the organization hosted Community Exchange, a demo night where members and community groups shared environmental projects ranging from tree canopy mapping automation to citizen science urban heat mapping efforts.
To mark its 12th anniversary, Civic Tech DC hosted Project Graveyard: Tales of Tech Terror!, an event focused on civic tech projects that failed, systems that broke down, management decisions that missed the mark, and lessons learned from projects that struggled to succeed.
The year began with a demo night featuring approximately five active projects focused on solving civic challenges through technology.
In March, during Open Data Week, Civic Tech DC partnered with the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) to host the Open Data DC Showcase, celebrating public datasets and projects using District data. Multiple speakers delivered lightning talks about how publicly available datasets were used to solve city problems and build civic tools.
In July, the organization hosted Civic Hacks, a collaborative hackathon focused on unlocking public federal regulatory comment data using AI, data science, and data engineering.
More than 80 participants attended, and the event led to the creation of SpicyRegs, a platform designed to transform federal regulations and public comments into accessible, actionable insights.
Today, Civic Tech DC continues to grow as a hub where people with diverse skills can come together to support public interest innovation in the Washington, DC area.
Its journey reflects not only the evolution of one organization, but also the broader civic tech movement through its adaptability, resilience, and commitment to community stewardship.
Special Thanks
Section titled “Special Thanks”Civic Tech DC / Code for DC has always been volunteer-run. The dedication of volunteers who generously contribute their time and energy deserves tremendous recognition.
The founding of Civic Tech DC would not have been possible without Matt Bailey and Justin Grimes, who founded Code for DC. The organization was also originally part of District Civic Labs, whose early foundation helped make today’s community possible. Other important contributors during this period included Steven Reilly, Leah Bannon, and Kelli Shewmaker.
The transition from Code for DC to Civic Tech DC was driven by the leadership of Shelly Bachstein, Michael Deeb, Yuliya Tkach, and Alma Trotter.
Today, leadership has expanded to include directors, organizers, and community members who take on responsibilities related to programming, governance, finance, and long-term stewardship.