To make it possible for every person to use open data and digital tools in order to actively engage and participate in society to improve their communities.
Code for Germany is a program of the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany. It is aimed towards fostering innovation, civic tech and transparency in Germany. At its core lies a community program with more than 300 volunteer developers, designers and journalists in 20 cities, that are organized in so-called “Open Knowledge Labs”. They meet on a regular basis to tackle specific challenges of their city and build close ties to the local government officials and institutions. The OK Labs serve as hubs of civic innovation, developing apps and building tools for fellow citizens. The goal is to inform society about the benefits of open data and to make public institutions more effective and transparent.
Inspired by Code for America’s Brigades model, Code for Germany was launched in February 2014 as a project of the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany.
Before Code for Germany’s inception, the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany – as an active player in open data and civic tech – had already been raising awareness about open data, in part, through a series of national hackathons. While these events brought together highly qualified and engaged citizens, a clear need was identified to connect participants in their own local contexts in order to effect sustainable change with a more long-standing impact. At the same time, German cities began releasing public datasets, but coordinated efforts to transform government-held data into citizen-centred services and applications still lagged behind. By leveraging an existing network of civic developers, government change agents and open data enthusiasts, a growing civic tech community was cultivated, and its organizing force – Code for Germany was born.
In one year, the Code for Germany has expanded from 8 cities to 20 across the Federal Republic. These local communities are made up of 300 volunteers that have put in more than 15.000 hours of civic hacking. A variety of apps and projects have been developed, from transforming municipal information systems into more democratic digital spaces, to improving access to pre-school education. Together, these local groups have fostered demand for more data, opening up an active dialogue between data users and city governments.
Julia Kloiber
Julia is Project Lead at the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany. She has a background in design and media theory and works on civic tech and open data projects. Her latest projects include a civic tech incubator “Stadt Land Code” and the community program “Code for Germany”. She is working closely with governments and companies on open data projects and strategies.
Fiona Krakenbürger
Fiona Krakenbürger is the Community Organizer in the program Code for Germany. She supports and manages a community of 200 volunteer developers, designers and storytellers across Germany, that build Civic Tech, Apps and Visualizations with Open Data. Ms Krakenbürger has a background in European Ethnology and has been active as an advocate of digital literacy in Germany for several years.
Daniel Dietrich
Daniel lives, dreams and works (only if needed) in Berlin. He is an open data and transparency evangelist, media activists, artists, anarchists, interdependent thinker and universal dilettante, a researcher on communications, utopia and futurism.