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A Peace Corps for Geeks

The Code for America office building in San Francisco houses not only the fellowship program but also the broader Code for America community, staff supporting the programs and start-ups working in the civic tech space.

The Code for America office building in San Francisco houses not only the fellowship program but also the broader Code for America community, staff supporting the programs and start-ups working in the civic tech space.  (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)

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From their buzzy San Francisco loft, 28 tech wizards spend their days tapping on laptops, scribbling formulas into spiral notebooks and “ideating” -- hacker-speak for tossing ideas around. Code for America, the nonprofit they work for, is an experiment in municipal government driven by hackers who want to help make the public sector as responsive as the Yelp app on a smartphone.

Outside-the-box thinker

Jennifer Pahlka, a charismatic 43-year-old Yale grad from Maryland, is the founder and executive director of Code for America. She is photographed in her office in San Francisco.  (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)

Plugged in

Code for America staffers Cris Cristina, standing at left, and Aakash Desai discuss a civic engagement opportunity for the city of Oakland, while Catherine Bracy, sitting at left, and Hadley Dynak work on their laptops.  (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)

Fanning out across the U.S.

Ariel Kennan of Code for America’s Kansas City team works at the nonprofit’s office in San Francisco. The group condensed its improbable mission down to a few words in its recent annual report: use technology to make government “simple, beautiful, easy to use.”  (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)

An app for Gotham

At Code for America’s San Francisco office, team New York does research and preparation to build the first prototype of an app for the criminal justice system in New York City.  (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)

A place for creativity

An engaging, open work space describes the San Francisco office of Code for America, where people are encouraged to bring whatever they need to have a productive work environment.  (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)

Making it pitch-perfect

Code for America 2013 fellows pitch their projects for group feedback based on their month-long research in their cities. The team pictured is from Louisville.  (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)

Smarter government

The teams return to Code for America’s San Francisco office to brainstorm on ideas for helping fix the local governments they have been embedded with for a month.  (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)

Getting things done

A pedestrian walks by the Code for America building in San Francisco. The White House has noticed the organization’s triumphs.   (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)

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