Navigator Award Finalists: Team From Code for Miami, Rebekah Monson, Ernie Hsiung and Cristina Solana

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Michael Grass By Michael Grass,
Executive Editor
 

Connecting state and local government leaders

By Michael Grass

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Why come up with your own great idea when you can adapt it for your local community?

This is the fifth in a series of profiles on the 50 finalists for Route Fifty’s Navigator Awards program. The first 10 finalists were from the Government Allies and Cross-Sector Partners category. Finalists 11-20 were from the Agency and Department Leadership category. Finalists 21-30 were from the Executive Leadership category. Finalists 31-40 were from the Next Generation category. Finalists 41-50 were from the Data and IT Innovators category. Explore our complete list of 50 finalists.​

At a gathering of 200 U.S. mayors and other municipal leaders earlier this year in Manhattan, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg urged the audience to not reinvent the wheel when it comes to improving government operations and public services. “Copy other people’s ideas,” he said. “Who cares where they come from?”

Route Fifty wholeheartedly agrees with Bloomberg’s sentiment. That’s why it was great to see the Knight Foundation award $100,000 to Code for Miami for its Civic User Testing Group proposal earlier this year as part of the 2016 Knight Cities Challenge.

The idea of asking a group of local residents to test civic websites, apps and other digital tools—and most importantly, paying them to do so—is not a new one. It has its roots in Chicago.

Coming up with a good idea is certainly valuable, but adept adaptation of a good idea elsewhere is just as important, especially in the municipal space. Funding from the Knight Foundation will give the Civic User Testing Group in Miami-Dade County resources that wouldn’t ordinarily be available and give it a better chance at succeeding.

Route Fifty is pleased to name the Code for Miami team behind Miami-Dade County’s Civic User Testing Group, Rebekah Monson, Ernie Hsiung and Cristina Solana, as Navigator Award finalists. It’s a project worth watching—and adapting elsewhere.

Michael Grass is executive editor of Government Executive’s Route Fifty and is based in Seattle.

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