I joined Code for San Francisco in October of 2013 and immediately found myself surrounded by a group of people dedicated to improving the lives of fellow City residents. At the time we didn’t have money or tangible resources, but we did have passion and a deep motivation to change our city.

Our enthusiasm was contagious and it spurred buzz within the community, which, along with a dedicated core team and a series of successful events, brought even more passionate and motivated people to our cause … and the attention from potential sponsors.

As Captain of Code for San Francisco, it is my pleasure to announce Microsoft as the Brigade’s first sponsor.

I want to say off the bat that Microsoft (represented by Scott Mauvais and Kenny Spade) has consistently shown up for hack nights and not only contributed resources, but also innovative ideas and code to our efforts. While we welcome this type of enthusiastic participation from everyone interested in our work, not just sponsors, it is especially rewarding to have a sponsor take such an active interest in the local civic hacking community.

We recently hosted the Director and CTO of Microsoft’s Disaster Response Team Tony Surma for a discussion about how to make our apps consume less battery power and data - great for any situation, not just disasters. On February 4th, we will host the authors of The Responsive City (Stephen Goldsmith and Susan Crawford) for a Q&A discussion on their book (check one out from the CfSF library), thanks to the introduction and coordination from Microsoft.

2015 is going to be an exciting year for us - we will be able to host larger events and offer more resources our participants as a result of the Microsoft sponsorship. Our community has already benefitted greatly from these contributions and we look forward to a continued and productive relationship with Microsoft in 2015.