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JenniferPahlka_2012-_编码改善更好的政府_
So a couple of years ago I started a program to try to get the rockstar tech and design people to take a year off and work in the one environment that represents pretty much everything they're supposed to hate; we have them work in government. 几年前,我启动了一个 让一些厉害的搞技术和设计的人员们 在一个应该代表 他们所憎恨的一切的环境 - 政府部门 - 内工作一年的项目。
rockstar:摇滚歌星(游戏名); represents:v.代表;维护…的利益;相当于;(represent的第三人称单数) supposed:adj.误信的;所谓的;v.认为;假设;设想;(suppose的过去分词和过去式)
The program is called Code for America, and it's a little bit like a Peace Corps for geeks . 这个项目叫做 “美国代码”, 有点像宅男的和平队。
Peace Corps:n.和平队; geeks:n.奇葩(指反常的人,畸形人,野人,现也指智力超群,善于钻研但不懂与人交往的学者或知识分子);
We select a few fellows every year and we have them work with city governments. 我们每年筛选几个人, 然后让他们为政府工作。
Instead of sending them off into the Third World , we send them into the wilds of City Hall . 不将他们送入贫困国家, 但将他们送入市政府厅。
Third World:n.第三世界; wilds:野生; City Hall:n.市政府;市政厅;
And there they make great apps, they work with city staffers . 在那里,他们创造很好的应用程序,并于市政府人员一起工作。
staffers:n.职员;编辑;采访记者;
But really what they're doing is they're showing what's possible with technology today. 但他们真正的目的是展现今天科技 可以创造的可能。
technology:n.技术;工艺;术语;
So meet Al. 这是Al。
Al is a fire hydrant in the city of Boston . Al 是一个伯斯顿市内的消防栓。
fire hydrant:n.消防栓;消防龙头; Boston:n.波士顿(美国城市);
Here it kind of looks like he's looking for a date, but what he's really looking for is for someone to shovel him out when he gets snowed in, because he knows he's not very good at fighting fires when he's covered in four feet of snow. 这里看起来他似乎是在等他的约会, 但他真正等待的是一个可以将他被深埋在雪下得时候可以将他挖出来的人, 因为他知道当他被四英尺的雪埋入时, 他救火的能力就会下降。
shovel:n.铁铲;一铲的量;铲车;v.铲除;用铲挖;把…胡乱塞入;
Now how did he come to be looking for help in this very unique manner? 他是如何用这样一种特殊的方式 来寻求帮助的呢？
unique:adj.独特的,稀罕的;[数]唯一的;n.独一无二的人或物;
We had a team of fellows in Boston last year through the Code for America program. 去年我们“美国代码” 有个在伯斯顿工作的团队。
They were there in February, and it snowed a lot in February last year. 他们在的时候正值二月,而去年二月雪下得很多很大。
And they noticed that the city never gets to digging out these fire hydrants . 他们注意到到这个城市的 消防栓很少会被挖出。
hydrants:[安全]消防龙头;给水栓;
But one fellow in particular , a guy named Erik Michaels-Ober, noticed something else, and that's that citizens are shoveling out sidewalks right in front of these things. 那个团队的其中一个人, 叫 Erik Michaels-Ober, 留意到了另外一个现象: 市民们会将这些消防栓 前面的走道上的雪铲除。
in particular:尤其,特别; sidewalks:n.人行道;
So he did what any good developer would do, he wrote an app. 所以他做了每一个好的程序员都会做得事情, 他写了一个应用程序.
It's a cute little app where you can adopt a fire hydrant. 这是一个可以让你领养一个消防栓的可爱简易的程序。
adopt:v.采取;接受;收养;正式通过;
So you agree to dig it out when it snows. 然后你同意会在下雪后将它挖出。
If you do, you get to name it, and he called the first one Al. 如果你这么做了,你可以为它取个名字; 他叫了这第一个 Al。
And if you don't, someone can steal it from you. 但如果你不将他挖出,其他人可以将它从你那儿偷走。
So it's got cute little game dynamics on it. 所以它有一些小小的娱乐性质在里面。
dynamics:n.动力学,力学;
This is a modest little app. 这是一个相对来说比较小的程序,
modest:adj.些许的;谦虚的;
It's probably the smallest of the 21 apps that the fellows wrote last year. 它或许是那个团队那年 所写的二十一个程序中最小的一个。
But it's doing something that no other government technology does. 但它做到了 任何其他政府科技无法做到的事情;
It's spreading virally . 它像病毒一样传开了。
virally:adj.[医学](滤过性)病毒的;(滤过性)病毒引起的;
There's a guy in the I.T. department of the City of Honolulu who saw this app and realized that he could use it, not for snow, but to get citizens to adopt tsunami sirens . 一个在夏威夷檀香山市的IT部门上班的人 看到了这个程序,然后意识到 他不一定要用它来铲雪, 也可以用它让市民领养海啸警报器。
Honolulu:n.火奴鲁鲁(即"檀香山",美国夏威夷州的首府和港市); tsunami:n.海啸; sirens:n.[铁路][船]汽笛,警报器(siren的复数); v.引诱;
It's very important that these tsunami sirens work, but people steal the batteries out of them. 这些海啸警报器的功能很重要, 但往往有人会偷那里面的电池。
batteries:n.电池;炮组;炮列;[法]殴打;(batteries是battery的复数)
So he's getting citizens to check on them. 所以他让市民们主动去检查他们。
And then Seattle decided to use it to get citizens to clear out clogged storm drains . 然后西雅图决定用它 来让市民清理暴雨后杜塞的下水道口。
Seattle:n.西雅图(美国一港市); clogged:v.(使)阻塞,堵塞;(clog的过去分词和过去式) drains:n.排水沟(drain的复数);吸血;v.放出,排出(drain的第三人称单数);
And Chicago just rolled it out to get people to sign up to shovel sidewalks when it snows. 芝加哥才开始 用它让人们将走道上的雪铲除。
So we now know of nine cities that are planning to use this. 我们现在知道还有九个城市 计划使用它。
And this has spread just frictionlessly, organically , naturally . 就这样平稳的,自然的, 它散布了开来。
organically:adv.有机地;有组织地;器官上地; naturally:adv.自然地;自然而然地;轻而易举;天生地;大方地;
If you know anything about government technology, you know that this isn't how it normally goes. 如果你对政府的科技有些了解, 你会知道这并不是普遍的结果。
normally:adv.正常地;通常地,一般地;
Procuring software usually takes a couple of years. 完成一个软件往往需要几年。
Procuring:v.(设法)获得;诱使(妇女)卖淫;(procure的现在分词)
We had a team that worked on a project in Boston last year that took three people about two and a half months. 去年我们在伯斯顿有一个 三个人的团队花了两个半月完成了一个项目。
It was a way that parents could figure out which were the right public schools for their kids. 它可以帮助家长决定 哪一个公立学校对他们的孩子最好。
We were told afterward that if that had gone through normal channels, it would have taken at least two years and it would have cost about two million dollars. 之后,我们被告知,如果这个项目通过正常的渠道, 它将需要至少两年的时间, 并会花费将近两百万美元左右。
afterward:adv.以后,后来;
And that's nothing. 而这只是一个小数字。
There is one project in the California court system right now that so far cost taxpayers two billion dollars, and it doesn't work. 加利福尼亚的法院系统正有一个 至今花费了纳税人 的两亿美元, 而它还并不能正常运作。
taxpayers:n.纳税人(taxpayer的复数);
And there are projects like this at every level of government. 而在政府的每一个阶级 都有类似的项目。
So an app that takes a couple of days to write and then spreads virally, that's sort of a shot across the bow to the institution of government. 所以一个只需要几天来编程, 并像病毒般散布的程序, 对政府机构来说 是一个警钟。
institution:n.制度;建立;(社会或宗教等)公共机构;习俗;
It suggests how government could work better -- not more like a private company , as many people think it should. 它见证了政府可以变得更有效率 - 但不是更像私有公司, 像很多人觉得的那样。
private company:n.[商]私营企业;
And not even like a tech company, but more like the Internet itself. 甚至不像一个科技公司, 而更像网络本身。
And that means permissionless, it means open, it means generative . 这意味着无须批准, 公开,多产。
generative:adj.生殖的;生产的;有生殖力的;有生产力的;
And that's important. 而这非常重要。
But what's more important about this app is that it represents how a new generation is tackling the problem of government -- not as the problem of an ossified institution, but as a problem of collective action. 但这种程序所代表的,更重要的, 是新一代的人 将政府的问题 当作团体行动的问题来寻求解决方式, 而并不是一个死板的机构。
tackling:n.装备,用具;扭住;v.处理;抓住;(tackle的现在分词); ossified:adj.僵化的;已骨化的;v.僵化,变得保守(ossify的过去分词);使骨化; collective:adj.集体的;共同的;集合的;集体主义的;n.集团;集合体;集合名词;
And that's great news, because, it turns out, we're very good at collective action with digital technology. 而这是很好的信息, 因为,事实表明,我们在对于数码技术 的团体运行非常擅长。
digital:adj.数字的;手指的;n.数字;键;
Now there's a very large community of people that are building the tools that we need to do things together effectively. 现在已经有一个非常大的团体 在建造可以让我们做事 更加有效率的工具。
community:n.社区;[生态]群落;共同体;团体;
It's not just Code for America fellows, there are hundreds of people all over the country that are standing and writing civic apps every day in their own communities . 它不仅仅是“美国代码”的员工们, 全国有几百个人 每天在自己的社区中编写程序 并将其致用在他们自己的社区。
civic:adj.市的;公民的,市民的; communities:n.社区;社会;团体;共有(community的复数)
They haven't given up on government. 他们没有放弃政府。
They are frustrated as hell with it, but they're not complaining about it, they're fixing it. 虽然他们非常失望, 但他们并没有抱怨, 而在尝试着修理它。
frustrated:adj.失意的,挫败的;泄气的;v.挫败;阻挠;(frustrate的过去式和过去分词) complaining:adj.抱怨的;v.抱怨;控诉;(complain的现在分词)
And these folks know something that we've lost sight of. 这些人知道一些 我们已经失去的东西,
And that's that when you strip away all your feelings about politics and the line at the DMV and all those other things that we're really mad about, government is, at its core , in the words of Tim O'Reilly, "What we do together that we can't do alone." 那就是,当你剥开一切 让我们愤怒的外壳, 比如我们对政治的感觉, 和在车辆管理局外的长队, 政府,在其中心, 用Tim O*Reilly 的话说, “政府能帮我们达成我们一个人无法达成的事情。”
strip:n.带; v.夺; adj.脱衣舞的; politics:n.政治;钩心斗角;政治观点;v.(贬)从事政治活动;(politic的第三人称单数) core:n.核心;要点;果心;[计]磁心;vt.挖...的核;
Now a lot of people have given up on government. 现在有很多人都对政府完全灰了心。
And if you're one of those people, 如果你是他们其中的一个,
I would ask that you reconsider, because things are changing. 我希望你能重新考虑下, 因为很多事情都在改变。
Politics is not changing; government is changing. 政治没有改变, 但政府正在改变。
And because government ultimately derives its power from us -- remember "We the people?" -- how we think about it is going to effect how that change happens. 而因为政府的能量, 从最根本上 自于我们人民, 我们如何看待它 将会影响到它的改变。
ultimately:adv.最终;最后;归根结底;终究; derives:源于;得自(derive的第三人称单数);
Now I didn't know very much about government when I started this program. 当我开始这个项目的时候我对政府所知不多。
And like a lot of people, 就像很多人,
I thought government was basically about getting people elected to office. 我以为政府仅仅是选举人员进入部门工作。
basically:adv.主要地,基本上;
Well after two years, I've come to the conclusion that, especially local government , is about opossums . 两年后,我得到了一个结论。 政府,特别是地方政府, 是关于负鼠.
conclusion:n.结论;结局;推论; especially:adv.尤其;特别;格外;十分; local government:n.地方自治;地方政府(机构); opossums:n.负鼠;装死;
This is the call center for the services and information line. 这里是服务和信息的电话热线中心。
It's generally where you will get if you call 311 in your city. 如果你在你的城市拨打311, 你将会被连接到这里。
generally:adv.通常;普遍地,一般地;
If you should ever have the chance to staff your city's call center, as our fellow Scott Silverman did as part of the program -- in fact, they all do that -- you will find that people call government with a very wide range of issues , including having an opossum stuck in your house. 如果你会有机会 在你的市热线中心工作, 像我们的项目的 Scott Silverman - 事实上,他们都需要做这项服务 - 你就会发现人们为了非常不同的问题 打电话给政府咨询, 包括家中困入了一个负鼠。
issues:n.重要议题;争论的问题;v.宣布;公布;发出;(issue的第三人称单数和复数)
So Scott gets this call. Scott 接到了这通电话。
He types "Opossum" into this official knowledge base. 他将“负鼠”输入了官方的信息库。
official:adj.官方的;正式的;公务的;n.官员;公务员;高级职员;
He doesn't really come up with anything. He starts with animal control. 什么都没有。他从动物控制中心开始。
come up with:提出;想出;赶上;
And finally , he says, "Look, can you just open all the doors to your house and play music really loud and see if the thing leaves?" 而最后,他说:“这样吧,你可以将你你家的门全部打开, 然后放起很大声地音乐, 然后看看这东西会不会离开？”
finally:adv.终于;最终;(用于列举)最后;彻底地;
So that worked. So booya for Scott. 而这起了作用。 Scott,好样的。
But that wasn't the end of the opossums. 但这并不是负鼠的结尾。
Boston doesn't just have a call center. 波斯顿没有热线中心。
It has an app, a Web and mobile app, called Citizens Connect. 它有一个程序,一个网站和移动的程序, 叫做 “市民联通”。
mobile:n.手机;汽车;移动电话;adj.活跃的;可动的;
Now we didn't write this app. 我们没有编写这个程序。
This is the work of the very smart people at the Office of New Urban Mechanics in Boston. 它是一群在波斯顿的 新城市结构部门的很聪明的人编写的。
Urban:adj.城市的;都市的;城镇的;都市音乐的; Mechanics:n.机械师;机械修理工;技工;力学;机械学;(mechanic的复数)
So one day -- this is an actual report -- this came in: "Opossum in my trashcan . Can't tell if it's dead. 有一天 - 这是一个真实的报告 - 这个信息被贴了出来: “垃圾箱里有一个负鼠。看不出来它是否死了。
trashcan:n.垃圾桶;
How do I get this removed?" 我怎样才能把它弄掉？”
But what happens with Citizens Connect is different. “市民联通”对这种问题有不同的处理方式。
So Scott was speaking person-to-person . Scott 之前是人对人的交流。
person-to-person:adj.私人间的; v.面对面地;
But on Citizens Connect everything is public, so everybody can see this. 但在“市民联通”上面一切都是公开的, 所以每个人都可以看见。
And in this case, a neighbor saw it. 这一次,一个邻居看到了。
And the next report we got said, "I walked over to this location , found the trashcan behind the house. 我们收到的下一份报告写着: “我路过了这个地点, 找到了房子后面的垃圾桶。
location:n.地方;地点;位置;定位
Opossum? Check. Living? Yep. 负鼠? 看到了。的确活着。
Turned trashcan on its side. Walked home. 将垃圾桶放倒,走回家。
Goodnight sweet opossum." 晚安,小负鼠。”
(Laughter) （笑声）
Pretty simple. 就这么简单。
So this is great. This is the digital meeting the physical . 所以这很好。这就是现实和数码世界的交汇。
physical:adj.[物]物理的;身体的;物质的;符合自然法则的;n.体格检查;
And it's also a great example of government getting in on the crowd-sourcing game. 这也是政府加入 众包的游戏的一个很好的例子。
But it's also a great example of government as a platform . 但这也是一个由政府来做交流平台的很好的例子。
platform:n.平台; v.把…放在台上[放在高处;
And I don't mean necessarily a technological definition of platform here. 而在这里我并不是 在说平台的书面意思。
necessarily:adv.必要地;必定地,必然地; technological:adj.技术[工程](上)的;因工艺技术高度发展而引起的; definition:n.定义;清晰度;(尤指词典里的词或短语的)释义;解释;
I'm just talking about a platform for people to help themselves and to help others. 我只是想提到一个可以让 人们互相帮助的平台。
So one citizen helped another citizen, but government played a key role here. 一个公民帮助另外一个公民, 而政府在其中扮演重要的角色。
It connected those two people. 它将两个人连系了起来。
And it could have connected them with government services if they'd been needed, but a neighbor is a far better and cheaper alternative to government services. 它可以通过政府设施服务来帮助需要的人, 但一个邻居远比政府服务 简单和见效。
alternative:adj.供选择的;选择性的;交替的;n.二中择一;供替代的选择;
When one neighbor helps another, we strengthen our communities. 当一个邻居帮助另外一个的时候, 我们的社会联系也会加强。
We call animal control, it just costs a lot of money. 我们打电话给动物控制中心的话,只会花很多的钱。
Now one of the important things we need to think about government is that it's not the same thing as politics. 一个我们需要思考的很重要的事情 便是政府并不同于政治。
And most people get that, but they think that one is the input to the other. 很多人明白这点, 但他们仍然认为政治是政府的输入口。
input:n.投入; v.把(数据等)输入计算机;
That our input to the system of government is voting. 我们对政府系统的输入口是 通过选票。
Now how many times have we elected a political leader -- and sometimes we spend a lot of energy getting a new political leader elected -- and then we sit back and we expect government to reflect our values and meet our needs, and then not that much changes? 至今为止,我们选了多少政治领袖 - 而有些时候我们会花大量的精力 来支持一个新的政治领袖的选举 - 然后我们期望着政府做一些 反映我们价值观和我们的需要的事情, 但最后没有多少改变发生？
reflect:v.反映;映出(影像);反射;表明,表达;
That's because government is like a vast ocean and politics is the six-inch layer on top. 那是因为政府就像一片巨大的海洋, 而政治只是最顶上的一层。
layer:n.层,层次; vt.把…分层堆放; vi.形成或分成层次;
And what's under that is what we call bureaucracy . 下面的便是 我们所谓的官僚机构。
bureaucracy:n.官僚主义;官僚机构;官僚政治;
And we say that word with such contempt . 我们用如此鄙夷的语气谈论这个词。
contempt:n.轻视,蔑视;耻辱;
But it's that contempt that keeps this thing that we own and we pay for as something that's working against us, this other thing, and then we're disempowering ourselves. 但正是这种鄙夷 保持了这个我们拥有 并为其付钱维持的东西 一直与我们的愿望背道而驰, 而由此我们在消除我们自己的能量。
disempowering:使失去权利或影响力(disempower的现在分词);
People seem to think politics is sexy. 人们似乎认为政治很性感。
If we want this institution to work for us, we're going to have to make bureaucracy sexy. 如果我们希望这个部门来为我们服务, 我们必须要让官僚机构也变得性感。
Because that's where the real work of government happens. 因为政府的真正工作在那里发生。
We have to engage with the machinery of government. 我们必须加入政府的机器。
engage:v.吸引,占用;使参加;雇佣;使订婚;预定; machinery:n.机械;机器;机构;机械装置;
So that's OccupytheSEC movement has done. 而这正是 OccupytheSEC 运动做的。
Have you seen these guys? 你见过这些人吗？
It's a group of concerned citizens that have written a very detailed 325-page report that's a response to the SEC's request for comment on the Financial Reform Bill. 他们是一群 写了一个非常详细的, 325页的报告 来回应 SEC 对于金融改革法案的要求, 得担忧的公民。
concerned:adj.有关的;关心的;v.关心;与…有关;(concern的过去时和过去分词) response:n.响应;反应;回答; comment on:对…评论; Financial:adj.金融的;财政的,财务的; Reform:v.改革;改进;改良;(使)悔改;n.改革;改良;改善;
That's not being politically active, that's being bureaucratically active. 这不是政治活动, 而是活动在官僚结构中。
politically:adv.政治上; bureaucratically:adv.官僚主义地;
Now for those of us who've given up on government, it's time that we asked ourselves about the world that we want to leave for our children. 现在,对于我们之间的已经放弃了政府的人, 是时候问我们自己 我们希望留下怎样的世界给我们的孩子。
You have to see the enormous challenges that they're going to face. 你必须意识到他们需要 面对的巨大的挑战。
enormous:adj.庞大的,巨大的;凶暴的,极恶的;
Do we really think we're going to get where we need to go without fixing the one institution that can act on behalf of all of us? 在我们没有修理好这个可以 代表我们行动的部门之前, 我们真的认为我们可以达到我们想要达到的目标吗？
on behalf of:代表;为了;
We can't do without government, but we do need it to be more effective . 我们不能没有政府, 我们需要它 变得更有效率。
effective:adj.有效的,起作用的;实际的,实在的;给人深刻印象;
The good news is that technology is making it possible to fundamentally reframe the function of government in a way that can actually scale by strengthening civil society. 好的消息是,科技正在 将重新定义政府的 功能变成有可能的事情, 而通过它我们可以 来加强我们的社会。
fundamentally:adv.从根本上;基础地;重要地 reframe:v.再构造,再组织;重新制订;给…装上新框架; scale:n.规模;比例;鳞;刻度;天平;数值范围;v.衡量;攀登;剥落;生水垢; civil:adj.公民的;民间的;文职的;有礼貌的;根据民法的;
And there's a generation out there that's grown up on the Internet, and they know that it's not that hard to do things together, you just have to architect the systems the right way. 现在的一代正在网络中长大, 而他们知道 同时做一件事情并不难, 你只需要将系统建构好。
architect:n.建筑师;设计师;创造者;
Now the average age of our fellows is 28, so I am, begrudgingly , almost a generation older than most of them. 我们的工作人员的平均年龄是28岁, 所以我,很不甘的, 几乎比他们大部分老了一代。
begrudgingly:adv.吝啬地;小气地;
This is a generation that's grown up taking their voices pretty much for granted . 这一代 在长大中已经习惯了说出他们的忧虑。
granted:v.不错,的确; conj.因为; v.同意,准予,允许; (grant的过去分词和过去式)
They're not fighting that battle that we're all fighting about who gets to speak; they all get to speak. 他们不再需要经历我们那一代关于 谁可以拥有言论自由的战斗; 他们都拥有言论自由。
They can express their opinion on any channel at any time, and they do. 他们可以通过任何渠道 在任何时间表达他们的意见, 他们也的确这么做。
express:v.表达; adj.特快的; n.特快列车; v.使用快速服务;
So when they're faced with the problem of government, they don't care as much about using their voices. 所以当他们面对政府的瑕疵时, 他们不怎么关心 如何使用他们的声音。
They're using their hands. 他们会使用他们的双手。
They're using their hands to write applications that make government work better. 他们正在使用他们的双手 来编写可以让政府更好的运作的程序。
And those applications let us use our hands to make our communities better. 而这些程序让我们用我们自己的双手 来完善我们的社会。
That could be shoveling out a hydrant, pulling a weed , turning over a garbage can with an opossum in it. 它可以是将消防栓从雪中挖出,将杂草拔除, 或将有负鼠的垃圾箱放倒。
weed:v.除草;铲除;n.杂草,野草;菸草; garbage can:n.(常置于房外的)垃圾桶;
And certainly, we could have been shoveling out those fire hydrants all along, and many people do. 当然,很多人早就开始将消防栓 从雪中挖出了。
But these apps are like little digital reminders that we're not just consumers , and we're not just consumers of government, putting in our taxes and getting back services. 但这些程序是可以提醒我们不光是 作为消费者的数字闹钟。 我们也不仅仅是政府的消费者, 交出税而换回服务。
reminders:n.引起回忆的事物;提醒人的事物;通知单,提示信;(reminder的复数) consumers:n.消费者;顾客;用户;(consumer的复数)
We're more than that, we're citizens. 我们不光是这些, 我们还是公民。
And we're not going to fix government until we fix citizenship . 在修理好政府之前, 我们必须修理好公民的责任。
citizenship:n.[法]公民身份,公民资格;国籍;公民权;
So the question I have for all of you here: 所以在这里我有一个问题送给大家:
When it comes to the big, important things that we need to do together, all of us together, are we just going to be a crowd of voices, or are we also going to be a crowd of hands? 当我们面对一些很大的,很重要的, 并需要我们一起做的 事情的时候, 我们会只是一群声音, 是同时我们 也是一群手？
Thank you. 谢谢。
(Applause) （掌声）