There are LOTS of start ups. Silicon Valley is full of people from EVERY discipline. This isn't just about the Googles and Twitters. Its about all of them, t

There are LOTS of start ups. Silicon Valley is full of people from EVERY discipline. This isn't just about the Googles and Twitters. Its about all of them, together, working to use their available talent resources to make a difference in their communities. Who's to say that techies couldn't help local case workers develop systems to better record their data and process it for correlations and trends. To help spot high risk individuals and offer more rapid responses or particular interventions. To help develop and implement more data standards for social workers or court systems or welfare programs. To help integrate food stamp programs into IRS and State tax data so people don't spend hours filling out the same information when they need to sign up for help and make a mistake on a form that causes weeks or months of delays. The amount of wasted time in setting up and delivering services to people is astounding. And yes, our governments are implementing some of this stuff, and yes some of it is a horrible bureaucratic mess... but it doesn't have to be. Silicon Valley communities are filled with the people that run and work at these companies. Why aren't they running for local office and bringing about winds of change to be a showcase of how it CAN be? Its a hotbed of disruption waiting to happen in both business and government... and I think some of the greatest gains for social good could happen if there was a collective effort from the tech community's citizens to be more involved in the actual running of local governments... maybe they could even translate that up to the state level in a couple of years. Just thinking aloud.