Stanford Law School Professor Mark Lemley (director, Stanford Program in Law, Science and Technology) passes along the news that the New America’s Open Technology Institute is launching a new project, TechCongress, and is looking for its first class of Congressional Innovation Fellows. Here’s the 411 from Travis Moore, TechCongress.io. (It sounds like it’s right up our CodeX alley!)

> TechCongress, in partnership with The Open Technology Institute at New America, is looking for three great tech-oriented thinkers for its first class of Congressional Innovation Fellows.

Congress is struggling to keep up with technology in part because it doesn’t have a pipeline for tech talent. There are distressingly low number staffers in the institution that have a deep understanding of how technology works.  Offices have recognized this problem and are now actively searching for this kind of expertise.
The TechCongress Congressional Innovation Fellowship is a new nonpartisan program that will place tech-oriented thinkers in Congress in order to inject greater technical knowledge into the policymaking process and help Congress keep up with advances in technology.  Starting in January 2016, fellows will spend nine months in Washington, D.C. working directly for a Congressional office focused on forward-thinking tech policymaking to achieve maximum impact  Here are a couple recent profiles of the fellowship for further background.

The project is made possible by in part by a philanthropic seed investment from entrepreneur and investor Reid Hoffman.

The deadline for applications is November 1. For more information, or to apply, visit TechCongress.io/apply.

Kevin Bankston is the director of New America’s Open Technology Institute, and co-director
of New America’s Cybersecurity Initiative. Location: 1899 L Street N.W., Suite 400
Washington, DC 20036. (Address changes on 11/3: 740 15th Street NW, Suite 900, Washington DC, 20005.)

Monica Bay is a CodeX Fellow and a freelance reporter for Bloomberg BNA’s Big Law Business. She is a member of the California bar.  Twitter: @MonicaBay Email: mbay@codex.stanford.edu.