KANSAS CITY, KAN. – Kansas City, Mo., Mayor Sly James, Mayor/CEO of the Unified Government of Wyandottte County/Kansas City, Kan., Mark Holland, and Code for America (CfA) today announced the launch of BizFriend.ly (http://bizfriend.ly), an online resource where entrepreneurs can find free, easy to use tools to help them start, run, and grow their businesses.
BizFriend.ly was created as part of a yearlong partnership between KCK, KCMO and Code for America.
Working in close collaboration with representatives from both city governments, Code for America Fellows, Ariel Kennan and Andrew Hyder, were asked to explore economic development issues and opportunities, with the specific goals of making City Hall more entrepreneurial and better able to serve the growing community of entrepreneurs.
BizFriend.ly is a peertopeer network and web application for entrepreneurs that facilitates online learning, sharing, and teaching.
“We want to take this opportunity to thank Kansas City and our amazing community sponsors for partnering with Code for America this year,” said Code for America Fellow, Ariel Kennan. “The investment made in this new civic resource is another step in making KCK and KCMO two of the most digitally literate communities in the country,” said Code for America Fellow, Ariel Kennan.
About BizFriend.ly:
● Lessons are created for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs, business experts, and community
organizations.
● Lessons provide entrepreneurs with an easy to follow, realtime, stepbystep guide to various programs and webbased services.
● Users are able to easily create their own lessons, to keep content up to date, and share their expertise with the community.
● Multiple lessons are available under each service, so users can pick the lessons that best fit their
needs.
“There are many issues that cross state boundaries and economic development is one of them,” said Kansas
City, Missouri Mayor Sly James. “This regional collaboration through technology is a first in municipal
government and shows that government doesn’t have to be an impediment but instead, is a useful conduit of
prosperity.”
At present, content for BizFriend.ly has been built with Code for America, KC Library, and KCMO CDE.
"The pinnacle of learning is teaching; and how exciting is it that we now have an easily accessible platform that allows business owners to convene and do both,” said Kansas City, Kansas Mayor Mark Holland “I believe this is the beginning of a new and exciting period for the Kansas City metropolitan small business community."
The Mayors’ Offices and local community partners, including The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Google Fiber, Cerner, Sprint, Hall Family Foundation, Hallmark Corporate, and H&R Block Foundation, invested in bringing Code for America to Kansas City this year. In addition to developing BizFriend.ly, the Fellows have consulted within both city halls and organized events within the community.
All Code for America applications are developed as open source code that is freely available on GitHub at:
http://github.com/codeforamerica.
