Keynote addresses are always special, but organizers of the final keynote of SXSW Interactive must have saved the best for last. Jennifer (Jen) Pahlka, founder of Code for America, a new and unusual non-profit, will give that address.

Pahlka, who spent some of her childhood years in Austin, started out in the gaming media industry. Among her many accomplishments, she led the Game Developers Conference while with CMP Media, served as executive director of the International Game Developers Association, was involved in the creation of the Web 2.0 conference, and later managed the Gov 2.0 Summit, both spear headed by Tim O’Reilly and O’Reilly Media.

The seed for Code for America grew out of discussions during and following the Gov 2.0 conference events. While previously not very aware of government and those involved in the public sector, she found herself inspired and impressed by many she met and the stories they shared.

“I saw that there were just amazing, wonderful public servants who really care about this notion of doing things together.” She came to understand through that experience that “government is essentially what we do together that we can’t do alone.”

Cities were facing significant barriers to meeting the challenges of the 21st Century however, with budgets shrinking year after year in the face of a rising demand for services, a gap in capacity and body of knowledge in IT departments in most cities, and lack of streamlined practices found in the private sector. The city level of government was, she realized, where government had the most impact on the daily life of people, while what happens in Washington, D.C. is often more abstract.

Pahlka wanted to help but at first did not know “how to get developers from the Web 2.0 world to care about government.” In hearing a bit of the story of Teach for America, she realized that some of its structure might be the model she was looking for to involve the tech community to care about government and become part of the solution.

CfA is unique among non-profits in putting the talents of tech-savvy individuals and teams to work in partnership with cities, the business community, and the public to solve dilemmas that are barriers to open, effective, responsive government.

“Government is essentially what we do together that we can’t do alone.”

Last year was the inaugural year of Code for America’s Fellowship Program. Of 550 applicants, CfA chose 26 to participate for a year of public service. Cities submitted applications as well, and selected cities hosted a team of CfA Fellows to explore city needs and design open source programs intended to facilitate cash-strapped cities in the process of doing a better job of serving the community.

According to Pahlka, a goal is to “build technology that is…faster and cheaper, and more engaging potentially than is possible through normal channels,” and at the same time, demonstrate the methodology that has proven so successful for lean start-up companies.

This year, Austin was chosen to be one of eight cities to receive a team of Code for America Fellows. Some of those team members will participate in a separate panel later the same day as Pahlka’s keynote address (Tuesday, March 13), where all those interested can get another perspective on the work of the CfA Fellowship Program.

Besides the Fellowship Program, Code for America is kicking off a Brigade program where local community members in cities across the nation can volunteer their time and energy to create technology for their communities. CfA is about to launch an Accelerator program as well.

Code for America has drawn significant funding support from Google, the John S. and Jane L. Knight Foundation, Cisco, Microsoft, the Sunlight and Rockefeller Foundations, among others in less than three full years of existence. Starting with three cities in 2011, the program has expanded to eight cities this year. All applications developed by CfA are open-source and available for use and adaptation by other cities.

Tim O’Reilly interview of Jennifer Pahlka

An earlier generation was inspired to go into public service by the Peace Corps, established during the Kennedy administration. Code for America has been called a peace corps for geeks. If you like to be inspired, you won’t want to miss Pahlka’s keynote address .