When the average person hears the terms Hack or Hacking, images of some kid breaking into Target's computers and stealing credit card numbers come to mind. However, hacking can be used for good. For a few years now, there have individual and organizations such as Code For America have used hacking to improve our cities and neighborhoods. Most think only computer programmers, or geeks can hack, but initiatives like the National Day of Civic Hacking, which is this weekend, is making it accessible to all walks of life.
What is The National Day of Civic Hacking? It is an intitiave coordinated by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). The main purpose is to promote transparency, participation and collaboration between governments, companies and citizens.
This weekend, Civic Hackathon events are occuring all over the country including right here in Milwaukee. Beginning on Saturday, Milwaukee Data Initiative will be hosting a Milwaukee Civic Hackathon. The hackathon will be held May 31 and June 1 at Bucketworks inside the Grand Avenue Mall. Participants will include City of Milwaukee Chief Information Officer, representatives from various Milwaukee County and City departments, Local experts on MCTS transit data, UWM App Brewery Founder and others.
Some of the projects that the hackathon will work on include:
- MCTS API Bus Apps and Hardware Hack (with the new MCTS API)
- Residential Service Data App (listing resources for homeowners in Milwaukee)
- Adopt-A-Hydrant Milwaukee App (Open Source project to monitor fire hydrants)
- US Open City Census (cataloging our open data assets in Milwaukee)
If you like to take part in this weekends' Civic Hackathon just check out the event page for more detailsand to register for the event.
Check out our story on Code For America below.
