Andrew Thompsonathompson@azavea.com

@azavea@andrewbt

Your New Partners:Understanding Civic Hackathons,

Why You Should be Involved, and

How to Get Started

Community! Hackathons!

Azavea Makes Civic GIS Software

And we’re also a B Corporation…

…so we do things like Space Apps!

The International Space Apps Challenge? Second annual, two-

day hackathon Globally organized by

NASA Locally organized in

83 cities by Local Leads

Teams collaborate globally using data to design solutions to challenges developed by NASA

9,147 people, 770 solutions

“OK Andrew, that’s cool, but none of us work for NASA or have

a Space Station…”

“…What are some examples of great hackathons closer

to home?”

Apps4Septa / Apps for Philly Transit

Septa.org/hackathon

V3.Septa.mobi

From OnTheMap…

…to PHLWork!

Census API

Third Party Census API!

Github

Github Pages

Github GeoJSON!

School Transit Accessibility

TechCamp Philadelphia: Education

Schools + Budgets API from PDFs

PDFs…ugh! But at least it’s out!

Solar Sunflower: Funded by PA DEP!

Apps from hackathons are great, but they

are incidental to the real benefits.

“[One of] the best things I have heard a government official say at

a hackathon is, ‘I never thought about doing it that way.’”

-Mark Headd, Chief Data Officer

Think Different. We are all in our own silos, focused on

our own metrics. Hackathons help us break out of that.

– Outside “hackers” bring new people + ideas.

– Inside “hackers” from other departments bring other perspectives, conversations.

Collaboration sparks innovation.

Making Maps is Easy Now.

Data is the Hard Thing.

Hackathons Help You Prepare Data Events make good deadlines. Deadlines pressure. Pressure can make the difference

between releasing data, or delaying. Hackathons make you to think about,

prepare, and describe your data in a way fit for external consumption.

Hackers can provide feedback.

APIs Describe Data Well

You Can “Dog Food” Them Too!

Preparing Data Helps You Later

Use your data and APIs in your own applications.

Integrate with data and processes in other departments.– PGW and rental licenses

You get started by releasing data to civic hackers.

What Makes a Great Hackathon?

How do we get started?

“You get what you plan for” Research past events Plan as a whole organization

– “Buy in” Look for partners

– Apps for Philly Transit had several agencies come together.

Outreach, Outreach, Outreach– The best ideas come from diverse crowds.– Meetup.com– Press Releases

“You get what you plan for” Come up with interesting challenges.

Think big, but also think achievable. NASA challenges each had a Subject Matter Expert

who answered questions from teams.

Need a free, quick place to store open data? Use Github! GeoJSON!

Partnership – Show up at the event! Thank your volunteer

hackers!

“[Space Apps] is the result of government recognizing that we

can be more relevant for our stakeholders and intentionally

create a culture of openness. This is crucial as we attempt to evolve into a twenty-first century space

program for a twenty-first century democracy.”

Thank you!

Want to work with us? We’re hiring!

Azavea.com