Normally, hackathons are a pizza-fueled weekend craze, with people hopping from laptop to laptop before the final commit.
For Code for Philly’s final hackathon of the year, organizers decided to extend the big civic tech push into a whole month. Code for Philly: City Operations is the name of the project, which is kicking off with the City as a Service Hackathon (or #CaaSH, as it’s been dubbed on social media).
“We’re going for a full month to give projects more time to develop,” said Code for Philly cofounder Dawn McDougall. “This way we’ll have a better chance at developing alongside community partners.”
2 weeks! We'll be using tech to make govt work better. Only 50 seats, sign up for #caash here https://t.co/v3R9Gbvkqf #civictech #opendata
— Code for Philly (@CodeForPhilly) September 10, 2016
On Sept. 23, the event kicks off with a brainstorming session at Industrious, which will be open to all Philadelphians in order to get a broader sense of what average citizens label as a priority. For the next two days, Curalate’s HQ will be the venue for the project design and development portion of the hackathon.
For the following month — alongside community members, organizations and government folks — civic technologists will work on their projects gearing up for Oct. 25, the big Demo Day.
The local org has rallied considerable support around the monthlong project, but what it’s looking for the most is for community input and, as an end goal, solutions to the city’s problems through technology.
Get tickets
Knowledge is power!
Subscribe for free today and stay up to date with news and tips you need to grow your career and connect with our vibrant tech community.