National Day of Civic Hacking is about ‘civic bravery’

If there’s one general takeaway from this past weekend’s National Day of Civic Hacking, it’s that coming up with solutions is better together.
That’s according to several D.C.-based civic hackers who took part in the festivities.
There were two hackathons on June 4: one focused on microbusiness organized by Code for America, CHIEF, the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Small Business Administration and Microsoft; and one organized by Code for DC and held at iStrategyLabs.
Kendra Yoshinaga and Matt Scott of SecondMuse were in attendance at the microbusiness hackathon to talk to some of the attendees about what projects they were working on and about some important tidbits for civic hackers to think about. Here’s a look.
Julie Dang of D.C’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer spoke about how these types of events allow anyone to “try on social coding,” which she believes is the future of development:

At #HackForChange, @juliekdang of @OCTODC shed light on what she thinks is the future of #dev. #civictech #WeDC pic.twitter.com/mB90ZkUkzl

— SecondMuse (@secondmuse) June 5, 2016

Public policy advocate Kate Mereand-Sinha echoed that sentiment. She believes it is “entirely incorrect” for anyone to feel like they don’t have a role in civic hackathons. Whether they’re business folks or university students, she encourages everyone to get involved:

Thanks, @katmeresin, for reminding us who #civictech is really for: everyone! #HackForChange pic.twitter.com/BuSOlrbKFC

— SecondMuse (@secondmuse) June 5, 2016

Megan Dunn, marketing strategist for CHIEF, mentioned “civic bravery” when describing hackathons that gather people from different backgrounds and interests. “Don’t be afraid to reach out across your silo and your aisle and talk to people you haven’t talked to,” she said:

.@agencyCHIEF's @Meggalooch & @USCensusBureau's @LoganTPowell share tips for civic technologists to #HackForChange.https://t.co/d8i7kC2Xyx

— SecondMuse (@secondmuse) June 4, 2016