Open Data Delaware got to speak at the state capitol

A group from Open Data Delaware addressed the State Senate on June 21, recapping the state’s first civic hackathon, DataWorks. The group spoke about its solutions for streamlining the government bidding process for small businesses.
“The process is difficult right now,” said legislative assistant Robert Kessler, who also participated in the DataWorks hackathon last month. “If you’re a small biz, you don’t have the resources or a team of people that are experts in navigating the state procurement process. Whereas larger companies have teams that are familiar with that process.”
The hackathon attendees built two prototypes for a new bid-application website. This was all done in under 10 hours at the hackathon. The challenge was presented by legislative assistant Robert Kessler. Two teams were involved and Zip Code Wilmington was heavily represented in both groups.
Zip Code students and Open Data Delaware reps were recognized on the senate floor following their presentation for their contributions to the Wilmington tech community. The group was invited to speak by Senate Minority Whip Gregory Lavelle (R-Sharpley).