Greater Baltimore Tech Council hackathon to analyze open data for civic good

Registration for the Greater Baltimore Technology Council’s Groundwork event on August 10-11 is now open.
The event, which GBTC’s “chief instigator” Jason Hardebeck presented during a lunchtime Ignite session at last Friday’s Data Day, will be an opportunity for hackers, developers, data analysts—and, apparently, anyone who gives a damn—”to conduct research and analysis to gain a better understanding of Baltimore’s true resources and greatest opportunities to improve the lives of citizens and the way they are served,” according to GBTC.

Writing in the Baltimore Tech Facebook group, Hardebeck says Groundwork “isn’t about finding problems, we are looking for pockets of unexpected potential and goodness.”

We need both data miners and scouts; people who can find the interesting nuggets and those who can help guide and interpret the results. Similar idea to Education Hack Day, except instead of teachers (or maybe they are teachers), we want community and social leaders who can help reconcile what the data seems to indicate with reality. Think crowdsourced urban geophysicists….

Tickets to Groundwork are $10 each, for hackers and non-hackers alike.