Civic hackathons have become a popular way of pulling together the public interest and tech communities in Philadelphia to do great work for the city on a pro bono basis, often over a weekend ever few months.
The volume is about to be turned up.
HackfinityPhiladelphia is a new government agency, created in partnership with OpenDataPhilly, that organizers say show that the City of Philadelphia is fully embracing the civic hacking movement. The agency will hold a civic hackathon each weekday and most weekends, bringing in the area’s best policy and programming minds to address some of the most pressing challenges facing the city.
“For the cost of pizza and Wifi, we can essentially solve every local government problem,” said Tom Franklin, a city spokesman. “Ever.”
HackfinityPhiladelphia is currently taking volunteer programmers and policy analysts for every single calendar day, starting today. If too few people sign up, Franklin intimated to Technically Philly, the city will begin drafting recruits.
Already corporate and other city government officials have asked for advice on launching their own daily hackathons to, as Franklin said, “find efficiencies through civic fusion.”
“Participating in a hackathon is a civic honor and a programmer’s duty to his city,” Franklin said of the budget strapped municipality.
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