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Civic Hacking

alper
August 22, 2012

Civic Hacking

An introduction to Civic Hacking at Campus Party Europe.

alper

August 22, 2012
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Transcript

  1. Civic Hacking
    Alper Cugun - Hack the Government

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  2. “Coders of the world
    unite!”

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  3. Workshop

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  9. Structure
    • Questions welcome
    • Reflections on the things we did:
    • The good
    • The not so good

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  10. “We, the Web kids; we,
    who have grown up
    with the Internet and
    on the Internet”

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  12. Goal
    • Build machines that do our politics for us
    • That make life better for ordinary citizens
    • In every country of the EU
    • Create systems that improve systems

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  13. Changing Things

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  14. “And it ought to be remembered that
    there is nothing more difficult to take in
    hand, more perilous to conduct, or more
    uncertain in its success, than to take
    the lead in the introduction of a
    new order of things. Because the
    innovator has for enemies all those
    who have done well under the old
    conditions, and lukewarm defenders in
    those who may do well under the new.”
    —Machiavelli

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  15. Talk is the enemy.

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  19. Conditions
    • Internet based
    • Maker centric
    • Barbarian
    • Messy

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  20. 1. Find Cool People
    2. Make Crazy Awesome Stuff
    3. Organize yourself
    A Recipe

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  21. 1. Find Cool People

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  23. Messiness is a core
    value.

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  26. Lessons
    • Start tiny
    • Find allies
    • Hacker time is valuable
    • Give makers what they want
    • Expectations shape outcomes

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  27. Issues
    • High cost in time and effort
    • Bigger and better syndrome
    • Almost impossible to maintain quality
    • Bandwagon effect
    • What to do with non-makers?

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  28. Your turn
    • Think about who you would like to do his
    stuff with
    • E-mail them for a get together with beers
    • Get together
    • Repeat bigger

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  29. 2. Make Crazy
    Awesome Stuff

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  30. Make something that
    annoys you better.

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  31. “The cost of assessing
    risk is now often
    greater than the cost of
    failing.” —Joi Ito

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  37. Lessons
    • Just build
    • Easier to ask permission than forgiveness
    • Don’t be afraid to tackle serious problems
    • Translate itches of others who can’t build
    things
    • Keep it fun

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  38. Issues
    • Maker fatigue, been there done that
    • Other people’s problems
    • Prototype/mashup ceiling

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  39. Your turn
    • Write one scraper
    • Build a single serving web app
    • Make a screenshot mockup how a certain
    government process could be improved
    • and share it…

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  40. 3. Organize yourself

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  41. Premature optimization
    organization is the root
    of all evil.

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  42. Foundation
    • Hack de Overheid
    • Open State Foundation
    • Sunlight Foundation
    • Open Knowledge Foundation

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  44. Lessons
    • Keeping the attention focused
    • Don’t become what you hate (though this
    is cyclical)
    • Take corporate money without becoming
    lame
    • Growing pains

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  45. Task
    • Don’t do anything just right now.

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  46. General Takeaways
    • Stay true to your community
    • Use every advantage
    • Don’t be shy of money
    • Get close to politicians and media
    • Give people what they want
    • Live up to your image

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  47. 1. Find Cool People
    2. Make Crazy Awesome Stuff
    3. Formalize into an Organization
    Summarizing

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  48. Thanks!
    @alper or [email protected]

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