Your President Wants You To Hack: Civic Hacking for Fun, Profit, and Good Karma

For startup entrepreneurs at a Norfolk, VA event. A call to create startups with a civic focus, and also to volunteer to make your city better. For Code Across America Weekend.

Transcript

1. Alternate title:
   Civic Hacking for Fun and Profit
   (and good karma)
   Your President
   Wants You to Hack
   

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2. Volunteerism or Business Profit?
   Answer: Yes, and either/or
   

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3. Hi I'm Bret
   I'm here because of the awesome
   people I met at Start Norfolk 2012
   Co-Founder of 1yr-old web startup
   Volunteer: Code for America Brigade
   In tech for nearly 20 years (yea I'm kinda old)
   

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5. CodeForVirginiaBeach.org
   

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6. “(I want) hackers to work on stuff that
   matters.”
   - Tim O’Reilly, 2008
   "We're not going to fix government until
   we fix citizenship"
   - Jennifer Pahlka, Founder and Executive Director of Code for America
   Do Stuff That Matters
   

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7. What Civic Hacking is NOT
   

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12. What Civic Hacking IS
    

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13. What Civic Hacking IS
    

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17. Volunteerism or Business Profit?
    Answer: Yes, and either/or
    

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18. Civic App Examples
    http://www.textizen.com
    http://answers.honolulu.gov/
    http://seeclickfix.com/
    http://blockee.org/
    http://adoptahydrant.org/
    https://github.com/codeforamerica/adopt-a-hydrant
    

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19. What is Civic Hacking?
    LEAD AND ORGANIZE
    Organize civic-minded technologists where you live around Brigade
    activities and campaigns.
    OPEN CIVIC DATA
    Build digital libraries in your community. Help publish and curate open
    civic data.
    DEPLOY AND MARKET CIVIC APPS
    Bring civic apps to your city. Change the way your city uses web and
    mobile software to operate.
    WORK WITH YOUR CITY TO OPEN GOVERNMENT
    Collaborate with the city to open civic data, use open source software,
    and make government more open.
    CONTRIBUTE TO OPEN SOURCE, CIVIC SOFTWARE
    Write code, create graphics, write copy while collaborating with other
    civic-minded developers.
    Organize!!!
    Find data and put it online
    Get people to use apps
    Help gov open by default
    Write software using gov data
    

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20. Volunteerism or Business Profit?
    Answer: Yes, and either/or
    

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21. Most Important Step
    Start
    Then
    Keep Starting
    

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22. Where do I get all this free software?
    

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23. Join Us - CodeForVirginiaBeach.org
    Today: 2-3 get your blog or website up
    Today: 3-4 github.com getting started
    Meet every Wednesday at 6pm in Norfolk and VB (rotates
    every week)
    Bret Fisher: bret@codeforamerica.org @BretFisher
    Kevin Curry: kevin@codeforamerica.org @kmcurry
    

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24. Resources for Your Startup
    Read: Lean Startup, Rework, 4-Hour Work Week
    Others: The Thank You Economy, Custom Nation
    Talent Pool: elance.com, 99designs.com
    Keep coming to events: siliconanchornews.com
    

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25. Zero Coding Websites and Blogs
    Free blog:
    Wordpress.com or Tumblr.com
    Sell something physical: shopify.com
    Cheap/Free web sites
    wix.com or squarespace.com
    

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