National Day of Civic Hacking 2013 Final Report

The National Day of Civic Hacking was the largest hackathon in history, engaging more than 11,000 citizens representing government, businesses, nonprofits and individuals participated in 97 simultaneous civic hacking events in 83 cities across the United States. This report documents this historic event.

Transcript

1. National Day of Civic Hacking NATIONAL DAY OF CIVIC HACKING 2 0 1 3
2. hackforchange.org SecondMuse Intel Code for America, Innovation Endeavors, Random Hacks of Kindness Rally Software, Edelman, Socrata, Elance, Code For Good STRATEGIC & OPERATIONAL LEAD HEADLINE SPONSOR ORGANIZING PARTNERS ADDITIONAL SPONSORS
3. National Day of Civic Hacking 3 ..................................................... EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 7 ... NATIONAL DAY OF CIVIC HACKING AT A GLANCE 9 ............... A PUBLIC-PRIVATE-PEOPLE PARTNERSHIP 17 ...................................................... AT THE LOCAL LEVEL 23 ...................................................................... CIVIC HACKS 33 ......................... CIVIC HACKING: LOOKING FORWARD 37 ............................................................................... CREDITS
4. hackforchange.org EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 03 On June 1-2, 2013, more than 11,000 citizens representing government, businesses, nonprof- its and individuals participated in more than 95 civic hacking events in 83 cities across the United States as part of the first ever National Day of Civic Hacking. The event succeeded in uniting the public sector, private sector, and individu- als to solve our country’s social challenges with innovation. This report attempts to capture the breadth of collaborations, stories and innovations that emerged to create this civic hacking move- ment.
5. National Day of Civic Hacking “ National Day of Civic Hacking demonstrates the value of public and private investment in civic hacking initiatives as effective means to spark innovation and foster economic growth. ”
6. hackforchange.org 05 hackforchange.org 05 National Day of Civic Hacking inspired unprecedented government participation at all levels. Twenty-one federal govern- ment agencies submitted challenges, released datasets and attended events. Six states joined as national partners, and even more supported individual events. Dozens of local governments - from San Diego, CA to Kalamazoo, MI to Asheville, NC opened data, proposed challenges and, in some cases, declared official days of civic hacking. Even the White House hosted an event, which focused on devel- oping the We the People petition plat- form. Bolstered with compelling challenges, new data and national partner support, motivated leaders across the country planned community specific events that were varied to say the least. Some cit- ies hosted their first ever hackathons while others leveraged the initiative to grow their already flourishing civic hacking communities. In Chicago, more than 300 participants attended mul- tiple coordinated events, and in Palo Alto a city-hosted event drew more than 5,000 participants for tech and non-tech community-building activities. National Day of Civic Hacking demon- strates the value of public and private investment in civic hacking initiatives as effective means to spark innovation and foster economic growth. Local innova- tors used federal and local data to develop a myriad of solutions to 31 federal chal- lenges. Two standout projects utilizing federal data include Urban Fruit.ly, an urban forager app out of Los Angeles, and a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau complaint data visualization intended to aid businesses in understanding their markets. Standout projects that lever- aged local data include Keep Austin Fed from Austin, TX and Parks, Trails, and Waterways Mapping from Akron, OH. Increasingly, collaboration is both the goal and output for defining civic hack- ing successes, and National Day of Civic Hacking motivated many new, strong col- laborations. As examples, the Technol- ogy Association of Georgia coordinated the planning of seven diverse events across the state, and the organizers from Rockaway Beach, NY and Tulsa, OK
7. National Day of Civic Hacking connected through OpenFEMA to iden- tify needs and create tools for emergency search and rescue efforts. Some of the strongest civic hacks were those that en- gaged a diversity of people with different backgrounds, perspectives and expertise. Though decentralized at the event level, National Day of Civic Hacking had a cohesive national strategy determined and executed by a core team of organiza- tions active in civic innovation and the civic hacking space. This initiative was a public-private-people partnership whose operational lead was SecondMuse with organizing support from Code for Amer- ica, Innovation Endeavors and Random Hacks of Kindness. National sponsors of the initiative include Intel, Edelman, Co- deForGood, Rally Software, Socrata and Elance.
8. hackforchange.org NATIONAL DAY OF CIVIC HACKING AT A GLANCE SAN FRANCISCO DAVIS OAKLAND PALO ALTO With multiple events that had hundreds attending and one event with thousands, California had strong citizen representation. Not only did citizens participate - the Mayor of Palo Alto, the Mayor of Los Angeles, and the State Governor joined in the fun too. CALIFORNIA 11,000 P A R T I C I P AT I N G C I T I Z E N S $11,143,125 VALUE OF PERSON-HOURS APPLIED TO CIVIC TECH WORK 95 NUMBER OF EVENTS TWENTY ONE PARTICIPATING FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES SACRAMENTO MOUNTAIN VIEW LA JOLLA SALT LAKE CITY PORTLAND SEATTLE LAS VEGAS ALBUQUE LOS ANGELES PHOENIX CHANDLER ANCHORAGE HONOLULU
9. National Day of Civic Hacking Asheville, NC took a focused approach to NDoCH and ran a “Hack for Food”. Working with the Asheville-Buncombe Food Policy Council, Code for Asheville hosted an event that specifically targeted challenges to healthy food access in the community. After Hurricane Sandy, Jess Klein acted as an individual first responder for her parents and their neighbors in Rockaway Beach, NY. Jess founded an organization called Rockaway Help, which hosted an NDoCH event to continue building out emergency response apps for future disasters. OpenFEMA later introduced Jess and Scott (Tulsa) so their teams could collaborate. ASHEVILLE Garrett Wilkin planned NDoCH and met many individuals who were passionate about improving their communities. Following NDoCH, Garrett became a member of the local Rotary Club and was asked to join the Board of Directors for the Eastern Maine Development Corporation. BANGOR PHILADELPHIA BALTIMORE WASHINGTON DC ARLINGTON Georgia pulled together with the help of one central organizer who enlisted other organizers to create seven events spread across the state. No matter where you lived in Georgia there was a NDoCH for you. GEORGIA Scott Phillips, a Code for Tulsa developer, gave back to his neighboring town that was torn apart by tornadoes. He formed a team and created an Open Search and Rescue application that may expand to cities around the U.S. TULSA BOULDER DENVER NEW HAVEN NEWARK BROOKLYN NEW YORK CHARLOTTESVILLE ROANOKE BOSTON AMHERST PORTLAND NORFOLK VIRGINIA BEACH ROCKVILLE PITTSBURGH ALLENTOWN ALBANY ANNAPOLIS BOCA RATON ATHENS MIAMI ORLANDO NEW ORLEANS HOUSTON IRVING FORT WAYNE DETROIT ANN ARBOR ROCHESTER BURLINGTON IOWA CITY MILWAUKEE KALAMAZOO CHICAGO MINNEAPOLIS RQUE LEXINGTON SOUTH BEND MACON ATLANTA AUGUSTA DAWSONVILLE COLUMBIA NASHVILLE LOUISVILLE RED OAK AUSTIN CHATTANOOGA AKRON RALEIGH SAVANNAH COLUMBUS KANSAS CITY ST LOUIS ROCKAWAY PUERTO RICO
10. hackforchange.org A PUBLIC- PRIVATE- PEOPLE PARTNERSHIP 09 Many current social challenges seem insur- mountable, but when tackled by a public-private- people partnership, they can be solved, benefiting society as a whole as well as individual stakehold- ers. National Day of Civic Hacking is a compel- ling example of the success of such partnerships. GOVERNMENT PARTICIPATION The first National Day of Civic Hacking provided a new, relevant forum for civic engagement with government, increased transparency, and infu- sions of innovation into real challenges faced by today’s government agencies. Forums such as this are critical given today’s White House
11. National Day of Civic Hacking Similar to the commonly referenced model of public private partnership, public-private-people partnerships engage masses of people in directly solving complex social challenges. 21 federal agencies joined the partnership to form the largest civic hacking collaboration ever. Government and private partner contributions, such as offering data, challenges, and participating in events, varied based on the capabilities and interests of the organization. All partners - government entities, private organiza- tions, and communities - expanded their reach, gained societal insights, and were infused with creativity. National Day of Civic Hacking resulted in social and intellectual capital gains in addition to economic gains of more than $11,143,125 from volunteer hours worked.
12. hackforchange.org hackforchange.org 11 Digital Government Strategy that seeks to “unlock the power of government data to spur innovation across our Nation and improve the quality of services for the American people.” At a federal level, the National Day of Civic Hacking was the largest collabora- tion of agencies ever to have occurred, with 21 government agencies - from the state level to The White House, technol- ogy oriented and not - joining the partner- ship. They contributed by posing chal- lenges and opening up APIs. Many had representatives attend local events. The U.S. Department of Agriculture posed a challenge to enhance the farmers market experience and resulted in seven creative projects. Some ideas were sim- ple and some complex. One team, Urban Fruit.ly expanded on the the challenge and created a network building applica- tion to enable peer-to-peer fresh produce exchange. The Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency both made previously unavailable data accessible, and the EPA even made a “Quick Start Guide” to ease the learning curve on understanding the data. The U.S. Census Bureau went beyond just sponsoring challenges and providing data; they also sent representatives to multiple events to support civilian teams. In all, 25 Bureau employees attended individual events, and some even attended multiple events over the course of the weekend. As a result, many projects, census sponsored and not, effectively utilized census data. Every contribution resulted in unique returns for the agencies and departments. Those organizations now have a direct connection with newly engaged citizens, and they’ve seen what citizens can and will do with their available data. The Na- tional Day of Civic Hacking demonstrated the ways in which government can par- ticipate in mass collaboration events to achieve purposeful innovation across our nation. PRIVATE SECTOR PARTICIPATION Private entities, unlike government agen-
13. National Day of Civic Hacking to civic hackers across the country in order to build more meaningful and ef- fective civic hacks. The results were profound: over half of the participants saw value in Intel’s approach and claimed their projects utilized their concepts. Code for America, one organizing part- ner, uses multiple programs to build bridges between citizens and govern- ment enabling active citizen participa- tion in the govtech marketplace. The large hacking community established around Code for America Brigades was excited to join the movement, and by supporting as a lead, Code for America reached new individuals across the na- tion, establishing new relationships in the public and private space. Edelman, a large, client-focused public relations firm with a global reach, cies, don’t always have a common goal, but the National Day of Civic Hacking brought value to each partner in unique ways. As with the government participation, pri- vate organizations joined the movement in different ways: some galvanized the national movement, others organized local events, and some offered challenges and data. In participating, each private sector partner had the opportunity to interact directly with innovators across the nation and join in the three-way knowledge and skill sharing initiative. Intel, the headline sponsor behind the initiative, realized a unique opportunity to bring value to innovators across the country. Intel Labs has been working on a platform called We the Data which seeks to realize the potential for personal data and large open data sets to be combined in meaningful ways that can benefit society. A framework they developed was offered
14. hackforchange.org hackforchange.org 13 partnered with SecondMuse to manage National Day of Civic Hacking commu- nications to launch the initiative into broad public view. The initiative allowed Edelman to foster innovation across of- fices and practices and, internally, was a testament to the power of their combined network through collaboration across of- fices, practice groups, and digital teams. The examples above represent of the variety of companies involved and how they participated. However, beyond the national participation, many more private sector companies made National Day of Civic Hacking a reality by sponsoring local events. Despite the wide range of company interests, National Day of Civic Hacking needed each of their competen- cies and served them uniquely in return. By participating in the multifaceted event, each company could easily access individuals across the nation, government representatives, and government data that were made available for the initia- tive. COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION The people are a key factor of a success- ful public-private-people partnership. Those involved brought their passion for giving back to their communities, their knowledge of local challenges and their varied skills – from software develop- ment to design - and they made positive change in their hometowns and across the nation. Many of the civic hacking communities were already established when National Day of Civic Hacking was conceived, and those communities fueled the movement early on and will continue to carry the innovations forward through the year. Minneapolis was one of many cities to develop solutions for public transporta- tion issues. In Tulsa, Rockaway Beach, and Boston, disaster response solutions emerged, and many cities from Miami to Oakland tackled educating the public on civic issues. In Austin, Keep Austin Fed, a grassroots nonprofit that distributes healthy food to those in need, expanded
15. National Day of Civic Hacking communication skills gained. While difficult to quantify network connec- tions, participants did indicate that they felt their networks had increased, they had built trust with their new team-members, and they intended to continue working with their teams. The benefits of mass collaboration to individuals and towns are as varied as the communities themselves. Overall, those involved in National Day of Civic Hacking realized value on the days of the event, but will continue to see value as the project teams continue their work and challenge solutions are implemented. Public-private-people partnerships result in unique and powerful social and intellectual gains. its online presence and developed plans to expand to new cities. Some even felt the positive impact of Na- tional Day of Civic Hacking at a personal level. One example, Garrett from Maine, was asked to join the Board of Direc- tors for the Eastern Maine Development Corporation after his local event was so successful. The largest hackathon ever hosted, Na- tional Day of Civic Hacking resulted in economic, intellectual and social capital gains for the more than 95 communities across the nation. The value of volunteer hours realized was at least $11,143,125 over the course of the two days. In a follow-up event survey half of responders indicated that they had made connections with sponsors. Participants also saw value in collaboration, project management, and
16. hackforchange.org The Birth of National Day of Civic Hacking The National Day of Civic Hacking was born when some of the nation’s leaders in civic engagement decided to rally around a common goal on one weekend. Inspired by the success of the first International Space Apps Challenge in 2012, the NASA Open Innovation team wanted to see how mass collabora- tion could go even further than NASA’s challenges. How could it be used to solve the challenges of the nation – communities and their governments of all levels? In June of that year we discussed the idea of NDoCH with the Of- fice of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the biggest supporter of the Space Apps Challenge, and they immediately supported the idea. They saw 15 An excerpt from Nicholas Skytland, NASA Open Innovation Program Manager
17. National Day of Civic Hacking potential for mass collaboration to further implement the President’s Inno- vation Agenda and promote Open Government, Digital Strategy, and Open Data Initiatives. We knew that the civic hacking space was near saturated with strong lead- ers and organizations and so we chose to leverage those rather than dupli- cate efforts. It was not long before we had aligned three strong leaders with National Day of Civic Hacking: Random Hacks of Kindness,Code for Amer- ica, and Innovation Endeavors. The Hackathon, Brigade, and Super Happy Block Party models were perfect for the NDoCH vision, and the combina- tion of the three really ignited a movement for civic hacking at a national level. A leadership team was convened that included SecondMuse, other Federal Government Agencies (Census Bureau and FEMA), local leads, and other interested parties. The event was officially announced at the Champi- ons of Change event at the White House in September and publicly released for interested hosts and participants in early 2013. From there the idea unfolded into the movement that it is today. It has been amazing to see the vision take root and grow into a national event.
18. hackforchange.org AT THE LOCAL LEVEL 17 Individuals and teams of local event organizers in 83 communities across the US served as the bed- rock for National Day of Civic Hacking and civic hacking more broadly, and the 95 events were diverse in design, focus and reach. An education hackathon in Brooklyn aimed at getting parents more involved, while a write-a-thon in Oakland focused on completing a wiki page to answer commonly asked municipal questions. Event or- ganizers had the option of choosing from existing models such as the Super Happy Block Party or a Random Hacks of Kindness event or to propose an event of their own design.
19. National Day of Civic Hacking Individual organizers and teams of local organizers in 83 cities across the US hosted more than 95 diverse events. National Day of Civic Hacking leveraged the talent and energy at the grassroots level to source innovative solu- tions to social challenges posed from the local to the in- ternational level. Local organizers were fundamental to the success of Na- tional Day of Civic Hacking. Communities decided what event structure best suited local interests and which challenges to tackle and solve. Featured challenges from the 21 federal government agencies were welcomed, and dozens of solutions were built to address them.
20. hackforchange.org hackforchange.org 19 National Day of Civic Hacking provided a national platform to support local innovation. San Francisco organizer, Mike Zuckerman, hacked National Day of Civic Hacking with his event called [freespace]. He leveraged the weekend to kick-off a month-long cultural hack that utilized an abandoned warehouse he’d temporarily procured for only $1. He and fellow organizers invited the commu- nity to determine how best to utilize the space and revitalize the area. Gardens, bike shares, murals, classes, and com- munity dialogue are just some examples of what emerged from [freespace]. The benefits to communities were very much dependent on local organizers putting the sweat equity into creating opportunities for others to participate. Leading up to National Day of Civic Hacking, local organizers spent months planning, seeking local sponsorship and spreading the word about their events and the national efforts. As the lead oper- ational partner, SecondMuse supported local organizers with biweekly planning calls that were a mechanism for local leads around the country to connect, share and learn from each other. Addi- tionally, SecondMuse provided adaptable PR materials, planning resources and any other assistance the organizers required. SecondMuse supported and built on the commitment, knowledge and energy of the organizers at the grassroots level to support the unprecedented mass collabo- ration success of National Day of Civic Hacking. The types, sizes, and goals of the 95 events were organic. Some cities hosted their first ever civic hacking event, draw- ing between a handful and a few dozen novice civic hackers. Some local govern- ments even declared June 1st an official day of civic hacking in their city. Still other cities had embraced civic hacking early on; one of those cities, Philadel- phia, teamed up with Baltimore to tackle shared urban challenges and test the validity of shared challenge solutions.
21. National Day of Civic Hacking 5,000 participants. The event show- cased an inspiring array of civic in- novations around science, technology, engineering, art and math. All of the event examples in this sec- tion illustrate how local events re- flected the individuals that planned them, the people that participated and the landscape of the communities in which they took place. The same can be said of the challenges posted and tackled as part of National Day of Civic Hacking. SecondMuse worked with each federal agency to identify and craft its chal- lenge so that it met their internal goals while appealing to civic hackers more broadly. A well-defined challenge statement is more than just a concept - it should have all the information a Locations known for having strong tech and civic hacking communities also participated by leveraging the weekend to build awareness and grow their already established communities. In Chicago, a city known for strong government support of civic hacking, the Smart Chicago Col- laborative supported three coordinated events, each targeting a different audi- ence. Events ranged from a Migrahack focused on solving challenges facing the immigrant population to a youth-focused hackathon at Adler Planetarium that looked at innovation in science education. All together, the events in Chicago reached more than 300 participants and augment- ed regularly scheduled meetups between the city and civic hackers. In Palo Alto, known for it’s tech and startup communi- ties, the city’s Chief Information Officer hosted a block party that drew more than
22. hackforchange.org 21 ground running when the event begins, from summary and background, to re- quirements, use cases, restrictions and well-organized data. The Census Bureau challenged hackers to leverage statistics about every neighborhood in the nation to create useful tools that looked at ev- erything from commute times to median income to poverty rates. The EPA posed a challenge to develop an application that helps citizens locate their drinking water system, discover any historical or pending violations, and understand any potential health effects associated with potential violations. Additional local challenges emerged at events as well, based on specific interests and the personal experiences of civic hackers. The collaboration between Tulsa and Rockaway Beach around creat ing more efficient volunteer and relief service deployment following a natural disaster emerged out of specific local needs and knowledge, but it has a universal applica- bility.
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24. hackforchange.org CIVIC HACKS 23 At the core of National Day of Civic Hacking are the civic hacks that are produced. What is a civic hack? As it turns out, it can take on many forms. The most common is a software hack - an appli- cation for a mobile phone, a desktop, or the web that solves a civic challenge. But what about other kinds of civic hacks? A civic hack can also be the creation of a new community space to address unmet needs in an urban neighborhood. A civic hack can be the engagement of youth around science education in an innovative, community- driven way. A civic hack can be the emergence of a community of tech do-gooders who engage with their city government for the first time.
25. National Day of Civic Hacking Hundreds of projects were created in response to a range of local, regional and national challenges. 23 of these projects were invited to a an event at the White House where the some were highlighted as Champions of Change in Open Government and Civic Hacking. National Day of Civic Hacking weekend provided an opportunity to rapidly prototype solutions to challenges which can then be developed to a point of maturity following the events
26. hackforchange.org hackforchange.org 25 Following the National Day of Civic Hacking, participants all around the country were asked to keep working on whatever civic hack they came up with for an entire month. At the end of that month, they submitted their work to the White House who then selected a variety of projects to feature at an Open Govern- ment and Civic Hacking Champions of Change event to highlight “extraordinary leaders in transformative civic hacking and civic engagement.” Below are a selec- tion of these projects that represent the innovation, passion and diversity of ideas that emerged from National Day of Civic Hacking. CHICAGO COUNCILMATIC Chicago, IL City councils shape nearly every aspect of city life, and yet it is often hard for citizens to know what their city council is doing and how their representatives are voting. The Chicago Councilmatic, modeled after the Philadelphia Council- matic developed in 2011, aims to ease the difficulty of understanding legislation impacting citizens of Chicago. With the Chicago Councilmatic, citizens can track items of personal interest, see how ac- tive their local leaders are, and in general browse, search, and subscribe to pieces of legislation. The team is continuing to work this summer during Code for Amer- ica’s Great American Civic Hack to make the Councilmatic even easier to deploy in other cities. KEEP AUSTIN FED Austin, TX Keep Austin Fed began as a grassroots movement to feed those in need through collection and redistribution of unused, consumable food. The complex network of food donors and distribution volun- teers was managed through phone calls, but recent growth of the program made the logistics of those phone calls ineffi- cient and difficult to manage. At National Day of Civic Hacking, the Keep Austin Fed founder worked with a team of de- velopers to created a suite of online and SMS products and services to support the continued growth of the organization.
27. National Day of Civic Hacking through crowdfunding to keep the proj- ect alive moving forward. [freespace] is located in San Francisco’s Central Market District, an area of revitalization focus for the Mayor’s Office of Economic & Work- force Development (OEWD) since Janu- ary 2010. On June 1, 2013, [freespace] was a blank canvas in every sense; participants were invited to fill the walls with art, and fill days inside the building with events, activities, and programming for long-term projects. Since [freespace] opened its doors on June 1, there have been events scheduled every day (109 events as of June 30th), ranging from yoga to lectures on civic engagement to creative reuse challenges to documentary + discus- sion nights to potlucks to beta testing for environmental games. The organizers are helping projects born inside [freespace] to exist beyond the walls of the building and continue beyond the month of June. The developers will continue to work with the Keep Austin Fed founders to build their prod- uct beyond its beta testing version and they are developing a transition plan so that the final product can be owned and maintained internally. Additionally, Keep Austin Fed is working with the City of Austin’s Health Department to ensure all food meets code requirements as the operation grows. They intend to expand to other cities. [freespace] San Francisco, CA [freespace] is an experiment in cultivating civic hacks. Inspired by the National Day of Civic Hacking, and wanting to provide civic hackers a longer timeframe to seed and grow projects, organizers initially secured a one- month lease of a 14,000 square-foot San Fran- cisco warehouse for just one dollar, in coordi- nation with the Mayor’s office and a real state development agency. They went on to secure an additional $25,000 from the community
28. hackforchange.org hackforchange.org 27 They recently secured funding to keep the space open through the month of July. SHELTR++ Baltimore, MD Sheltr.org is a website and SMS service that provides people with information on how to access basic needs such as food, housing, and healthcare; and up until National Day of Civic Hacking the ser- vice was only available in Philadelphia. The cities of Philadelphia and Baltimore sponsored an App Sharing Challenge to test out the other city’s civic hacks in their own and a team in Baltimore chose to bring sheltr to their city. In addition to expanding the service to a new city, the combined Philadelphia and Baltimore teams expanded Sheltr’s current func- tionality. The combined teams achieved three objectives during National Day of Civic Hacking: The service was expanded from Philadelphia to Baltimore through strong event collaboration, a new SMS request interface was added, and the web interface was updated. Currently they are building out the database of information for Baltimore and creating the team that will sustain Sheltr’s service over time. WHAT’S GOING ON Philadelphia, PA As in many other cities across the nation, the budget in Philadelphia for out-of- school-time activities is dwindling in the face of overall fiscal struggles. Despite these struggles, there is still high demand for afterschool and summer programs, but up-to-date information on such pro- grams is difficult to find. What’s Going On is a crowdsourced, then verified, one- stop-shop for all information on these programs. By collecting all information at one central hub parents can find informa- tion on what they’re seeking (arts, STEM, or athletics) quickly; the team recognized that the many Philadelphia families without access to the internet at home are restricted to time-limits on public com- puters and cannot waste time filtering through outdated information. What’s Going On plans to continue to build out their site and provide information on safe,
29. National Day of Civic Hacking New Orleans, LA. In New Orleans, over 50% of the murders with known causes happen as the result of conflicts - conflicts that may have been squashed if someone had known of and mediated the issue. There is a proven, existing phone service that matches respected community individuals (by slang known as “OGs”) with the people in conflict to mediate the dispute, and at National Day of Civic Hacking, one of the OGs shared his story of stopping a conflict (known as stopping the beef) before it resulted in violence. He was a local restaurant owner/rapper that had been alerted of a conflict and was able to mediate before the situation escalated. This resulted in the National Day of Civic Hacking challenge to create an online pro- gram that would supplement the phone reporting / matching program. During the hackathon and in the weeks following the productive activities that will keep kids off of the streets. GRUBB.IO Denver, CO. The idea for Grubb.io is to assist people to find locally produced, high quality food. The app includes: a farmer’s market search, a business planning tool, a food seasonality database, and the ability to find healthy recipes for the local, seasonal foods. Grubb.io creates a direct connection between growers and consumers, small producers can expand their reach and deliver more high quality food to their com- munities. Since the hackathon, the team has continued to expand and improve Grubb.io. Within the next few weeks, they plan to de- liver a world class product that will change the communities everywhere by making locally sourced food accessible, marketable, and easy to find. STOP BEEF
30. hackforchange.org hackforchange.org 29 e team created a website where “beef” can be reported, a web location where “OGs” can register, and they integrated a system that searches individuals’ social networks to find the best mediators for the reported dispute. The team worked with New Orleans Ceasefire, the phone service/ system, and the Mayor’s Office during the weekend to build and troubleshoot the app. They also attended a basketball tour- nament to get input on customizing the app for the targeted audience. The team is now seeking a grant to continue build- ing and promoting the project. MSPBUS.ORG Minneapolis, MN This website was developed in Minne- sota because there was a need for people to better understand bus schedules. The team lead had lived previously in Seattle and was eager to bring public transporta- tion solutions to his new home in Min- neapolis where public transportation is not as popular. Due to extreme winter weather, long waits at the bus stop are enough to deter public transportation use and can even be deadly if cold enough. The team developed a working website in the course of the weekend and have since expanded the capabilities. More than 1,100 unique visitors have visited the site, and the team is in discussions with the Minneapolis CIO to integrate the site with the Metro Transit site. PARKS, TRAILS, WATERWAYS MAPPING AREA Akron, OH The team members on this project rec- ognized that in their Ohio County there were many parks but there was no single resource for finding local hiking trails. They discovered that this information did exist in an electronic format for the Cleveland MetroParks and so they col- laborated to make the work open source and added other Ohio regions. During the National Day of Civic Hacking the team established a prototype for Sum- mit County, Ohio that allows users to find parks and trails based on a number of filters including distance, feature, activity, and featured routes and places.
31. National Day of Civic Hacking ship with government. OPEN SEARCH AND RESCUE Tulsa, OK The Open Search and Rescue app was built with input from OpenFEMA in the weeks immediately following the tragic tornadoes in Moore, Oklahoma. Tulsa civic hackers shifted the focus of their event for National Day of Civic Hacking to use their software talents to benefit Moore following the deadly tornadoes. They coordinated with an OpenFEMA representative, representatives from the Tulsa Fire Department, the Oklahoma All Hazard Incident Management Team, and the leader of Oklahoma Task Force 1 - the first Urban Search & Rescue team deployed to Moore to build the app. In the course of the weekend they developed prototype web applications for automati- cally notifying and mobilizing task forces, and electronically mapping searched Once the user chooses a destination they can get directions by car, transit, or foot to the location, and share that map with friends via email or social media. The team is going to continue to work with the Cleveland Me- troParks to keep the databases consistent and to continue to develop the content and capa- bility of the site. REWRITE OAKLAND Oakland, CA Oakland Answers is based on a prototype developed in Honolulu originally, but Oakland found a need that this app would address. The task was to build a new website for the city that gives people a simple way to find answers to common questions for city government. Future plans for the site include giving citi- zens the ability to contribute to the site. 25% of participants were city employees including city staff, librarians, tech developers, design- ers, retirees, and local advocates. It demon- strates that great civic hacks are in partner-
32. hackforchange.org hackforchange.org 31 and electronically mapping searched ar- eas to avoid duplicating efforts. The proj- ect evolved after the National Day of Civic Hacking when OpenFEMA connected the Tulsa Hackers with the Rockaway Beach, NY hackers who had developed a similar tool following Hurricane Sandy. The teams merged their efforts and are now using the strongest work from both locations. Development is ongoing as the teams are working with weather stations to incorporate data, and discussions are happening to potentially incorporate drones that will provide aerial views of emergency areas immediately after disas- ter strikes. URBAN FRUIT.LY Los Angeles, CA Urbanfruit.ly was designed in develop- ment with the city of Los Angeles. The website and mobile application will facilitate neighbors exchanging fruits in a peer-to-peer network. Linking urban gardeners in a local exchange network Ur- banfarm.Ly will reduce the carbon foot- print of food delivery, and support healthy food choices for local citizens. The web- site was scheduled to go live on June 30, but as of now is not. In the spirit of open innovation, the civic hacks that have been submitted were encouraged to release their work under an open source license and to be available online for public access. The projects here are intended to be iterated upon, redeployed, and constantly improve as other civic hackers pick up and adapt these ideas and tools for their own communities, but as of now is not yet up and running
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34. hackforchange.org CIVIC HACKING: LOOKING FORWARD 33 Solving the myriad of complex civic challenges we face requires collaboration between governments, private companies, the nonprofit sector and, most im- portantly, the communities who ultimately face these challenges. Civic hacking represents collaboration in action. We have seen the impact that National Day of Civic Hacking can have, so what does the future bring for solving complex challenges with civic hacking? National Day of Civic Hacking demonstrated that collaboration on a mass scale can be achieved and to great effect, engaging thousands of individuals at al- most one hundred events around the country. Though this mass scale represents an unprecedented accom- plishment in the civic hacking space, it is important to remember that civic hacking can be adapted to a variety of scales and purposes.
35. National Day of Civic Hacking Collaboration between government, private compa- nies, and communities is essential in order to solve the complex social challenges we face. Civic hacking benefits greatly from coordinated hacking events and will reach the next level of im- pact by leveraging opportunities to sustain, mature and accelerate the high potential projects emerging from such events. This model for civic hacking and engagement can be replicated by organizations and communities both large and small.
36. hackforchange.org hackforchange.org hackforchange.org 35 Government agencies have engaged com- munities of innovators through focused initiatives relating specifically to their interest and expertise, such as NASA’s International Space Apps Challenge. Companies, such as Intel, have also cre- ated their own civic hacking programs. Intel’s CodeForGood initiative engages employees with nonprofits to solve social impact challenges pertaining to educa- tion. Organizations like Code for America con- tinue to work with cities to reinvent how municipal governments can collaborate with the citizens they serve to solve local civic issues. These examples and more demonstrate that this model for civic hacking is one that can be replicated to the benefit of a wide range of communi- ties, organizations and governments. It is also important to recognize that civic hacking events in and of themselves don’t solve these challenges. Civic hacking is a tool that can be employed in a process of change and innovation, one that is bol- stered by effective partnerships, strong understanding of problems, and meth- ods to sustain and accelerate ideas that emerge from civic hacking events. Looking forward in civic hacking also means looking at the hackathon as just one tool for innovation. The majority of events during National Day of Civic Hacking were hackathons that produced exciting prototypes of solutions to im- portant challenges. To have sustained impact, these prototypes must grow into mature projects with established users and developers, and resource stability. The projects detailed in this report show a great deal of promise in these areas. Taking civic hacking to the next level of impact, however, means supporting efforts to sustain, mature and accelerate these high potential projects that emerge from civic hacking events and communities.
37. National Day of Civic Hacking
38. hackforchange.org CREDITS 37 This report was written by SecondMuse. The design and layout was created by the Phuse. National Day of Civic Hacking was made possible by: National Sponsors: Intel, Rally Software, Edelman, Socrata, Elance, and Code For Good. Strategic and Operational Lead: SecondMuse Organizing Partners: Code for America, Innovation Endeavors, Random Hacks of Kindness We would also like to acknowledge the hundreds of event organizers, local sponsors, volunteers, local governments and participants that made this event possible.
39. National Day of Civic Hacking Bureau of Economic Analysis Census Bureau Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Department of Energy Department of Labor Department of Transportation EPA FEMA HHS HUD IMLS, National Archives and Records Administration NASA National Endowment for the Arts National Science Foundation Peace Corps State of Maryland State of Nevada State of New York State of Washington United States Patent and Trademark Office USAID USDA Veteran Affairs Center for Innovation White House Office of Digital Strategy White House Office of Science and Technology Policy ” GOVERNMENT AGENCIES
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