2012 ‘News Hackathon’ presented by Tropo winners
The second annual News Hackathon presented by Tropo held during BarCamp NewsInnovation had more than 40 participants, half of whom were developers and the rest were journalists. More coverage on Technically Philly.
They built mobile-focused tools that were aimed at informing underserved communities.
Projects:
- FIRST PLACE Sheltr.org SMS add on: Text a Philadelphia or New Jersey address to 1-215-987-5377 and get nearby social services. It’s an add on by developer Adam Hinz to a previous hacakthon project.
- SECOND PLACE (tie): LGBTRights.me led by Philadelphia Gay News Editor Sarah Blazucki, with activist Faye Anderson, Comcast developer Mike Ball, Indy Hall’s Bula, Gabriel Farrell, Daniel Freiman, Casey Thomas and Code for America fellow Alex Yule, conveys how varied LGBT rights are by comparing by location. Visit it here.
- SECOND PLACE (tie): Switchboard: This mass survey tool was aimed at collecting information from taxi drivers but can have other application, says the original pitch from Bryan Mercer at the Media Mobilizing Project and Ron Blount of the Taxi Workers Alliance of Pennsylvania. The development team, which took on the hard work of building the thing, included Josh Marcus, and Bennet Huber of Azavea, Dan Feder and Bryan Purcell. Find the project GitHub here.
- Text Blast: The mass text-message information tool by Tim Wisniewski will help civic groups mobilize. Visit it here.
- Money Talks: Focusing on the withering local campaign finance data from Our Philadelphia, journalists Tom Ferrick and Chris Brennan partnered with Comcast developer Karl Martino, Inquirer data visualization specialist Rob Kandell and Kristen Mosbrucker to collaborate on some data.
- Councilmatic: The more flexible City Council legislation tool from Mjumbe Poe gained some ground.
5 mobile-focused News Hackathon project ideas
Good hackathons usually start with good ideas. The early team formation process often makes or breaks a crush of programming fun, so we’ve gotten in the habit of bringing together some ideas before hand.
In two weeks, looking at the judges, the prizes, the fact that we’ll feed you and surround you with smart people, you really ought to RSVP. (Hackathon details here.)
The theme of this hackathon, which happens conterminously with the country’s largest news innovation unconference, is naturally around informing communities. We want people to be smarter about where they live, and in lower-income communities of Philadelphia, that often means a mobile-focus, as proliferation of such devices often outpaces broadband adoption.
And we have some ideas that fit that focus.
BCNI 2012 Open Gov ‘News’ Hackathon presented by Tropo
Like last year, the BCNI un-conference will be running conterminously with a hackathon. This year, the work will be more focused: to help blossom creativity and leverage on-board talent.
So, you’re invited to the first Open Gov ‘News’ Hackathon presented by Tropo, which will be dedicated to building tools that help inform communities. Register here, and learn why it’s $5 here.
WHAT: Open Gov ‘News’ Hackathon presented by Tropo, building tools that help inform communities
WHEN: Sat. April 28, 9:30 am (doors open at 9am with light breakfast) to 5:30pm, followed by a happy hour presented by the Center for Public Interest Journalism. (Same schedule as last year).
WHERE: Anenberg Hall, Temple University, 13th and Diamond streets, North Philadelphia
WHO: Coders, programmers, designers and subject-matter experts, in addition to journalists and others attending the BCNI un-conference, who will stop by with fresh perspective.
HOW: When the morning kicks off promptly at 10 a.m., we’ll have pitches crafted to get the most momentum behind our work, including likely ideas based in the latest OpenDataPhilly.org data, those involving underserved Philadelphia communities and other creative ideas. Come with your own, as we’ll do brainstorming, but there will be no shortage of great work to be done.
WHY: We want to collaborate between technologists and journalists, and build experimental tools and ideas that could impact how Philadelphia better informs its communities.
EXAMPLE: Look no further than last year’s winning tool PhillyAddress.com, which allows residents to find the ownership patterns in Philadelphia by searching name, rather than only specific address.
JUDGES: Our judges include Code for America government relations director Mark Headd, City of Philadelphia developer Clinton Johnson and local Hacks/Hackers organizer Erika Owens.
PRIZES: We’ll have an array of great prizes to be organized by the size and number of groups. We’ll also keep you fed and happy!
BCNI 2011 Open Gov Hackathon results and prizes
News production and technology are sure to continue to converge. It was why running concurrently with BCNI this year, we also organized the Open Gov Hackathon presented by Tropo.
“Journalism and coding collide in an explosion of awesome,” as Tropo developer and open gov enthusiast Mark Headd put it.
In the Temple TV studio, from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., three projects, with practical roles in informing communities were conceived, developed and unveiled, and all the hard work was celebrated with prizes, thanks to great sponsors.
- As shared on Technically Philly, the day’s big win was the OPA Data Liberator, an online database of Philadelphia property owners searchable by name.
- Code for America fellows polished off the Philadelphia Mural Guide, first shared at the Philly Tech Week Signature Event.
- Headd continued work on his as-yet-unreleased side project: Philly Phinder, a text messaging service to find nearby locations of schools, libraries and other institutions.
For a day’s worth of work, ample prizes were bestowed, something we hope to do more of in the future:
OPA Data Liberator team members
- Team Captain Tim Wisniewski has earned a trip to the Glue Conference in Colorado later this month. This prize, secured in partnership with the organizers of the Glue Conference, will provide a trip to the conference to represent Philly and the project itself.
- Team Members Adam Hinz, Joanne Cheng, Mjumbe Poe and Gil Raphaelli received Tropo prize packs, including t-shirts and swag, in addition to tickets to see the Phillies play the Rockies on May 18th, thanks to Drupal development shop Zivtech.
Philadelphia Mural Guide members:
- Code for America fellows Aaron Ogle and John Mertens will each receive an Amazon Kindle, thanks to Tropo.
Mark Headd, well, he receives the joy of the open government movement.
Thanks to all who participated. Look for other hack projects, organized by Technically Philly and others.
BCNI 2011 Open Gov Hackathon presented by Tropo details: judges, criteria, data and more
Data Camp Philly. Photo by John Mertens
You already know that we’re organizing an Open Gov Hackathon presented by Tropo during BCNI 2011. As you can see in our FAQs here, the event is part and parcel in our day-long news innovation conversation.
Now we’re ready for some details.
WHAT: A one-day hacking event bringing together coders, designers, hackers and journalists to build useful apps and data visualizations with open government data from the City of Philadelphia. [Register here]
WHO: Coders and designers. We will encourage journalists and other BCNI attendees to cross-pollinate and offer perspective
WHY: Build tools that show the power of data and connect journalists with the power of coding and coders with perspective from journalists
WHERE: Saturday April 30, 2011, Temple University, Annenberg Hall
Schedule:
9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. — Registration / Networking
10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. — Introductions, overview, proposal and teams form
10:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. — Coding, Hacking, Building [Judges will circulate in the afternoon]
4:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. — Presentations / Judging
5:00 p.m. — Winners presentations and BCNI closing
Find the judges, criteria and more below.
Open Gov Hackathon presented by Tropo to take place in conjunction with BCNI 2011
Philly Datacamp, a civic hackathon organzed by Code for America and Azavea in February. Photo by CFA fellow John Mertens. Used with permission.
A big part of journalism innovation in the future lies in data and development. Journalists and developers need to come together. You know that. So do we.
That’s why we’re thrilled to announce that, running concurrently with BCNI, we’re hosting our first Open Gov Hackathon presented by Tropo. This further cements BCNI as an anchor event of the first ever Philly Tech Week. It is also a great fit to the municipal government data and transparency coverage we’re doing with Technically Philly.
“There are some exciting open government developments occurring in Philadelphia as part of the Digital Philadelphia Initiative, the Code For America program and Technically Philly’s “Transparencity” project,” said Mark Headd, a ‘developer evangelist’ for Voxeo Labs, which develops the cloud communications API Tropo and will be helping to organize the hackathon. “The results of these efforts will come together during Philly Tech Week and form the basis for some exciting announcements and activities. One of these exciting activities will be the BCNI Open Gov Hackathon.”
