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.
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.”
