Monday, May 13, 2013

Hack4LA Looks To Help Local Communities, Government

Can your software skills help make your local community a better place? Could doing some coding over a weekend help improve your local government? A local group, Hack4LA, thinks so, and has launched a "civic hackathon" where over $10,000 in prizes will be awarded to help use open data to address local or national challenges, aimed at helping out local communities and cities. This Hackathon--sponsored by such companies as Google, Scopely, ESRI, Factual, LA Makerspace, AT&T and others--is being held in Boyle Heights on June 1st and 2nd.

According to the group, the hackathon is the first ever "civic hackathon" in Los Angeles, and asks participants to pull in civic data from the City of LA to help power apps. Coaches and mentors from companies like Topspin Media, Citysearch, Beachbody, Lootsie, Datapop, and Carbon also are involved. The hackathon suggested any challenge facing the community, from addressing food and housing distribution, reporting potholes, or more--anything to demonstrate collaboration between the public and private sector.

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