To the general public, the term "hacking" might still invoke isolated rogues in dark rooms. However, in Philadelphia’s thriving coding community, hacking for good has become so common that
Technical.ly Philly is hosting an event to showcase the best projects that have come out of hackathons in the past year. On December 6, they will present the
Civic Hacks of 2013 Demo Night.
"Civic hacking is the act of using simple technical solutions to address or better understand bigger social problems," says Corinne Warnshuis, events coordinator at Technical.ly Philly. "I think people are becoming more familiar with the concept, but I do think there may still be some negative associations with the term ‘hacking’ in the broader population. To those people, I would say come out to the demo night or a hackathon to learn more about the process."
The demo night will feature five of the most interesting online tools created at hackathons such as
Random Hacks of Kindness,
Day of Civic Hacking and
Code for Philly meetups. Presenters include Mjumbe Poe from
Councilmatic and
myPhillyRising; Kathryn Killebrew of
OpenTripPlanner; Ben Garvey from
Bulldog Budget; and Amy Laura Cahn from
Grounded in Philly.
Warnshuis is particularly excited to hear from Councilmatic, which aims to get regular citizens more involved with the city's legislative process. She beleives that all civically-minded citizens can help create apps to better understand the city.
"You don't have to be a developer to participate,” she says. “Some great projects are the result of ideas from those with deeper understanding of some specific social or civic issue. I think there's a place for everyone at hackathons, and the Civic Hacks Demo Night is a great entry point to find out more about them."
Civic Hacks of 2013 Demo Night will take place 6:30 - 8 p.m. December 6 at O3 World, 1339 Frankford Ave., Suite 3.
Writer: Nicole Woods
Source: Corinne Warnshuis, Technical.ly Philly