Civic hacka-what?

Ann Spoor //April 19, 2013//

Civic hacka-what?

Ann Spoor //April 19, 2013//

Hack4Colorado will be just one of 100 civic hackathons happening all across the nation the weekend of May 31, all under the umbrella of the National Day of Civic Hacking.

At a hackathon, computer programmers and others in the field of software development, as well as graphic designers, interface designers and project managers collaborate intensively on software projects. These events are food- and caffeine-fueled events where innovation happens and new ideas are born.

What does it mean to participate and support a Civic Hackathon?

Some people come with visions of venture funding, a great new startup, building a company and becoming the next Techstars company. Those are great aspirations, but they’re not really the primary goal of a “Civic” hackathon. Sure, it could happen. You could build an app that really blows up and you form a company and sell this app to every city, state and municipality and retire like Ted Turner.

But a Civic hackathon has a different spin. It’s about the community we live in and giving something meaningful back to that community.

There are others who come because they want an app that tells them to move their car because it’s street sweeping day, or they are desperate for an app that really addresses the veterans’ struggle to overcome PTSD.

At our last organizing committee meeting, one of our members was talking about their frustration of not being able to get live bus data to help her catch the next bus without standing around. Can you get your head around that one? You open the app on your mobile device or tablet and it tells you that the #6 will be at your stop in two minutes – better run!  

Why will you come, invest a weekend, hack, collaborate and compete?  For the challenge? The food? The fun? The comraderie? To give back? For the prizes? Hack4Colorado promises to be challenging, super cool and, if you’re good, very rewarding!

The organizers come from OpenColorado, PlaceMatters and Executive Lattice. The sponsors include some great local companies like iTriage, SendGrid, ReadyTalk, Noodles & Company, Illegal Petes, Galvanize, COIN and Commerce Kitchen. Check it out at www.hack4colorado.com. Registration is open. Come on and join the Geeks for the Good of Colorado!