Code for Orlando is a group of volunteers who work to make Central Florida a better place to live through technology. Code for Orlando is the local brigade Code for America. Code for America Brigade is an organizing force and network of “civic hackers” who are committed to volunteering their technology skills to help government work better for everyone using the people and the power of the web.
They are doing a "National Day of Civic Hacking" in Orlando Saturday June 1, 2013, 1:30am-3:00pm at Voxeo, 189 S Orange Ave, Orlando, Florida 32801. Get tickets here
The event will bring together citizens, developers, and entrepreneurs to collaboratively think, talk about, and create new solutions to the challenges facing our communities (our neighborhoods, cities, county, state, and country).
- Local Code for America Brigade Captains Andy Chen and Matt Sokoloff will do a presentation on civic hacking, provide a national perspective and updates on local initiatives and projects
- White boards and large Post-it note boards will be available for participants to pitch ideas for local civic hacking projects. We want to know what you think are the challenges relevant to Orlando/Florida, what you think a solution looks like, and the partnership necessary to create that solution.
- We’ll be serving a light lunch around noon. During this time you’ll get 3 post-it notes to up-vote the best idea(s).
- If you’re familiar with an idea jam, consider this a Hack for Orlando Idea Jam. We’ll have a couple teams form around the strongest ideas (the number of teams will be dependent on the number of participants, and a “strong idea” is based on the number of votes, feasibility, and relevance). These teams will have some time to further elaborate on their idea. This time could be used to wire frame an app, figure out where the data for the project could come from, discuss who could benefit from this project, or how other cities could adopt it. Afterwards, each team will be brought front stage and center to present their idea. This isn’t a competition, so there won’t have any voting here—instead there’ll be a feedback session in which everyone gets a chance to write comments on each project.
- There will be beer, wine, and networking afterwards.
10 Reasons Why Civic Hacking Is Good For Cities
- Creates space for innovation (for government and citizens)
- Engages citizens in the process of governance and problem solving
- Spurs economic opportunity through innovation and collaboration on new technology solutions
- Provides insight into government decision making
- Enables community service through technology
- Teaches important new tech skills
- Creates a broad network of civic hackers and active citizens
- Helps citizens serve themselves
- Helps government manage expectations around technology
- Connects technology & non-technology groups together
