Andrew Thompson gave this talk at the December 2014 meeting of DVRPC's IREG group, which was billed as a special full-day "Open Source Geo Day" event.

1. Your New Partners:
Understanding Civic Hackathons,
Why You Should be Involved, and
How to Get Started
Andrew Thompson
athompson@azavea.com
@azavea
@andrewbt

2. Community! Hackathons!

3. Azavea Makes Civic GIS Software

4. And we’re also a B Corporation…

5. …so we do things like Space Apps!

6. The International Space Apps
Challenge?
 Second annual, twoday hackathon
 Globally organized by
NASA
 Locally organized in 83
cities by Local Leads
 Teams collaborate
globally using data to
design solutions to
challenges developed
by NASA

7. 9,147 people, 770 solutions

8. “OK Andrew,
that’s cool, but
none of us work for
NASA or have a
Space Station…”

9. “…What are some
examples of great
hackathons closer
to home?”

10. Apps4Septa / Apps for Philly Transit

11. Septa.org/hackathon

12. V3.Septa.mobi

13. From OnTheMap…

14. …to PHLWork!

15. Census API

16. Third Party Census API!

17. Github

18. Github Pages

19. Github GeoJSON!

20. School Transit Accessibility

21. TechCamp Philadelphia: Education

22. Schools + Budgets API from PDFs

23. PDFs…ugh! But at least it’s out!

24. Solar Sunflower: Funded by PA DEP!

25. Apps from
hackathons are
great, but they are
incidental to the
real benefits.

26. “[One of] the best things I have
heard a government official say at
a hackathon is, „I never thought
about doing it that way.‟”
-Mark Headd, Chief Data Officer

27. Think Different.
 We are all in our own silos, focused on our
own metrics.
 Hackathons help us break out of that.
– Outside “hackers” bring new people + ideas.
– Inside “hackers” from other departments
bring other perspectives, conversations.
 Collaboration sparks innovation.

28. Making Maps is Easy
Now.
Data is the Hard
Thing.

29. Hackathons Help You Prepare Data
 Events make good deadlines.
 Deadlines pressure.
 Pressure can make the difference
between releasing data, or delaying.
 Hackathons make you to think about,
prepare, and describe your data in a way
fit for external consumption.
 Hackers can provide feedback.

30. APIs Describe Data Well

31. You Can “Dog Food” Them Too!

32. Preparing Data Helps You Later
 Use your data and APIs
in your own
applications.
 Integrate with data
and processes in other
departments.
– PGW and rental licenses
 You get started by
releasing data to civic
hackers.

33. What Makes a
Great Hackathon?
How do we get
started?

34. “You get what you plan for”
 Research past events
 Plan as a whole organization
– “Buy in”
 Look for partners
– Apps for Philly Transit had several agencies
come together.
 Outreach, Outreach, Outreach
– The best ideas come from diverse crowds.
– Meetup.com
– Press Releases

35. “You get what you plan for”
 Come up with interesting challenges.
Think big, but also think achievable.
 NASA challenges each had a Subject Matter Expert
who answered questions from teams.
 Need a free, quick place to store open
data? Use Github! GeoJSON!

36. Partnership – Show up at the event!
Thank your volunteer hackers!

37. “[Space Apps] is the result of
government recognizing that we
can be more relevant for our
stakeholders and intentionally
create a culture of openness. This is
crucial as we attempt to evolve into
a twenty-first century space
program for a twenty-first century
democracy.”

38. Thank you!
Want to work with
us? We’re hiring!
Azavea.com