Macon will host one of over 100 events taking place throughout the U.S. (and beyond) on May 31 and June 1 as part of National Day of Civic Hacking. Sponsored by Intel, this is a significant opportunity for government agencies, businesses, nonprofits and civically-engaged individuals to work together to solve complex social problems. Thousands of participants are expected to gather across the globe to leverage new data sets from local and federal agencies to create impactful, technology-based tools and services. The initiative is based on a variety of event models including hackathons, unconferences, block parties, maker events and [freespaces]s. As this is a grassroots initiative, local organizers such as the Technology Association of Georgia, Community Foundation of Central Georgia, the Knight Foundation and Mercer are adapting these models to create their own, unique experiences. 

Participants gathering at the Mercer University, Science and Engineering Building, Peyton Anderson Auditorium will use their diverse expertise and entrepreneurial spirit to make an impact on the middle Georgia market.  Numerous participating government agencies include NASA, the Census Bureau, Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Institutes of Health and Peace Corps.

The event is a call to action for anyone in location who wants to make an impact; anyone can get involved, irrespective of professional experience. Projects can address any challenge facing the community: from a mobile app drivers can use to report potholes, to platforms that address food and housing distribution for those in need. The civic hacking event at Mercer will illustrate the power of open government practices, particularly where data is readily available to support meaningful collaboration between the public and private sectors. 

National Day of Civic Hacking will bring together citizens, software developers, and entrepreneurs to collaboratively create new solutions using publicly-released data, code and technology at events all across the nation.  Communities that participate are able to leverage the expertise and entrepreneurial spirit of those outside of government to drive meaningful, technology-based solutions to solve issues that are important to their communities.

“Civic hackers are engineers, software developers, designers, entrepreneurs, activists and concerned citizens who collaborate with the government and others to invent ways to improve quality of life in their communities,” Tino Mantella, TAG President and CEO, said in a statement. “TAG is proud to unite Georgia’s technology community and I strongly urge Atlanta’s best and brightest to participate in this endeavor.”

Registration information

For more information on the Mercer event, visit:  http://bit.ly/GANatlCivicHacking

For more information about the national initiative, visit: http://hackforchange.org/

To view some of the challenges to be addressed at National Day, visit: http://www.hackforchange.org/challenges 

Local Organizer(s) Contact Information

Stephen Finney at [email protected]

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