Tampa & St. Petersburg – National Day of Civic Hacking, on August 11, is an annual nationwide event that brings together volunteer civic technologists with local government, community agencies and organizations to work together on 21st century solutions to organizational and government services challenges. This year , Code for Tampa Bay Brigade, the local affiliate of Code for America, invited local city and county governments, and area service organizations to submit project ideas for inclusion in the 2018 NDCH event. The result: Five projects from three counties, and two locations for this year’s civic tech event.
St. Pete & Tampa Event Locations
The Academy at Suncoast Developers Guild has donated the use of their facility, at 2220 Central Ave in St Petersburg for our Pinellas County event. In Tampa, the Ledger, Brianna Bond and Covered Web Services have generously donated space use at the Industrious Office at 401 E Jackson St., Suite 3300 in Tampa for our Hillsborough County event, which is also made possible with support from a Hillsborough County EDI2 grant, and in partnership with Metropolitan Ministries and Inside the Box Catering.
Projects
The projects will be on tap at the Tampa location, for each of these organizations:
- Metropolitan Ministries – to help develop an intelligent chatbot to better direct those in need to most appropriate services
- Winners’ Resource Center – A more efficient resource for non-profits and companies to share their information with those in need in the Tampa Bay area
- Pasco Agents for Change – helping this newly created nonprofit develop an advocacy website and tools to aid their efforts to improve diversity and inclusion in Pasco County Public Schools
In St. Petersburg, these projects will be under development:
- The Greenhouse – a platform for St. Pete’s Grow Smarter Initiative
- Arts Conservatory for Teens – Grant tracking database/system
As well as other projects participants may be interested in developing at each location. Winning solutions will be chosen by agency representatives, and winners will receive trophies and the opportunity to continue developing their hackathon challenge solution into fully working models for the relevant civic agencies.
Who Can Participate
There’s no cost to participate and all are welcome! It’s not necessary to be a coder or “techie” to participate. While coders, developers and designers have vital skills to create applications, dashboards and tools, they can’t do their work without interested citizens with ideas, artists who can design graphics and layouts, front end designers, writers and storytellers. The issues being explored are whole brain problems in need of whole brain solutions, and everyone is needed at the table. Meals and refreshments are provided throughout the day, and the first 50 registrants receive event t-shirts. Register to participate at NDCHTampaBay2018.eventbrite.com .
About Code for Tampa Bay
Code for Tampa Bay is an official Code for America Brigade in Tampa, FL , comprised of volunteer civic technologists working on projects with government and community partners to help improve people’s lives. The Brigade program provides a framework for organizing a network of people who are interested in raising their hands to use their skills for good, increase civic engagement and improve their communities. Past projects Code for Tampa Bay members have helped develop include: Court Date Search for Hillsborough & Pinellas County residents, Multicultural Visitors Guide to Hillsborough County; Hillsborough County Emergency Preparedness Interactive Map; and a Hillsborough Community Atlas. Local government offices or nonprofit organizations seeking innovative solutions to organizational or public service challenges are invited to submit projects for Code for Tampa Bay’s civic minded volunteers to help identify solutions at no cost. Learn more at CodeforAmerica.org and visit Code for Tampa Bay at CodeforTampaBay.org for full event details