CityCampHNL Hackathon Rules

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Burt

We’ve been asked the question: What are the rules for the hackathon and what will the judging be based on? Granted as we try to objectify a process that is somewhat subjective we may not please everyone. These rules are meant to be inclusive and provide the means for broad participation:

Apps need to have some connection to Hawaii.
Apps can be based on open source software from other cities but need to be customized for Hawaii.
Teams can be from anywhere but need to present at CityCampHNL Hackathon to qualify for prizes.
Teams can be individuals, company employees, City employees or a combination thereof.
Teams can form now (i.e. immediately), before the hackathon event.
Work on applications and ideas can start now but will conclude at 3:00pm on Jan. 21, 2012.
There is no restriction on team size, but teams need to be clear who is on their team.
If code used is open source it should be made available to the open source community.
If code is 100% proprietary to the team it can remain proprietary.
Mobile apps, web apps, APIs and idea strategies (e.g. work on API ordnance) will be judged equally.
Mashups with external webservices (like Flickr, Google Maps, etc) are allowed.
Teams will have 10 minutes to present their apps.
Judging will be based working prototype, user interface, depth of concept, impact of application.

For those concerned about prize money. The prize money is from CityCampHNL sponsors. The City & County of Honolulu is not involved with any financial transaction between CityCampHNL and the respective teams nor has any financial responsibility with any potential awardees.

As always we welcome your comments and suggestions. Most of all we encourage your ongoing participation. Mahalo!

GIS Map Data available now

Posted on December 21, 2011 by forestfrizzell

We’re working on getting more of our GIS map data public. Here are a few maps that may be of interest for the upcoming hack-a-thon. http://gis.hicentral.com/mapgallery/

CityCampHNL Hackathon – Jan. 20-21, 2012, McCoy Pavilion

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Burt

Join us for the CityCampHNL Hackathon on Jan 20-21, 2012 at the McCoy Pavilion at Ala Moana Beach Park. Be a part of Honolulu’s Open Data Initiative, register here.

Thoughts on hack-a-thon

Posted on December 19, 2011 by forestfrizzell

I’m having a hard time figuring out what kind of data would be interesting (and available) for developers. Honestly I think its going to take a little more time to get feedback from the public (we haven’t received any specific requests) and also get directors thinking what kind of data would be valuable to put out there. I’ve learned that you have to show them an actual app for them to think about what they could be sitting on.

Have you checked out the San Francisco data page? This might be a good place to get ideas of what people could use. http://datasf.org/ If you could take a look and give me ideas I could start hunting it down.

There are a number of app ideas that are citizen focused but doesn’t necessarily need city data sets. Re-route if for example could be done with Honolulu information.

I really would like to see someone use the code from this Open 211 project that Code for America did. There is a lot of documentation and the our office of Community Service would be game to help out with info http://open211.org/#developers https://github.com/open211/redirectory

“Change by us” just opened up their code. https://github.com/localprojects/Change-By-Us Their site is a way to share ideas on making neighborhoods and communities better. Here is whay NY’s site looks like http://nyc.changeby.us/#start and this is Seattle http://seattle.changeby.us/#start.

Check out PDXAPI http://pdxapi.com/. This is a citizen built geographical API creator. Maybe this could be adapted?

There is also the open gov platform that has opened its code for building an open data site. https://github.com/opengovplatform/opengovplatform

If someone wanted to do the Adopt-a-node there is some data for current locations of nodes. http://www.kokuawireless.com/

If you check the SF hackathon that happened in Sept a lot of the ideas weren’t built on City data, they were built to help citizens out with information. One that I remember that was really cool was all the ATM’s in the City that don’t have a surcharge.

The Journey Begins!

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Burt

Thank you to all for being an integral part of Honolulu’s first CityCamp. It was by all measures a great success, all because of you. I love how the community came together, shared knowledge and brainstormed ideas. It was inspiring to see City employees collaborating with the community in a productive, can-do environment.

As the day concluded, many people asked, what’s next? CityCamp Honolulu was just a catalyst, a spark that we must now nurture and fuel to create lasting change. As Forest Frizzell said, “we will continue to have monthly meetups throughout 2012 as we usher in Code for America.”

Some key dates to keep in mind:

Fri-Sat, January 20-21, 2012 - CityCampHNL Hack-a-thon
Saturday, February 25, 2012 – Unconferenz 2012

We will also keep you informed of any meetups that get scheduled through our Facebook page, Twitter and blog.

We wil also continue the conversation and develop our ideas online. Here are a couple resources I encourage you to participate in:

CityCampHNL Google Group (Forum): This is where email threaded discussions can take place and be archived: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/citycamphnl
CityCampHNL Wiki: This is where we are archiving the notes from the sessions and ideas as they develop: http://citycamphnl.wikispaces.com/

We got some great coverage of the event thanks to citizen journalist and the media:

Restoring trust in government (Jason Hibbets, OpenSource.com)
CityCamp Honolulu Advances Open Government Vision (Ryan Ozawa, HawaiiWeblog)
Forward Thinking from Honolulu Hale (John Temple, Civil Beat)
Hawaii joins the “city camp” initiative (KHON)
Social Wire: CityCamp Honolulu (KITV)
Tweet stream (Collected tweets from the event)
Photos from OpenSource.com (Opensource.com photo album)
Pictures on Flickr: bytemarks, hawaii, madmarv
CityCamp Honolulu (Video by Ryan Ozawa)

Thanks again for being a part of CityCamp Honolulu. We’ve made a great first step and I look forward to being a part of this ground breaking journey.

Enter and vote HNL open government apps, leaders for the 2011 GovFresh Awards

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Luke Fretwell

Every day, tech-minded citizens across the country are doing good by their communities, literally geeking out about how they can help re-define the relationship government has with its citizens, using technology as a democratic tool to collaboratively empower both.

So much is happening in the civic technology community – website redesigns, new websites, open data initiatives, apps, camps, developer contests, hackathons and more – it’s hard to get a perspective on or truly appreciate the collective work of these dot-dogooders both inside and outside government.

That’s why we created the 2011 GovFresh Awards.

It’s time to recognize and honor all that’s been accomplished this year.

It’s time to say thank you.

Here are the categories. Start entering and start voting.

CityCampHNL video

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Burt

Much Mahalo to Ryan Ozawa for this great video highlighting the first CityCamp Honolulu this past Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011. We had about 140 participants consisting of City specialists, entrepreneurs, technologist and engaged citizens. It made for a great day of sharing ideas and collaboration. Over the course of the next few days we will post the notes from the day’s event for you to review. This is just the start. Our plan is to foster an environment for ongoing discussion and dialog. We have a bias towards action and that is the only way we will make a difference.