Starting tonight in Cleveland, computer techies and community activists are asking the public to join them in a "civic hackathon." ideastream's Brian Bull explains:
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For two days, coders will be working with the community to create a user-friendly program that can track the newly-announced consent decree between the City of Cleveland and the U.S. Justice Department. The goal is to connect people with government databases that could help them follow the city’s police reform efforts.
Erika Anthony is helping organize “Fix 216”, the civic hackathon. She says the end result of this collaboration could be a website, mobile app, or similar platform. But whatever form it takes, Anthony says it’ll use information to empower people and hold officials accountable.
"It’s not to be in an attacking way or an adversarial way. It’s just saying “This is our community too, right?” And just because we’re not necessarily the elected officials or the government representation for our community, does not mean that we should not be able to participate in that process, and have an impact on that process.”
Similar hackathons around the country have helped people in Austin, Texas, find food and housing programs, and gay, lesbian, and transsexual youth in Chicago find support services.