Mayor Walsh announces second HubHacks event
Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced today the City of Boston will hold the second HubHacks event on Saturday, March 14, 2015, inviting the community to work together to create data visualizations that will track the City's progress in achieving a thriving, healthy and innovative Boston. The challenge will conclude on April 4, 2015.
The first HubHacks event, held in August 2014, focused on improving the City's online permitting experience and resulted in the launch of the innovative tool Permit Finder.
“Across Boston, government, private companies, and civic organizations are generating enormous amounts of data on what is happening in the city,” Mayor Walsh said. “I want to tap Boston’s creative talent to create workable tools that help guide City policy and operation toward a thriving, healthy and innovative city.”
Participants, including technologists, visualization enthusiasts, policy thinkers and community members, will join into teams to create insightful tools that help monitor progress toward the City's goals using data sets from the City and other partners. The City will release several new data sets through the Open Data Portal to help aid participants in their efforts.
The winning participant will have their work incorporated directly into the Mayor's Data Dashboard and featured throughout City Hall and online.
“HubHacks will bring technologists, engaged citizens, and our creative community together in partnership with the City of Boston, and we are excited to offer them data they have never had access to before such as entertainment permits, emergency information and historical parking data.” Chief Information Officer Jascha Franklin-Hodge said. “Data visualization is a powerful tool to tell our shared story, and this event will help tap the talent and perspective of many parts of our community.”
Full details of the event, including registration instructions, can be found at http://www.cityofboston.gov/hubhacks andhttp://bit.ly/HubHacks2. Updates on prizes, submissions and the data sets will be provided through City social media profiles and the Challenge Post website. Register and follow @doitboston on Twitter for the most up-to-date information.
