{"id":1015,"date":"2012-11-09T11:00:34","date_gmt":"2012-11-09T16:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hibbets.net\/blog\/?p=1015"},"modified":"2012-11-10T09:04:07","modified_gmt":"2012-11-10T14:04:07","slug":"highlights-from-citycamp-colorado-opengov-techies-give-back-with-apps-and-expertise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hibbets.net\/blog\/2012\/11\/09\/highlights-from-citycamp-colorado-opengov-techies-give-back-with-apps-and-expertise\/","title":{"rendered":"Highlights from CityCamp Colorado: Opengov techies give back with apps and expertise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally posted on opensource.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Smaller governments, typically those in rural towns, don\u2019t have the IT capacity to foster serious innovation in citizen participation like governments in larger cities do. Two groups decided it was time to give back and have come together to\u00a0share their technical knowledge and expertise:\u00a0OpenColorado<\/a> and Colorado Code for\u00a0Communities will combine community, platform, and digital\u00a0literacy\u00a0to\u00a0create a hosted service platform that includes open data with different\u00a0web and mobile applications.<\/p>\n

OpenColorado announces adopt-a-city program<\/h2>\n

The announcement of the adopt-a-city program was made this year during CityCamp Colorado on Friday, October\u00a026th in Denver. To kick off the program, the goal is to adopt at least two cities in\u00a0Colorado over the next year and stand-up infrastructure that will encourage citizen engagement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re looking to do is give back to the rural communities. The\u00a0ones that grow our food, drill for our oil, and power our cities,\u201d said\u00a0Brian Gryth president and co-founder of Open Colorado. \u00a0\u201dIt\u2019s time for\u00a0us to give back to those cities with our expertise and technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Code for Communities building a human-driven platform<\/h2>\n

Colorado Code for Communities<\/a>,\u00a0a Code\u00a0for America\u00a0Brigade<\/a>\u00a0in Denver, has big plans for 2013. They\u00a0want to deploy eight apps by the end of the year,\u00a0such\u00a0as Adopta<\/a>, add 400 new datasets to opencolorado.org by September, and\u00a0get two regional communities in Denver to pass an open government\u00a0directive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As for this year, the brigade hopes to complete development of two apps<\/a>\u00a0that came out of the\u00a0Code for Communities hackathon this summer,\u00a0by December.<\/p>\n

\u201cCode for Communities is about building a human-driven platform that can\u00a0exist independent of any one person or organization,\u201d said Jason Lally,\u00a0Colorado Code for Communities brigade captain and Director of the\u00a0Decision Lab at\u00a0Placematters<\/a>. \u201cTechnology\u00a0is not an end but a means to solving community problems in the 21st\u00a0century. The only way we\u2019re successful is if this effort is owned by\u00a0many partners and individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Endpoint.co and OpenBike demos<\/h2>\n

Demonstrations of other applications developed at the\u00a0Code for Communities hackathon were given at CityCamp Colorado during the afternoon portion. First, was endpoint.co<\/a>, a data normalization system providing\u00a0information about the characteristics of your neighborhood through an\u00a0API. The purpose is to get information such as crime data, demographics,\u00a0and other available open data integrated for easy user consumption. \u201cWe\u00a0take big data and make it simple to use,\u201d said William Golde,\u00a0endpoint.co evangelist.<\/p>\n

OpenBike<\/a> was another app, currently under development, introduced by\u00a0developer Michael Lockwitz. It\u2019s an interactive biking platform\u00a0combining quantitative, open data with qualitative, user-provided data\u00a0for characteristics such as safeness, beauty, and difficulty of routes.\u00a0OpenBike was originally dubbed Team RadRoutes and it started because the\u00a0group was looking to solve an absence of information problem for the\u00a0biking community.<\/p>\n

Colorado Code for Communities has some lofty, yet achievable goals. And it will be exciting to watch them make progress and share their open source\u00a0and open data knowledge and expertise across Colorado and beyond.<\/p>\n

Extras from the community<\/h2>\n

For more information about other projects and a recap from the previously held hackathon, see Jason Lally\u2019s post: Civic hackathon inspires competition,\u00a0collaboration around planning and sustainability apps in Denver region<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Examples of the spirit and energy at CityCampCO this year include a storify by Michele Hovet<\/a> and watch this man sing<\/a> the Chinese national anthem.<\/p>\n

See our pictures on Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bonus material<\/h3>\n