Want to create apps for Fletcher Free Library? Want to help Big Heavy World promote and preserve Vermont-made music? Want to build WordPress websites for Vermont's non-profit organizations? Join other developers, technology integrators, designers and hackers of all types for 2 days of civic hacking at Fletcher Free Library.
Saturday, October 26, 2013 10am-6pm & Sunday, October 27, 2013 12pm-6pm
Fletcher Free Library
235 College Street
Burlington, VT 05401
Learn more and register for Hack the Stacks.
Not attending the hackathon but want to learn more about civic hacking? You're invited to stop by and take a guided tour of the event to learn more about civic hacking and the work being done by Code for BTV. Register for a guided tour.
- Fletcher Free Library
- Computer Center "Green" Printing App: The library experiences a lot of wasteful printing in their public access Computer Center. They would love to have an app that will tell the user how many pages they are about to print and the cost. Many of their users don't know if they are looking at a 3 page document or a 38 page document, but they'll go ahead and print and come up to the desk and say "but I only wanted this one page". Once a user initiates a print request they’ll get a dialog box that states how many pages are about to be printed and the cost with an "OK" and "Cancel" option. The dialog box can state that "Users are responsible for paying for all their printed pages" and "Please see a staff person for assistance with printing". They have 14 computers in the Computer Center, 12 are Windows 7, 2 are Windows XP. People are mostly printing from the Internet. They give people a choice of IE or Chrome. People also print from Word 2010. They have one HP4014 LaserJet printer.
- Library Statistics App: Statistics for libraries are like revenue numbers for businesses, they are very important. The library would love to have a web based app that employees could use to submit their numbers. They keep statistics on many things like checkouts, door counts, website visits, computer center logins, WiFi logins, volunteer hours, etc.
- The library works on a July 1st – June 30th fiscal year. Numbers should total at the end of the year.
- It will be great if numbers can be represented through graphs with percentage increase/decrease.
- Library Calendar App: The library has 3 public meeting rooms. Currently they use Yahoo! Calendar to schedule the rooms. They would like to have a web based calendar app that staff can use to schedule the rooms and is viewable to the public. The public will be able to contact the appropriate staff member to inquire about reserving a room through an email link or a brief form. The app can provide information on the audio visual equipment in each room, meeting room policies, and library hours. More information about our meeting rooms can be found here: http://www.fletcherfree.org/Meeting%20Room%20Policy%20Rules%20&%20Form.pdf
- Library Intranet: An Intranet is a great way to foster internal communications. The library needs a staff Intranet where they can post forms, meeting minutes, policies, staff contact information, public service shift schedules, personnel and union contracts, and other items.
- Big Heavy World
- Website
- Music Archive
- Live Music Venue Directory for Vermont-based and touring artists to orient themselves to the opportunities to perform in Vermont
- Attendance/Sign-In App
- Discussion Forum for Vermont musicians to connect
- Music Events Calendar integrated with State of Vermont's event calendar
- Vermont Artist Directory intended for use by the public, venues, and artists to identify and connect with bands or performers for weddings, club shows, or gig swaps and special projects
- The Vermont Digital Economy Project will be working with Code for BTV volunteers to build websites for Vermont's non-profit organizations.
- General Code for BTV Projects
- Adopt-a-Drain allows individuals to claim responsibility for reporting problems with storm drains. This open source application started as Adopt-a-Hydrant, a tool that lets individuals "adopt" civic infrastructure such as fire hydrants. Individuals would claim responsibility for shoveling out a fire hydrant after it snows. The same application was later adapted as Adopt-a-Sidewalk in Chicago, and Adopt-a-Siren in Honolulu for people to listen during tsunami alert siren tests and report any problems. OpenOakland, a Code for America Brigade, then created Adopt-a-Drain based on this application. The City of Burlington's stormwater program has expressed interest in having an Adopt-a-Drain instance installed for Burlington.
- School Juice is a team of Code for BTV volunteers brainstorming ways to begin providing electricity usage data from Burlington's new smart meters in some useful and open ways to the public. This information could be used by the public, by students, and by the city to assess progress along the city's energy reduction goals. The concept is to present the energy usage data of all area schools in a way that can be searched, accessed by API and visualized.
- Burlington City Wiki: A team of Code for BTV volunteers has created a wiki designed to crowdsource information about Burlington. The wiki uses the MediaWiki platform and includes categories and a sampling of content. Importing and supporting extensions are in place (e.g., anti-spam, social networking). The team is looking to recruit writers and editors for the wiki.
- Lakecraft is an educational tool that engages youth and adults in science by gamifying the Lake Champlain Basin using open data and a custom modification to Minecraft. The ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center has been holding Minecraft camps and has experimented with using Lakecraft as a teaching tool. Eventually, every school in Burlington could have its own instance of Lakecraft.
- Vermont Open Data Forum: A Discourse discussion forum