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Guardian Article

National Day of Civic Hacking aims to empower citizens to improve communities through collaborative action.

This weekend the National Day of Civic Hacking will encourage citizens at 100 events in 120 cities to improve their communities and governments that serve them. It will promote civic hacking and open data as an opportunity to foster innovation in the civic space and make governments more transparent and accountable. Around the globe hackers, designers, entrepreneurs and citizens will work together to innovate and bring change to their communities and cities.

In Tacloban, the Philippines city that was hit by the eye of Typhoon Haiyan, community development organisers are hosting an event to focus on local post-disaster redevelopment. The White House is hosting an event focusing on new ways for citizens to sign petitions and to make their voices heard. In Columbus, Ohio, city residents will be invited to collaborate on local challenges around homelessness, poverty and failing schools and work with the city for implementation. Across the globe participants will be invited to respond to a challenge from NASA to help citizens understand their exposure to coastal inundation. Code for America have challenged participants to help rate how open cities are to their citizens.

There is no overarching theme to projects and ideas other than localism, innovation and a healthy dose of citizen power.

What is civic hacking?

In essence civic hacking is the ability for citizens to innovate and change the societies they live in through collaborative action. It is often focussed around events where citizens come together to work on challenges that will drive innovation in their societies and local communities. Typically participants are unpaid and volunteer their time and skills to work on projects with like-minded individuals. There is usually a framework for events that encourages rapid prototyping and creativity and often civic hacks use open data from government or municipal sources.

The roots of civic hacking come from the Open Source movement that has given birth to the Firefox web browser and the Linux kernel that powers the majority of smartphones on the planet. Increasingly though civic hacking is going beyond technology and involving activists, entrepreneurs and creative thinkers from all areas of society.

Civic Hacking projects can be small or large. Fix My Street is one example that allows citizens to report and discuss local problems. They Work For You gives citizens the information they need to scrutinise and support their elected officials. OneBusAway gives citizens access to real-time travel information and is available to any U.S. region that wants to use it. The common thread with these projects is putting more power into citizens' hands to shape society how they want it.

Projects can have a strong influence on cities and communities. Promptly.io, a project in San Francisco, recognised that Calfresh (Food Stamp) recipients often discovered they had be disenrolled from benefits when trying to pay for food. Promptly, a collaboration between Code for America, the Human Service Agency and the Mayor's Office of Civic Innovation, sends recipients a text message before they are disenrolled. A simple idea that helps a civic service function better.

In Oakland the ambitious project OpenOakland resulted in OpenBudgetOakland.org, an in-depth and transparent visualisation of a City Budget. The project was only possible because The City of Oakland cooperated and released the raw data behind the budget. This change in civic policy allowed a rich visualisation of the data to be created and for citizens to be able to understand and discuss the budget.

What is open data?

Open data is the oil that lubricates civic hacking and the relationship is very much symbiotic. Increasingly governments around the world are realising that making public data available over the web has huge value. Mckinsey recently published a report suggesting that $3 trillion of value a year can be unlocked through open data. Open data means nothing more than providing access to datasets but the implications and opportunities are huge.

By moving data out of Excel files in government departments and onto the web citizens have the ability to not only access this data but to extract meaning from it. Data can be combined with other data sources to create applications like visualising crime statistics on a street or discovering the fastest route to work based on the status of Transport for London and current weather conditions. Open data is liberating for citizens and allows them to influence the corridors of power in new ways. It also allows citizens to scrutinize the operations of government and to hold elected officials accountable. If information is made available there is nothing to hide.

The power of open data is that it enables the possibility that data can be used in ways that have yet to be imagined. We are yet to fully understand the implications of this as cities and organisations generate more and more data. Milton Keynes is currently trialling a public 'internet of things' network where anything from rodent traps to central heating systems will be able to collect and expose data. For decision makers and citizens in cities having access to data relating to a city means decision making can be more informed and transparent. The idea that this wealth of public data should be owned by and be available to citizens is an empowering and liberating opportunity.

An expression of democracy

Civic Hacking and events like the National Day of Civic Hacking are an expression of open, democratic governments. It is no coincidence than the United States is hosting the majority of events. With even relatively small data sets providing civic hackers with enough to create something that can change their communities the movement has incredible potential. On a micro level participants can work on issues they care passionately about and improve their communities. More broadly citizens can innovate in areas that governments and civic bodies typically stagnate in. Civic hacking has the potential to energise and re-engage citizens with politics and to shift some power back into the hands of passionate citizens.

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