24 Hour Code Competition Aims to Tackle Civic Issues With the Force of Technology
Tucson, AZ (PRWEB) July 25, 2013 -- Gangplank Tucson, in partnership with the City of Tucson, Startup Tucson, Open Tucson and Maker House, invites the community to the first ever Tucson civic code competition, Code for Tucson, on July 27th and 28th.
Code for Tucson is a weekend code competition inspired by the work of Code for America and is designed to engage passionate people and groups who seek to make a positive impact in the community. The event is an opportunity for developers, designers, analysts, and anyone with a creative mind to get involved in the community by utilizing public data and their own inspiration to develop apps that can increase government transparency and help the city better serve its constituents.
"One way to help make Tucson more user-friendly is with citizen-designed apps," said Mayor Jonathan Rothschild. "Code for Tucson is good for the city and for our developer community, who meet and share ideas that can benefit all Tucsonans."
Code for Tucson will take place at Gangplank's collaborative workspace downtown, 100 N Stone Ave, Suite 110, beginning at 9 a.m., Saturday the 27th. The event is free and open to the public. Participants do not need to be a coder to attend, and anyone with good ideas and a passion for making Tucson a better place to live is encouraged to participate.
“Most people are invested in their communities and want to be able to find a way to get more involved in making their city a better place to live. Often, though, they are not sure how they can do that. Civic coding is a way for the citizens to connect with their city government and put their good ideas to work to improve their community" says Dan Stormont of Gangplank, and one of the co-organizers for Code for Tucson.
Attendees can expect an intense, fun, and rewarding weekend working on solutions to problems residents of Tucson face. Justin Williams of Startup Tucson, which organizes three ‘codeathons’ a year, with this one focused directly on improving the local Tucson community, shared, “Working collaboratively with Gangplank’s Local and Labs Initiatives, Open Tucson, and the City, we really have a chance to make a positive impact for the citizens of Tucson.”
Before establishing Startup Tucson, Justin worked with Andrew Greenhill from the City of Tucson looking for ways to leverage innovation and technology to improve the transparency and effectiveness of the local government. Andrew is a national leader in this area, having helped establish Code for America and more locally Open Tucson. Together, he and the other partners hope the event leads to an established community working together on civic projects on an ongoing basis.
To register and find out more: http://startuptucson.com/codefortucson
WHAT: A weekend code competition hosted by Gangplank Tucson and inspired by the work of Code for America, Open Tucson, Startup Tucson, and other passionate people and groups who seek to make a positive impact in the community.
WHEN: Saturday, July 27, 9:00 a.m. – Sunday, July 28, 2:00 p.m.
WHERE: Gangplank Tucson, 100 N Stone Ave, Suite 110
REGISTER: http://startuptucson.com/codefortucson
PRESS PHOTOS: http://tucson.gangplankhq.com/code-for-tucson-images
Anthony Ford, Maker House, http://www.ArtFire.com, (864) 276-8319, [email protected]
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