Re: BRIT/Tarrant Maker civic hackathon 2014 strategizing

[Randall G. Arnold]

Just an FYI to everyone, Open Data Day 2014 is coming up, February 22: http://opendataday.org/

 

Probably not enough time for Tarrant Makers to put anything formal together for this event, but I plan to do a write-up on our website to at least inform the community.  Maybe next year we'll be ready to host a local event.

 

Meanwhile, still waiting on word re this year's National Day of Civic hacking.  Once we know the date, we need to get serious with sponsorship and social media activity.

 

Randy

 

On January 23, 2014 at 11:24 AM Jason Best <jb...@brit.org> wrote:

Randy, I’ll start tracking down some details about the numbers we can accommodate. Ultimately it will depend on the date of the event so we can make sure there is no conflict with something already scheduled. The first hackathon that BRIT hosted back in February of last year had about 25 attendees. We met primarily in the classroom but some teams broke out into adjacent rooms. Our capacity might be different given that these won’t all just be programmers with laptops - some will be brining soldering irons and contraptions. 

 

I think an open invitation is fine, especially if we want to get a diversity of people there, but I also think it is good to be somewhat selective at the same time. The iDigBio hackathon we hosted tackled this by first inviting a certain number of individuals who they knew were familiar with the problem space and had the background to tackle it. Then they issued an open invitation to fill the rest of the available spots.

 

Jason

On Jan 23, 2014, at 10:49 AM, Randall G. Arnold < randall...@texrat.net> wrote:

Hello all,

 

This communication is in regards to a civic hackathon that has been discussed for the Botanical Research Institute of Texas some time this summer.

 

Most of the work for putting together a BRIT civic hacking event this summer will of course fall on the Promotions committee, but Education needs to be roped in as well.  We'll discuss this quite a bit in person but I wanted to throw out some thoughts and ideas.

 

First, this will be our first organized hackathon so my personal inclination is to start small.  But I'll cede to what BRIT wants and can handle.  Jason or Christine, can you provide info for the following:

 

- closed or open invitations for participants?

- suggested number of participants (min/max)

- maximum attendee size BRIT can accommodate in addition to participants

 

With a theme like water conservation, I'm sure we can expect a diverse array or projects, some involving sensors and the required development boards but probably not all.  I think we need to anticipate high demand for electronics though and make sure we're prepared to support anyone needing components.

 

Amy or Ricky, would Radio Shack be interested in sponsoring Arduinos and shields for a summer civic hackathon at BRIT?  Either as loaners or for participants to keep?  Other related equipment would be welcome as well.  I could see Radio Shack being the primary sponsor for this event.  Maybe you could loan that 3D Printer, Ricky.  ;)

 

I have a commitment from Intel for a small number of loaner Galileos, I think five.  I also have a Freescale dev board with wifi shield and a Raspberry Pi I can provide as loan devices.  I'm sure the Tarrant Maker community can provide more.

 

We may want to schedule some smaller, preliminary events at BRIT leading up to the hackathon to slowly introduce potential participants to the themes and technologies involved.  That's where our Education committee comes in, as well as volunteer instructors from our community.

 

As I said before, this could be a fairly small event, but on the other hand, it's possible we might see high civic and media interest, so that's something to keep in mind.  The city of Fort Worth has some IT folks showing interest already.

 

We'll discuss in more detail at the next TM Promotions meeting and I will make sure all concerned parties are kept in the loop.  Keep an eye on http://hackforchange.org for event date announcements.  They will provide us with organizing resources once this year's national campaign officially kicks off.

 

Thoughts?

 

Randall (Randy) Arnold

Tarrant Makers

Jason Best

Biodiversity Informatician
Botanical Research Institute of Texas

1700 University Drive
Fort Worth, Texas 76107

817-332-4441 ext. 230
http://www.brit.org

 

Randall (Randy) Arnold
Developer and Enthusiast Advocate
http://texrat.net
+18177396806