MDDA sponsored hack days in 2011

[Alan Holding]

Hello

Through MDDA - where I work http://www.manchesterdda.com http://twitter.com/mdda
- I'm looking to do a series of hack days in 2011 to raise awareness
of open data, the idea of "smart cities" and showcase the talents of
Manchester's digital and creative businesses and freelancers.

The idea would be to do a regular one-day long hack day / ideas day /
unconference every two or three months. The events would take place on
a Saturday at the MadLab or similar central venue.

Each event would be around a particular theme, though the themes would
all be around how open data can lead to smarter cities.

I would like to theme the first one around "better transport
information leading towards a better environment", but themes for
other days could be around subjects such as:

- Galleries / Archives / Libraries / Cultural stuff
- Youth activities
- Citizen Engagement

This list of themes isn't set, so your input is needed.

The events would be used to promote the use of Data GM and open data
to local authorities and hopefully get them to release data around
each theme for use at the event and to encourage local authorities and
others in the public sector to identify products and services which
could benefit from involving the developer community.

MDDA would take care of the logistics - pay for room hire,
refreshments, set up blog, look for sponsors for goodies - though I
would like help on the sponsorship side as that is all new to me - and
be there on the day to facilitate, tweet and such.

I'm thinking of doing the first one on Saturday 12 March. Then maybe
the second Saturday every two or three months.

What do you think?

If I get enough interest over the next few days I'll book the MadLab
out for the first one and we'll take it from there.

Please note that I am off work from Weds 16 Feb until Monday 21 Feb
and will be offline as well. I will pick this back up on Monday.

Thanks,
Alan.

[Paul Robinson]

On 15 Feb 2011, at 14:18, Alan Holding wrote:

> The idea would be to do a regular one-day long hack day / ideas day /
> unconference every two or three months. The events would take place on
> a Saturday at the MadLab or similar central venue.

What kind of numbers are you looking at hoping to pull in?

TYOC at its height could draw maybe a dozen people for an event like this, and that was in a pub. To be fair, the publicity for that was pretty much kept to within a few social circles, so maybe a bigger push would get more developers along. I think there will be interest, but I'm just saying numbers might be a struggle without more really compelling datasets to work with - I'll definitely do my best to try and get people interested though.

I also known Ian Moss is planning to start TYOC up again (responsible for the code base which led ultimately to Openly Local, and the questions-asked-in-the-House MP Tweets project). Might be worth dropping him a line.

--
Paul Robinson

[Steven Flower]

Hi Alan

Good news.  Sounds interesting

I'd add that it would be important to get non-developer stakeholders involved in these days to help formulate and test out ideas and use cases

Also - whilst I understand the weekend thing, weekends are not always the best time.  Discuss!

The people at Scraperwiki might be good to speak to, as they've been holding days around their platform for the past few months - during weekdays too

Thanks

Steven

--
====================
Steven Flower
substance.
3rd Floor, Fourways House
57 Hilton Street
Manchester, M1 2EJ

skype/twitter, etc: stevieflow

Check our Substance conference on March 4th:
http://www.anewballgame.substance.coop/

[Paul Robinson]

On 16 Feb 2011, at 12:25, Steven Flower wrote:

> Also - whilst I understand the weekend thing, weekends are not always the best time. Discuss!

If you want developers there, it has to be a weekend. The vast majority simply can't afford to take a day off for a hack day, and very, very few will be lucky enough to have bosses who are prepared to let them work on this stuff on company time.

There's a reasonable tradition over the last 5-10 years of developer hack days kicking off on a Saturday. Some run overnight into two days, but a 1-dayer will be enough for most people, I expect.

--
Paul Robinson

[Alan Holding]

I'm really guided by you on what day you want. My only concern there
is if Saturday's would exclude people who'd be more available during
the week, such as local authority staff. However, given that I want to
get them started we could look at doing the first one on a Saturday,
see the reaction and then change things if needed. I could always
arrange a separate 'awareness raising day' in the week for interested
local authority staff.

As for numbers… As many as possible, given the space of constraints of
the venue. If we're looking at MadLab ground floor then that's, what,
20-40? Ideally I'd like not just coders but people with ideas to turn
up. The days could follow an unconference style where people with
ideas mix with coders and play with the available data around a theme.

I've spoken to Ian Moss via Twitter and he has indicated that the hack
days would be useful for The Year of Collaboration.

Ben Gibbs said that giving people at least four weeks notice is a good
idea, so that means the first one around first week in April?

We do it around transport data?

On a Saturday at the MadLab?

What do you think?

Thanks,
Alan.

[Ric Roberts]

A transport-data-related hack day sounds good, and MadLab would be a
great place to hold it. The 12th of March is about 3 weeks away,
which I guess might be a bit short notice for some.

What exactly are we hoping to get out of the day? Do we need define
something more focused, or are we happy with people just rocking up
and doing what they like? And what's in it for those participating?

I agree with Paul that we're more likely to get developers to attend
on a Saturday. Would the stakeholders who stand to benefit from the
output of the day be happy to attend a weekend event? I realise that
it might not be part of their culture, and that we might need to work
on raising awareness etc. If this proves tricky I'd be happy to do it
on a weekday (given enough notice), as I work for myself and have a
specific interest in this area.

In fact, my colleague is helping to organise a Scottish Linked Data
hack day this week in Glasgow (http://
scottishlinkeddatahackday.eventbrite.com/) and we're donating hosting
on our "PublishMyData" Linked Data publishing platform to help with
getting the data online in a re-usable, query-able format on the day
itself.

We've been planning on sorting out some Manchester-themed Linked Data
for a while, and this event sounds like a good place to get started on
that! A couple of us from my company could turn up and lead an effort
along these lines, and donate hosting on our platform if people are
interested.

I'm planning meeting up with Ian Moss later this week, and I'm also
planning on coming to the ODM meet-up this week if anyone wants to
chat about this.

Cheers!
Ric
(I'm a coder, but I sometimes have ideas too).

[Alan Holding]

On Feb 21, 7:34 pm, Ric Roberts <r...@swirrl.com> wrote:

>> (I'm a coder, but I sometimes have ideas too)

Heh. Sorry about that. :)

[Ric Roberts]

Just wondering... Has the date been decided for this yet?

[Alan Holding]

Sorry for quietness on my part. Covering for staff who are off at the
moment so this was pushed down the list.

I'm going to confirm the date by the end of this week. Looking at
early April.

[Alan Holding]

OK - I'm looking at Saturday 9 April at the MadLab (http://
madlab.org.uk) for a transport themed open data hack day.

If there's no big issues with that date then I'll start with the
official promotion of it next week.

Ta,
Alan.

[Julian Tait]

Let's do it.

I think it is going to be fun

J

Julian Tait
Open Data Cities and Social Sensing

M: 44 (0)7802 851 394
Skype: Julianlstar

FutureEverything - Innovation Lab and award winning global festival of art, music and ideas.

FutureEverything 2011
11-14 May, Manchester UK

http://www.futureeverything.org

Twitter: @FuturEverything
Tag: #futr

[Sam Smith]

that's the same day as the linkedgov.org hack weekend on public data in London...

Sam

--
Despair: It's always darkest just before it goes pitch black

[Ric Roberts]

Yeah, it might be better to avoid the clash with that LinkedGov hack day (http://www.hackcamp.org.uk/), as people (including me) might be interested in attending both events.

[Ric Roberts]

Saying that, I'd obviously favour the Manchester one if it came down to it ;) ...But they'll be aiming to attract a similar crowd.

[Jag Gill]

We're having a Transport Hack Day in Sheffield on 2 Apr. If that date works for folks at ODM/MadLab it might be nice to do some cross-Pennines hacking, or at least have teams connected across the hills to share ideas/issues and all that kind of stuff over the ether. 

If that date doesn't work out for a combo-northern hack, all folks are welcome to join us in sunny Yorkshire anyway. :-)

Details are at http://transporthackday1104.eventbrite.com/.

Cheers

Jag

On 9 March 2011 13:50, Ric Roberts <r...@swirrl.com> wrote:

Yeah, it might be better to avoid the clash with that LinkedGov hack day (http://www.hackcamp.org.uk/), as people (including me) might be interested in attending both events.

--

Jag Gill

The GIST Foundation

skype: jag-gill

phone: +44 7968 948527

web: http://thegisthub.net | @gistwire

twitter: @jagusti

The GIST Foundation :  grassroots | innovation | society | technology 

We are a charitable company limited by guarantee registered in England & Wales: Company No 07137363. 

Registered office: Enterprise Zone, Portobello, Sheffield, England, S1 4DP.

 

The contents of this email are confidential to the addressee and are intended solely for the recipients use. If you are not the addressee, you have received this email in error. Any disclosure, copying, distribution or action taken in reliance on it is prohibited and may be unlawful.  Any opinions expressed in this email are those of the author personally and not The GIST Foundation  who do not accept responsibility for the contents of the message. 

[Alan Holding]

Given the clash, how about the 2nd then? I'll need to check with
MadLab if we can grab the space.

[Ric Roberts]

Personally, I can't do the 2nd as I've already got something else planned.  I'd really like to come along though - I hope to have some Linked GMPTE data ready (amongst other Manchester data) ready by then for everyone to play with. 

I can do any weekend from the 9th onwards (tbh, the 9th is pretty actually good for me, despite the clash).

... but we should obviously do it on a day that everyone else is happy with.

[Julian Tait]

Is there many people who are going to go to London? It is a mighty schlep and the data that we'll be looking at is GM Data.

On another note I have had a meeting with GMPTE and we are going to have some cool new data just for this. Although I am not too sure what yet.

Cheers

Julian

Julian Tait

[Yuwei Lin]

Hi Alan and all,

2nd April would be great. My colleagues have developed a locative media
website called http://www.maxamundo.com/cms/index.php (based on
openstreetmap data). We think there's great potential for Maxamundo to
be used for visualising or re-purposing open data. We will be hosting a
number of events on Saturdays to engage potential users of this
platform. If you are going to have this hack day on 2 April, we'll be
there. Please keep us informed of the details.

Cheers.

Best wishes,
Yuwei

--
Yuwei Lin | yuwei at ylin dot org
http://www.ylin.org

[Alan Holding]

OK, if 2nd not good as too close and 9th has clashes what about Sat
16th April?

I'd like to fix the date by the end of today if possible then I can
get started on promotion.

[Alan Holding]

Forget everything I just said. I'm going round in circles.

** 9th April at MadLab is when it's going to be. Roughly 10am to 5pm.
**

I'll post up the full details early next week.

[Ric Roberts]

Cool. 

**9th if April it is then.**

I'll be there. And I'll bring some people along :)