Hack for SC Coming to IT-oLogy
May 15, 2014
Hackers and other techies will be joining forces with the power of artists, librarians and community leaders May 31 – June 1
COLUMBIA, SC – Hackers and other techies will be joining forces with the power of artists, librarians and community leaders May 31 – June 1 for a weekend of public service and fun called Hack for SC. The second year event is part of the National Day of Civic Hacking taking place in about 100 cities in more than 30 states.
A 24-hour Hackathon, classes, a design-a-thon are all planned for the weekend. All events will take place at IT-oLogy, 1301 Gervais Street, Columbia, SC.
“We are encouraging teams of developers to sign up for the Hackathon, said committee chair Karl McCollester. “This is a great opportunity for student and professional developers, designers, engineers, entrepreneurs and others to come together and work on a project that will help their neighbors here in Columbia. Civic hacking promotes projects for the public good using open data.”
Individuals can join together as teams to work on a project of their own design, or they can join teams to work on projects being designed by the event’s organizers. Hackathon projects use data sets that are available to the public, but often hard to extract into a useful form. Want to let your local sanitation department know your garbage wasn’t picked up? There could be an app designed for that. Want to know how your elected official voted on an issue? There could be a website developed for that.
Events scheduled for the weekend include:
HackforSC: Development Hackathon (limit to 50) Saturday 1pm – Sunday noon
Hackers, come out to South Carolina’s second annual hackathon! Come together with other developers and designers and leverage open data to improve your community, city, or the state. Bring a team or join one on site. Activities, food, and prizes!
DesignforSC: Open Data Designathon (limit to 30) Saturday 1pm-until
Designers, help your fellow citizens better understand the open data available to your community through infographics or other media. Bring a team or work on your own. Prizes will be awards to the best projects!
LearnforSC: Open Data Training
Everyone can help improve our communities through technology! Come spend the day at IT-oLogy and learn new ways to leverage technology and data to make an impact in your community!
LocalWiki Training Sessions (limit to 30 per session)– LocalWiki is a free open-source project that lets your neighbors collaborate to share knowledge about your community. Come join one of our training sessions and learn how easy it is to provide a common area for your neighborhood.
Times offered: 10, 12, 2, and 4
Rails Girls (limit to 15) Calling all ladies! The aim of Rails Girls is to give tools for women to understand technology. The Rails Girls events do this by providing a great first experience on building the Internet. Participants don’t need any previous knowledge about programming and there are no age-limitations. All the participants need is a laptop and some curiosity. The two-day event includes a lot of small group working and short focused talks on programming, design and web. No panel discussions or podium-talks – the spirit will be informal and hands-on.
InstallFest : Friday from 5pm – 9pm
Workshop – Saturday from 9am-5pm
Hack for SC is presented by IT-oLogy, Richland Library and the Columbia Museum of Art. Sponsors include BlueCross BlueShield South Carolina, SOCO, Voterheads, Engenuity SC, IN-Rel, tminus6 and COR (Columbia Opportunity Resource).
Space is limited! Please register today at: https://hackforsc.eventbrite.com
