Civic Hacking & Code For Dayton

What is Civic Hacking?

Stated simply:

Civic hacking is a creative and often technological approach to solving civic problems.

Open Government Data: The Book

The goal is two-fold: to get technologists more involved with local government and to educate local government about what is possible with open data and open source technologies.

Who is Code For Dayton?

“Civic Problems” is big and vague, but we interpret it to mean community-facing issues with municipal government and local non-profits. We aren't interested in building new infrastructure for either group, but we will help them to open up their data or make it more accessible.

Many of our projects “Default to Map”. The map is a common mechanism for displaying local data sets, so many of our projects start there. We are always looking for more folks who are interested in volunteering their time and skills. If you'd like to get involved, I urge you to drop us a message at team@codefordayton.org or check out our work on GitHub.

What Projects are we working on?

We've got a few fun projects in the works at the moment:

• Foreclosure Data: As an extension of the LotLinker project, we've gotten access to the historical record of foreclosures in the city of Dayton, starting back in 1991. This could be an interesting data visualization with time information, but we haven't started it in earnest.
• Website Upgrade: Our site is kinda old and busted. It could use an overhaul + new functionality. It was started a few months back, here.
• REAP Infrastructure Modernization: As it stands today, one person (read: Dave) has access and the ability to update the LotLinker and GoGetProperties sites. This is silly. The sites could use a touch up, but the big win here would be unifying and automating the infrastructure that runs the sites.

Every project needs a champion. Projects without one either don't become a project or fizzle out quickly. If you have a civic cause that you are passionate about, let us know. We'll see if we can turn it into a project!

We've got a few projects in the definition phase as well. It's too early to talk much about them, but one is related to bike tracking and the second is about food insecurity and pantry resourcing. Once we nail down more details, I'll share 'em with everyone.

Other Data Sets

Sometimes, we just aren't sure what to do with the datasets we've got. Other times, we just don't have the people to make a project happen. These data sets are available, but aren't currently being used.

• Storm Inlet and Catch Basin Inventory: What to do with the position and details about each storm inlet and catch basin in the city of Dayton?
• City and County ArcGIS data sources: We are due for some good old fashioned data spelunking to determine what can and should be done with the information.