Hacking Mexico: Granicus Speaks at Ciudad Móvil

Greetings from Mexico! This weekend, I attended the second annual Ciudad Móvil at the Centro Cultural in the historic district of Mexico City. On September 6, about 50 government officials from all levels of government convened to hear and converse on open data initiatives around the world. Open data is just taking off in Mexico. The Mexican government released roughly 100 data sets early this year and Mexico City is releasing about 400 as part of the event. 

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A Hackathon Vet Demystifies the Hot Civic Trend

Government hackathons are emerging as the hottest trend in civic development that almost no one has ever heard of.  Some imagine it as teenagers breaking into the servers at city hall, but the truth of it and the implications are far more interesting. Dr. Dan Melton, has participated in approximately thirty hackathons. As the most practiced hackathoner I know, it seemed apropos that he demystify this burgeoning trend of voluntary government software development with an insightful Q & A.

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The First Hackatrain: Open Data in Motion

Open data, open APIs, crafty software developers, collaborative spirit, and a commuter train in Chicago comprised the first ever Hackatrain hackathon. For a total of 90 minutes, while riding the Chicago CTA Brown Line train with unwitting daily commuters, software developers created commuter themed applications. Granicus' very own Darius Tajanko, Software Architect, and Dan Melton, Deputy CTO, hopped aboard to join in the open development fun.

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Code for America Salon: Build Collaborative Open Government

If you haven't heard of Code for America, it's like a peace corps for geeks. Designers, developers, product managers and technologists serve a fellowship for a year and help 'reboot government' by building new and innovative open source/platform solutions for city governments. This year, they have teams of three to four fellows in eight cities, including several Granicus clients: Chicago, Honulu, Austin, Philadelphia, and New Orleans. The CFA Salons are monthly gatherings of thought leaders in the Gov 2.0 space who share interesting insights into their work.

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APA Session Review: Community Engagement in Intelligent Cities

Led by Jacob Smith, former mayor and current Director of the PlaceMatters Institute, a group of cutting edge nonprofit planning professionals from Open Plans, Place Matters and IBM Foundation commented on the changing role of planners in a big data and social networked age.

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Sunshine Week: "Availability" vs. Ease-of-Access

Sunshine Week translates to one thing: open government activism. It’s the week we, citizens and public servants, act to raise awareness surrounding the needs for open government. While open government is frequently spoken of as a federal level issue, start talking about it to your neighbors and you’ll realize that it is a philosophy, a practice, and an attitude that is needed at every level of government.

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2012 Roadmap to Government Technology Success

Before January ends, it’s time to build your government technology vision for the rest of 2012. Technology will be particularly critical for achieving your operational and community outreach goals this year. It drives success, improvement, and cost efficiency. I’ve put together a list of focus areas that I think are critical for government to consider.

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