In honor of National Day of Civic Hacking organized by Code for America, the Municipality of Princeton and the Princeton Public Library have partnered to organize Code for Princeton Civic Hackathon. From June 6-7, makers of all ages can participate, using new technology and publicly released data to build solutions for the Princeton community.
“Mayor Liz Lempert and myself along with a dedicated team of community volunteers and our own staff members have been hard at work for many months to make this event happen,” said Janie Hermann, Public Programming Librarian of Princeton Public Library.
From civic hackers makers and designers to local government and community organizers, everyone with a passion to enhance the Princeton community is encouraged to participate. The hackathon will include programming classes for children, challenges to generate solutions to improve the community and workspace for hacking experts.
The children’s programming classes on Saturday, June 6 will include “My Robotic Friends” for grades 1-5 and “Scratch Programming” for grades 6-8.
On June 7, the hacking challenges will be submitted. Using gathered data on Princeton, participants will submit apps in community-building categories including Mapping, which prompts participants to create an app to track storm damage and keep the public informed using the city’s GIS data; and Sustainability, which requires a technological development that displays Princeton’s greenhouse gas emissions over time, to help the community understand and reduce energy consumption; and more.
Prior to this event, a community outreach forum will be held with Mayor Lempert, technologists and community leaders discussing the ways in which technology can improve Princeton. Hermann says, “”¦we are confident that this weekend of hacking will just be the start of many more projects spearheaded by civic minded technologists to help make our town a better place for everyone.
For more information and to register for Code for Princeton, visit codeforprinceton.org.
