_posts/2015-04-01-govtechhack-hacking-for-civic-improvement.md
---
title: 'GovTechHack: hacking for civic improvement'
date: '2015-04-02'
layout: post
image: /assets/blog/govtechhack/IMG_4015.JPG
tags:
- events
- hackathons
- open source
authors:
- kate
description: "On a recent breezy San Francisco evening, groups of developers,
designers, marketing folks, and others convened for GovTechHack — a hackathon for civic good. The event’s premise was simple: To bring together people interested in improving the accessibility and transparency of federal digital resources for a two-day work session."
excerpt: "On a recent breezy San Francisco evening, groups of developers,
designers, marketing folks, and others convened for GovTechHack — a hackathon for civic good. The event’s premise was simple: To bring together people interested in improving the accessibility and transparency of federal digital resources for a two-day work session."
hero: false
---
<img alt="Hackathon prizes" src="/assets/blog/govtechhack/IMG_4015.JPG" class="align-left" />
On a recent breezy San Francisco evening, groups of developers,
designers, marketing folks, and others convened for
[GovTechHack](http://www.eventbrite.com/e/gov-tech-hack-by-the-people-for-the-people-tickets-16135863803)
— a hackathon for civic good. The event’s premise was simple: To bring
together people interested in improving the accessibility and
transparency of federal digital resources for a two-day work session.
Led by Cat Posey’s [Tech
Superwomen](http://www.techsuperwomensummit.com/) and hosted by
[Capital One](https://www.capitalone.com/), the event was also
supported by a coalition of nonprofits:
[Code2040](http://www.code2040.org/), the [Anita Borg
Institute](http://anitaborg.org/), [Code for
America](http://www.codeforamerica.org/), and the [Presidential
Innovation Fellows Foundation](http://presidentialinnovation.org/).
More than 75 individuals came prepared to share their time and skills in
the name of civic improvement, and their achievements were nothing short
of remarkable.
18F supported the event by identifying the open source projects to be
hacked. These projects’ contributors were on-hand during the hackathon
to answer questions, and also made themselves available before and after
the event to answer questions and accept pull requests. We at 18F would
be delighted to collaborate with any group looking for a way to
contribute — you can find us and other active open source teams on
[government open source email
list](mailto:government-open-source@googlegroups.com).
## How it worked
<img alt="The crowd listens to opening day presentations" src="/assets/blog/govtechhack/IMG_3998.JPG" class="align-left" />
**Day one:** The two-day event kicked off on a sunny Friday evening.
Participants arrived promptly at 6:00 p.m., which gave them plenty of time
to get settled and introduce themselves to their fellow hackers.
Around 6:30, the evening’s kickoff presentation began. Former
Presidential Innovation Fellow and current 18F team member **Sarah
Allen** introduced the event and fellow speakers. **Cat Posey** shared
her inspirational story of how she found community in tech, and **Jazmyn
Latimer** described how she transitioned from psychology to the tech
world — and how she finds inspiration in working for Code for America.
<img alt="Todd Park addresses the crowd" src="/assets/blog/govtechhack/IMG_3995.JPG" class="align-right" />
**Todd Park** thanked the crowd for their investment in civic tech and
stressed the importance of those contributions; he also imparted to the
room some of his tremendous energy and enthusiasm. Finally, five
presenters shared overviews of the five projects to be hacked the
following day. These projects included:
- [**Midas**](https://github.com/18F/midas) — A platform that facilitates collaborative work
worldwide. Individuals can create projects, propose working
groups, or assemble "tiger teams" to act on their ideas.
- [**eRegs**](http://cfpb.github.io/eRegulations/) — An application that makes federal regulations easier to
find, read, and understand
- [**Communicart**](https://18f.gsa.gov/what-we-deliver/c2/) — A simplified, email-based purchasing approval tool
for purchase card holders authorized to buy office supplies for
the government
- [**GovCode**](https://github.com/dlapiduz/govcode.org) — A service consolidating open source government
projects, making participation easier than ever
- [**Solar Data Sets**](http://energy.gov/eere/sunshot/sunshot-initiative) — The Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative
seeks to inspire more people to create software solutions to the
challenge of increasing our use of solar energy.
**Day two**: Bright and early Saturday morning, participants reconvened at
the cafe, eager to work. The previous evening, each group had outlined
its priorities. While most of San Francisco slept, these groups tackled
design, development, and marketing issues within the five aforementioned
projects.
The groups worked from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., taking a quick lunch break
and also stopping for snacks. As afternoon slid into evening, the groups
presented their work to a panel of judges, highlighting the bugs they’d
fixed and recommendations they’d made.
<img alt="The eRegs group hard at work" src="/assets/blog/govtechhack/IMG_4014.JPG" class="align-left" />
How did we do?
--------------
Each project had unique pain points, and each self-selected team had a
different skill set. Even so, each team enjoyed considerable success.
Here’s a recap of what they accomplished:
- **Midas teams** generated 11 pull requests. They also created a new
design ideation that will make it easier for Midas users to
navigate the site and find talent to claim their tasks. With three
teams participating, one was awarded best bug fix, and another
people’s choice for design inspiration.
- **Team eRegs** worked on developer usability, winnowing a two-hour
setup time to a mere 15 minutes. This team won the award for
biggest impact.
- **Team Communicart** created a fully responsive [design
proposal](http://bradleyherman.com/communicart/) (and more) for
their new reporting feature.
- Two teams worked on projects that will contribute to the Dept. of
Energy’s **Solar Data Sets** (and will help prep for the
[Solar hackathon](http://www.eventbrite.com/e/sfuncube-solar-hackathon-2015-hackthesun-tickets-15720907658), April 17-18 in Oakland, CA).
- [One team] (https://github.com/tldrCongress/app) integrated **MyUSA** authentication, and also made pull
requests on the passport npm module to improve Node.js
integration.
- And last but not least, all the teams used **GovCode** to explore
projects to which they could contribute at the event — and in the
future.
Remote contributors to the projects supported the event via a
govtechhack slack instance which was created especially for the event.
There were even remote participants who were able to join teams and help
out even though they could not be there in person
## Want to help?
The success of
[GovTechHack](https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=%23GovTechHack&src=typd)
— the bugs fixed, features improved, and awareness raised — was not only
inspiring, but it made substantial contributions to the five projects
featured. In fact, three of these five projects are live, meaning
they’ll benefit immediately from participants’ contributions.
These projects (and others!) could use some additional TLC, though. If
you have extra time and want to help your country from the comfort of
your home (or favorite coffee shop), visit
[GovCode](https://www.govcode.org/), where you’ll find a host of
federal projects you can work on.
You can also visit [18F’s GitHub page](https://github.com/18F) and
filter issues by the Help Wanted tag, which will bring up (you guessed
it) tasks each project needs help with.
Thanks to all the participants — both in San Francisco and those who
participated from New York and Michigan — who made GovTechHack an
enormous success. We'll see you at the next hackathon!