Code for America is a network of people making government work for the people, by the people, in the 21st century. They are a non-partisan, non-political organization that brings technical talent to civic service that doesn’t naturally attract enough of it.

The organization began by enlisting technology and design professionals to work with local governments in the United States in order to build public-service tools and promote openness, participation, and efficiency in government. It has since grown into a cross-sector network of practitioners of civic innovation and a platform for “civic hacking.”

In 2014 I reviewed an impressive start-up created out of a Code for America hackathon, Textizen. Its great to see how Code for America has grown since then.

Code for America Brigades are volunteer groups that work on local issues to help make government work better for everyone. Over 5,000 people in the US are involved in a Code for America Brigade. We’re exited to be working with our local Code for America Brigade,  Code for Orlando at TADHack-mini Orlando.

Code for Orlando brings the community together to improve central Florida in ways government doesn’t. Volunteers from various disciplines are committed to using their technical talents to make a difference in the way the community, visitors, and local government experience Orlando.

Code for Orlando foremost aims to fix problems in one of Code for America’s three Focus Groups: Safety and Justice, Economic Welfare, and Healthy communities. You can read more about the focus groups here: https://www.codeforamerica.org/what/focus-areas.

Allowing the TADHack teams to choose from a broad focus area gives them the freedom to explore a wide range of issues facing our communities. They suggest that teams also use local open/public data sets to try to solve problems. There are several sources below.

City of Orlando Open Data Portal:
https://data.cityoforlando.net/

City of Orlando GIS data:
http://www.cityoforlando.net/gis/gis-data-download/

Orange County GIS Data:  ftp://ftp.onetgov.net/divisions/Infomap/pub/GIS_Downloads/FTP%20Shapefiles/

White House Open Data:
https://www.data.gov/

So for teams hacking in Orlando, use the TADHack sponsors’ APIs, follow the Code for Orlando focus areas and data sets above, and contact <codefororlando@gmail.com> with your ideas or questions.

A weekend spent hacking at TADHack-mini Orlando not only promotes your ideas and skills to many US enterprises through Enterprise Connect, you also make a difference in Orlando!

Code for Orlando
Co-Captains Erin Denton & Andrew Kozlik
codefororlando@gmail.com
bit.ly/cfomeetup