The Rhode Island Hackathon is an opportunity for people to gather, identify problems and determine how to use technology to solve them, volunteer organizer Mike Cullen said. It's part of a National Day of Civic Hacking.
Participants will produce a digital map of makers and the local resources and physical assets available here in Rhode Island. That map will be used as a test case at the National Maker Faire the following weekend in Washington, D.C., Cullen said.
Organizers hope interested citizens join them to test various city and town websites to discover how much can be done online in various Rhode Island communities – for example, building permits, dog licenses and more. Plus, they’ll look at Providence city data that’s shared online as part of a global “open data” effort so people can analyze planning, finance and other data to look for solutions the city could use, Cullen said.
The hackathon can accommodate about 100 people at the State House and 75 to 100 people at New.PORT Works, 88 Silva Lane, Middletown. Registration is encouraged at rihackathon.com.
©2015 The Providence Journal (Providence, R.I.), Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
