Bring openness to your local government with Code Across America

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Code Across America is scheduled for February 22-24. It will be a weekend of community building and moving the needle for more openness in local governments across the United States.

Code Across America is a multi-day event that any municipality or community can join. Individuals and groups can participate through virtual and in-person activities around the country. The initiative is organized by Code for America and coincides with International Open Data Day on February 23.

The focus for Code Across America 2013 is similar to last year: showcase and connect the large network of communities who are coding across America—activities include:

  • opening civic data
  • coding, designing, or deploying civic applications
  • working towards a more open government
  • leading and organizing events or sessions

Event formats include meetups, CityCamps, hackathons, write-a-thons, focus groups, and skill shares. See if there is an event near you or get together with your peers to make something happen in your community.

Last year, I participated in Triangle Wiki day as part of the Code Across America initiative. We saw some great results during our write-a-thon, and I didn’t have to write a single line of code.

Planning and participating in my local event was rewarding for me because more than 50 people from my community came together to share their knowledge and contribute to our LocalWiki. You too can find a rewarding experience by participating in the open government movement and by getting involved with Code Across America.

Hannah Young, Code for America Brigade Program Coordinator, contributed to this post.

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Jason Hibbets is a Community Director at Red Hat with the Digital Communities team. He works with the Enable Architect, Enable Sysadmin, Enterprisers Project, and Opensource.com community publications.

2 Comments

This event is a great example. I'm curious if it is picked up by other countries? I know the Open Data Day/Hackathon is a global event, but that is 'limited' to data.

This specific campaign for Code Across America is just focused on the U.S. because that's the focus for Code for America. However, they are supporting the International Data Day and I think the major point around an initiative like this is that it should be shared and borrowed. I would hope that inspired citizens across the globe could gather on the weekend of February 23rd and do something to improve their community.

Pick and activity, get some folks together, and make it happen!
#CodeAcrossTheWorld

Jason

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