Code for Seattle is a brigade of civic-minded hackers. We'll talk about how we've organized hackathons, a weekly meetup, and successfully navigated the government bureaucracy as a small group of volunteers.
This session is meant to address two things. First, we'll offer an overview of current issues and interactions in Seattle, and the ways that the open source community is successfully interacting with government. This includes the code for accessing city data, along with specific work on transportation and police records.
Second, we'll offer tips on how to start your own civic hacking movement. Which organization and communication techniques have worked well, and which ones haven't. Coding for your local community is something many of us already do, and it's amazing what can be done by harnessing that energy.