How hackers, open data, and the internet are helping the City of Regina

Chad McCallum@ChadEmmwww.rtigger.com

“Someone who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and stretching their capabilities” – Wikipedia

Hacker Attributes:

Passionate

Hard working

Creative

Enjoys what they do

Creating software and sharing it with the community

Placing a high value on freedom of inquiry Information sharing as both an ideal and

practical strategy

Combination of Hack and Marathon Competition for teams to create “something”

with a restricted set of resources Usually has one or more restrictions

Time

Subject (language, operating system, application, API, subject matter, demographic)

Goal is to demonstrate an idea using software

A part of the HackDays.ca non-profit, volunteer-run organization

Have organized 2 hackathons with over 30 attendees and created 30 applications

Approximately half of those applications were created using City of Regina Open Data

API sponsor for both events Helping us spread the word about the event Supporting developers with their applications

after the event Promoting open data and developer culture

in Regina Prompt feedback and support with open data

community

The idea that data should be freely accessible to use and publish

From many sources, including science, GIS, academics, industry, and government

Plays well into the “hacker ethics” of freedom of inquiry and information sharing as an ideal strategy

Reducing data query time & overhead Private sector investment into dataset Company / Government image Attracts hackers & business Extra set of eyes and hands Combine with other data sets to create rich

applications

http://waterly.ca/

http://recollect.net/

Hackers are people too :P HackREGINA appreciates the support from

the City and looks forward to continuing to work with you in the future

Open data is cost-effective, great for the city’s image, and attracts valuable talent