Ottawa Open Data Hackfest

Wouldn’t it be awesome to have a website or app to tell you that there’s an gallery opening just a block away, that your favourite artist is playing tomorrow in the market, or that there’s a vintage video game fest happening at ArtEngine later this month?

What about something that showed all parks, pools (including opening hours & activities), bike trails, canal conditions, outdoor markets, walk-in clinics and more?

How about an app to show you restaurants you haven’t been to in Ottawa, accompanied by foodie reviews written by local bloggers?

Wouldn’t it be great to have something that told you which green/black/blue bin has to put out to the curb, instead of memorizing the cryptic garbage schedule?

Or maybe something you could use with your phone to take pictures of broken traffic lights or potholes that would prepare a report for you, send it off to the city, and ping you when the work has been started and is completed?

What if… these things existed by the end of April?

Your friends at the Open Data Ottawa Hackfest want you to come make these things happen on April 24th at City Hall. The event will take place from 13:00 - 17:00, and will be held within the Champlain Caucus room. Signage will be put up at the main entrance of City Hall in order to provide directions.

The idea is that you show up and work with a team of like-minded folks to build something beautiful, useful and cool, letting you:

* walk away with a warm, fuzzy feeling knowing that your work will help the ~1 000 000 folks in town do something awesome

* have a shot at fame and and the gratitude of tons of users as the media proclaim your app to be awesome. (Students, portfolio builders and credibility seekers, listen up!)

Some of the ideas we’ve been thinking about have already been implemented. Check these out:

http://octranspo.net <= an unofficial, slick looking app for bus schedules

http://ottawatrash.ca <= an unofficial trash schedule app, like the one mentioned above (but still missing a few features)

http://fixmystreet.ca <= An app that makes reporting potholes, broken signage, etc. easy and fulfilling

We’re making more stuff like this and perfecting existing apps and sites, and we want you to be part of the process. We’re looking for more ideas: if you’ve got an itch to scratch, or dream of doing crazy things with computers and municipal data that lets citizens kick ass, then we want to know about it. Add it to the wiki: http://opendataottawa.pbworks.com

We’re looking for more people: if you’re an artist, developer, designer, librarian, geographer, statistician, or enthusiastic citizen, you’re needed. If you can build an app, test it, manage the project, make it usable/pretty, or find data/math/maps to build it in the first place, then we want you.

If you’ve just had a great idea for your own project, come and hang out with us: you’ll learn what the city’s up to, meet a designer, citizen tester, developer or geographer to help turn your idea into an app.

Ping us at @opendataottawa or email info@opendataottawa.ca to find out more and stay up to date with what’s going on with the Hackfest and open data in Ottawa. You can also follow our blog at www.opendataottawa.tumblr.com