Hurricane Hackathon - National Day of Civic Hacking 2017

NOTE: CHANGE OF LOCATION TO COMBINE FORCES
We have decided to merge this hackathon (sorry it is last minute) to join colleagues from the interagency Open Data community at the Johns Hopkins Sibley Innovation Hub in Washington, D.C. (5255 Loughboro Rd NW, Washington, DC 20016) at this broader DC National Day of Civic Hacking event. We will host a future event at Planet. You can still Register here to stay tuned with more updates.

Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and now Maria resulted in unprecendented impacts on our Nation, but digital volunteers can also be a powerful force in helping with the response efforts!

Come celebrate and participate in the 2017 National Day of Civic Hacking this Saturday, September 23. This national event connects public servants, people with technology skills, graphic designers, journalists, problem solvers, and community organizers to show how government can work in the 21st century when we all build it together. Join this Hack for Change movement to do good during times of crisis.

You don't have to donate money to help save lives. Donate your time and skills to help emergency responders and managers respond to the recent hurricanes. Editing a map, mining social media, and creating data visualizations are also critical resources that can make a difference during disasters.

This is an opportunity to learn about existing crowdsourcing efforts after the recent hurricanes as well as contribute and develop new applications to help with the response efforts. The US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is interested in learning how crowdsourcing can help with their current and future emergency management efforts. This is an opportunity to show them the power of the crowd.

Representatives from FEMA and U.S. Geological Survey will kick-off the event during the talks from 10 - 11 am and highlight the federal resources publicly available as well as some of the current critical needs.

If you are in the Washington, D.C. area, the event has been changed to combine with the other DC National Day of Civic Hacking event located at Johns Hopkins Sibley Innovation Hub (5255 Loughboro Rd NW, Washington, DC 20016).

 If you are not in DC or cannot come in person, sign up to volunteer remotely and we will setup a Video Conference and Slack to allow you to participate remotely.

All skill levels and backgrounds are welcome, especially technology developers, government employees, graphic designers, journalists, data scientists, non-profit employees, UX designers, and the general public that want to help in response to these recent 2017 hurricanes.

Just bring a laptop! Lunch and snacks will be provided. Happy Hour will follow nearby.

Please RSVP if you are confident you will attend to receive more details on the new location for the hackathon. If you cannot make it, please unRSVP or register as a Remote Volunteer to stay informed about how to participate remotely.

For more information, email:  S O P H I A L I U @ U S G S . G O V

Volunteers can work on the following 3 projects:

(1) FEMA's Damage Assessment Crowdsourcing Applications using Civil Air Patrol & Drone Aerial Imagery
Register to get more information and access to this crowdsourcing application.

(2) Data Visualizations Integrating Open Data Streams
Create a data visualization that combines open data from HIFLD, social media, remote sensing imagery such as from Planet Labs, and other data streams to address FEMA's top 3 needs to better coordinate resources.

Disasters Open Data: https://disasters.geoplatform.gov/
Planet Imagery: https://www.planet.com/disaster/hurricane-harvey-2017-08-28/

(2) OpenStreetMap (OSM) Projects for Hurricane Harvey, Irma, and Maria
Various Harvey, Irma, & Maria OSM Projects at OSM Tasking Manager: http://tasks.hotosm.org/