Hack For LA

June 1 and 2 were the National Day of Civic Hacking conducted simultaneously at the White House, in 97 cities and 38 states. Last weekend Entwine’s team attended Hack for LA at Boyle Heights to hack on projects (#HackForLA). The event was held in Youth Technology Center in Boyle Heights.

The kick off had the introduction from sponsors like AT&T, Google, NASA, Chase bank, I am angle and esri to name the few. Surprise appearance from Mayor Elect Eric Garcetti kick started the event. There were over $20K in prices.

The teams got formed after the kick off and ideas for developing apps to help the community were on the roll. The use of open data and APIs were the main focus to use the data. By end of second day there were 40 apps submitted in challenge post. Judging criteria was the ability to clearly articulate what the app does, originality of idea and potential for implementation in LA or in Boyle Heights community.

Entwine worked on the app Edutunity which connects community and its citizens through education. Participation coverage of Entwine covered by KPCC

Some of my favorite apps were Beautify LA which was to beautify LA for example plant a tree based on donation,HackForJobs and Urbanfruit.Ly to name few.

The event ended with party and now its time to think what will be the next app for next civic hacking day?