Hacker is no longer a word with only negative associations. This week, the White House announced June 1st and 2nd to be the "National Day of Civic Hacking" in the hope that those with tech know-how could use their coding skills to improve communities across the country.

The National Day Of Civic Hacking is organized by U.S. government in conjunction with Code For America, Random Hacks Of Kindness and the venture fund Innovation Endeavors. The initiative is to increase government transparency and civic engagement. According to Techcrunch.com, while tons of government data has become publicly available over the past few years, much of it is not truly accessible due to the lack of user interfaces.

It writes on the official website of NDCH that the event will “bring together citizens, software developers, and entrepreneurs from all over the nation to collaboratively create, build, and invent new solutions” to “challenges relevant to our neighborhoods, our cities, our states and our country.”

Activities have been planned in 43 cities across the country, during which hackers will have access to data liberated by a number of government agencies including NASA, the Census Bureau and the Department of Labor. They are encouraged to use these data to code and come out with innovative tech solutions to problems that affect our communities. While the government has specifically asked for the help of techies, anyone can participate. 

There are several ways to be part of this civic engagement party. You could plan and host an event in your local city, contribute data, code or a challenge idea, or, just sign up to attend a local event and hack. 

White House hopes this could be an opportunity when American people could “roll up their sleeves, get involved, and work together to improve our society.”

 

 

Reach reporter Evie Liu here.