Urban Innovation Requires a Hackathon for Everyone

An idea out of San Fransico, USA, that suggests that innovation doesn’t require money or competition, and that with collaboration, anything is possible.

As their name suggests, the Grey Area Foundation for The Arts (GAFFTA) understands that the best solutions are not black and white, they come from the gray area - the space of overlapping interest in common problems and solutions. As part of their Summer of Smart series, GAFFTA created what they called a “Hackathon for Everyone” to unite urbanists, artists, journalists, scientists, communicators, business and civic minds, and more to join leading developers and designers in prototyping and building ways to improve life for all citizens of San Francisco – and eventually, beyond.

The concept is both simple and daunting - During the Hackathon you have 24 hours to develop, design, and build a project that addresses a theme - in this case community development and public art - in a creative way. After setting the stage with great talks, participants were invited to introduce themselves and something they might want to work on. Everything from geo-mapping public art, to a game to help people understand the importance of taxes were proposed.

Read the full article on Shareable.net.

Added August 2011