“Hack for Pasadena” demonstrates the power of open data to solving city challenges
The City of Pasadena’s first hackathon was so successful that the two-day event has been expanded into an ongoing program with the participants. Pasadena’s Open Data portal debuted March 14 in conjunction with Hack for Pasadena, a civic hackathon that offered prizes for innovative apps that could lead to real improvements for the community.
“The incredible participation in Hack for Pasadena shows the power of open data to bring the community together with the common goal of solving city challenges,” said Phillip Leclair, Pasadena’s chief information officer. “Our open data portal is another reflection of our commitment to transparency and accountability in city government.”
The platform enables the city to quickly publish existing datasets from different sources and formats to searchable dashboards. The Pasadena Open Data site currently provides 74 data resources on transportation, city finance and budget, purchasing, public safety, permits, census data and more. The system is built on the Junar Open Data Platform.
“Pasadena’s success demonstrates that opening data to the public can be accomplished quickly, without extensive IT resources and within a very affordable budget,” said Diego May, co-founder and chief strategy officer for Junar. “Pasadena’s commitment to ongoing support for Hack for Pasadena will insure that creative apps come to full maturity and eventually bring direct benefits to the city.”
Hack for Pasadena brought together the tech community, businesses, nonprofits, academia and city officials to explore how data could be used to solve complex civic problems. Participants worked in small groups to develop real apps. At the end of two days, each group presented their solutions to a panel of judges. Information on all 17 submissions and the winners is available at: http://hackforpasadena.challengepost.com/submissions
