Civic hacking helps us understand bigger social problems

Civic hacking is the act of using simple technical solutions to address or better understand bigger social problems. That’s something I found myself saying in an effort to better convey why open data and digital civic engagement isn’t just a distant issue for technologists but instead the conversation of transparency for today.

It was during a lightly attended panel discussion I organized during Saturday’s ThinkFest, an innovation conference organized by Philadelphia magazine. I was joined by Chief Data Officer Mark Headd, Maneto GIS mapper Michelle Schmitt and Textizen CEO Michelle Lee.

Find the questions I asked here.Phillymag has photos of the event series here.

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