Buckhorn to Host First Mayor’s Hack-a-Thon

From City of Tampa Online:

Mayor Bob Buckhorn will host the first City of Tampa Mayor's Hack-a-thon on June 22-24, at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Tampa.

"I am proud to host the first Mayor’s Hack-a-thon in downtown Tampa. The Hack-a-thon will showcase the young talent and intellectual capital that Tampa has to offer, and help us to build a better, more creative city," said Buckhorn. "In the end, residents to visitors will have access to a variety of useful applications."

The Mayor's Hack-a-thon gives coders, developers, problem-solvers, and designers the opportunity to create an internet-based application. Participants will be given exactly 48 hours to design and build their application, and can work alone or in teams of four or less.

For the first time, City of Tampa data from crime statistics to water use will be available in an open data portal. Additionally, data from Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (HART) will be available for use. However, there is no obligation for any participant to use the data in their application.

Tampa Bay WAVE, Tampa Bay Technology Forum, We Are Tampa Bay, Gazelle Labs and Absolute Mobile Solutions are sponsoring the event. HART and Tampa Downtown Partnership are partnering with the City of Tampa as hosts.

Judges will rank the applications based on usefulness, user experience, originality and quality, and awards will be given.

Alfred Goldberg from Absolute Mobile Solutions, Josh Greenberg from Grooveshark, Kevin Hale from SurveyMonkey and WuFoo, and Steve Ressler from GovLoop will serve as judges.

To register to participate or find out more about the Mayor's Hack-a-thon, visit tampagov.net/hackathon.