Spencer Schneier
    News Editor

During this weekend’s Civicon, Code for Greensboro will look to continue to try and build the tools needed for 21st century government.

The Civic Hackathon, known as Civicon, will be held Saturday and Sunday at the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, with a kickoff event on Friday night at co-working space HQ Greensboro.

A Hackathon is an event in which product managers, software developers and designers take a short amount of time (typically a day or two) and generate a minimum-viable product that addresses a particular problem. A minimum-viable product is a barebones version of a finished product, that allows for the panel of judges to see its potential.

At Civicon, participants will have from Friday night at 8 pm to Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. to develop their product that will benefit the Greensboro community. The panel of judges includes local entrepreneurs, city employees and even North Carolina Entrepreneurship Center Director, Justin Streuli.

Code for Greensboro is Greensboro’s local “brigade” of the national Code for America organization, which is devoted to developing open-source tools and use modern technology to help improve government.

They take a four-part approach, looking to use user and data-driven approaches to solve problems in four key areas. These areas include Health and Human Services, Economic Development, Safety and Justice and Communication and Engagement. Civicon will look to address these core focus areas.

Co-founder of Code For Greensboro Anita Cafiero says she thinks the best way to begin solving these problems is by getting interested technologists together.

“I believe that if you can get the people together the ideas, projects, and work will just start to happen. The projects we look for at the hackathons are focused on civic issues,” she told The Carolinian an an email interview. She continued to name the four key focus-areas of Code for America.

Civicon will include speakers with a variety of backgrounds, including Jane Nickles, the Chief Information Officer for the City of Greensboro, and Jason Hibbets, a community manager for Red Hat, a prominent software company based in Raleigh.

Also included on the speaker’s list is Jack Hoskins, CEO of JK2Designs, a local app development company. He began the company when he was in high school, and has participated in events like Greensboro’s local TED conference.

Cafiero showed excitement at the speaker’s list as well as the diversity of people attending the event.

“Our sponsors include Coder Foundry, Socrata, Red Hat, Rally Software, North State and the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter – these groups are definitely making an impact within the civic technology space here in NC,” she said in her email interview with The Carolinian.

She clarified that she is more excited about the event itself and the people and projects involved.

“Having said all of that, I think the most exciting part of this weekend will be the collection of people. Students, professors, career developers, community leaders, and citizens all coming together to do rad work and eat tacos,” she explained.

Code for Greensboro works on many projects, and has a diverse group of technologists that volunteer for the group. They are currently working on an application named CityVoice, which will allow the city to collect feedback from residents, and tag it to the area they live to create, per their website, “a digital augmentation of the town hall meeting.”

Cafiero, who founded her own technology company named Tiny Goat Studios, says that what impresses her most about Code for Greensboro is its environment. “As a woman in technology, it is the diversity of our group that inspires me the most. We pride ourselves on our safe-space, no judgement environment,” she said via email.

She continued in response to what she is proudest of regarding Code for Greensboro, saying, “in less than a year we’ve been able to grow to over 160 members, host two big events, work on projects with the City and produce interesting work of our own. I’m constantly impressed by the willingness of our group to do more, to spread the word and to be truly representative of our mission.”

She noted that volunteering with Code for Greensboro isn’t just fun, but that it also is important work.

Another core goal of the organization is to keep tech talent in the Greensboro area, which is a challenge that many in the group note when talking to them.

“We can help build the community, to be loud and proud about it and if we do that enough, some of you will stay. We believe this growth can happen here, we’re willing to work hard on that and we hope that more of our local students come out and help us do just that,” she said in her email interview with The Carolinian.

“I would say that not only is CfG[Code for Greensboro] fun and rewarding and all of the standard things someone would say looking to encourage volunteer participation, but it’s real work – our projects will be used by the City of Greensboro,” she said in an email.

Tickets remain on sale for interested hackers, and the organization encourages people to come out and see what the group is working on.

For those interested in getting involved, their next Hacknight is Wednesday, November 18 at HQ Greensboro.