Some interesting news out of Quebec, Canada as details of a coupla of hackathons have emerged: (Sourced via CAGlist)
Montrealers are taking open data, apps development and hackathons to new heights and a more focussed level than anywhere else in Canada right now. There has been Hacking Health (http://hackinghealth.ca/) in a few cities, and Apps for Climate Change in BC (http://www.livesmartbc.ca/A4CA/), but the folks in Quebec really ground their efforts into socio-technologies for social good and tie their work into the political process. For instance:
- Logement Insalubre open data movement (http://lim.do101.org/index.php/Accueil) which brings together apps developers, open data advocates and housing and homelessness activists and organizations,
- Montreal Accessible (http://www.rapliq.org/montreal-accessible-cest-possible/) which matched people with disabilities, apps developers and volunteers to conduct accessibility suveys and map results
- Hackons la corruption, where more than 100 developers and hacktivists came together to mine contract data (http://quebecouvert.org/events/hackonslacorruption/)
- ZoneCone (http://zonecone.ca/), which is an open source, interoperable, standards based a la GeoConnections app to navigate Canada’s construction season by integrating transportation road network data and road constructions zones
- OpenNorth, while a national organization, was created by a groups of anglo, international and franco Montrealers – http://opennorth.ca/ is the first open data non profit developing tools for a better democracy
- and Ajah.ca one of the first companies in Canada to merge open data, web aggregation data/content algoriths and data about the charitable sector in Canada and then create products to improve and aid the sector in becoming more evidence-based but also pushing for national scale research.
- Montreal Ouvert also created a Table De Concertation (http://donnees.ville.montreal.qc.ca/demarche/concertation/composition-table-de-concertation/) to advise the city on its open data strategy. They have taken great pains to ensure that it is a broad range of representation. They also have pic nic’s – http://quebecouvert.org/article/post/hackathon-pique-nique-numerique
2 geo Hackathons taking place in Montreal in the future:
- Défi GeoHack: http://defigeohackmtl.org/ (le 2 octobre)
- EcoHack: http://www.ecohackmtl.org/ (séance de travail le 21 aout – https://www.eventbrite.ca/event/7881011317 , événement principal mi-octobre, date exacte à préciser)