So You Wanna Hack! - OpenHackDay Tips, opendata sources and tools for hackers
Written by Glenn Letham
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
I recently had the opportunity to attend a local hackday event, this local event here in Victoria planned by OpenDataBC was just one such event of many that took place in locations around the World
The event took place on Saturday, Dec 3 as part of the Global hackday effort - a grassroots movement designed to bring more awareness to such
events. I wanted to share the experience and encourage others to
consider attending or planning a local Hack Day event.
ODHD Victoria
The event I went to, organized by the
awesome team behind OpenDataBC, billed as open data hack day #odhd was
actually the 17th local event which typically take place one Saturday a
month - if you happen to be a local developer, social enthusiasts, or
just plain interested in chasing an idea then you might consider taking
part in the future. the events are open to all and local sponsorships
are always welcomed!
I have to say, I was very impressed
with the event from start to finish. Word was spread far and wide prior
to Dec 3 so many locals knew it was going on. Some prime office space
including WiFi, restrooms, desks etc... were donated by Refractions
Research here in Victoria B.C - shout out to them! To keep us awake,
motivated, and full, some awesome sponsors provided us with morning
pastries, coffee, soda, and pizza - an awesome surprise! Finally, the
last component to the mix was the attendees. We had a group of about a
dozen local developers, novice hackers, social media enthusiasts,
government, and business folk. The variety of the crowd proved very
helpful, everyone having skills and experiences to share from a variety
of disciplines.
So what happens or what do you do at a hack day? Well, using our day as a model, we started with introductions,
followed that up with people pitching what kind of idea they had or
what they felt they would like to work on. Some brought ideas, some had
the wheels turning, others were there to help out or listen to what
people were doing - this is a great way to get the wheels turning. For
yours truly, I had several ideas but hadn't really narrowed down a
fixed project that I was going to tackle.
ODHD Victoria kicked off with introductions and people pitching their hack ideas
What I took away from the event was the networking and listening / watching people chase their ideas. I
learned about some data resources that I wasn't familiar with, heard
about some excellent ideas for apps and web services, and watched
people create and code, churning their ideas into something that could
then be tested by others in the group or pitched to them for feedback
and criticism. I was impressed with the ideas that people had and wowed
even more with how far some of them had gone with their ideas during
the day. For me, like usual, I brought too many ideas with me and had a
little trouble getting focused. I also realized that quite often we are
trying to accomplish too much in one solution, rather than getting
focused and keeping it simple. As it turns out, a couple of the ideas I
was most impressed with during the day were essentially very simple,
however, they definitely served to deliver a solution that was needed
and would be very useful. Indeed perhaps I need to learn to focus and
keep it simple!
I did spend some time building on a
previous project that I had started as a "testbed" using ArcGIS.com to
visualize some of my existing geo-tagged social data products - see more
details ArcGIS.com Mashup Tutorial with Flickr and Foursquare data
For myself, I spent much of my time seeking out data
resources. In particular I was searching for local data products and
feeds, things that are local in context and specific to our region. It
became apparent to me that perhaps there was even less data out there
than what I had expected and what was out there really wasn't very
usable. On the flip side, there exists many tools that are at our
disposal that can really help. Using visual display environments from
Google, Esri (arcgis.com)
and Geocommons I spent my time testing various data feeds and WMS
services and KML layers that I located on the web. I also poked around
with Google Code and the various developer resources from Google,
trying to identify some resources that I might use for a project once I
get a little more focused. Google docs, fusion tables, Google places
are just some of the things I explored a little more.
When it came to data I spent some time looking for sources
that I felt could be useful. Naturally, there's loads of social media
and social layers out there including Twitter, foursquare, flickr, and
youtube so I poked around, searching for ways to access and scrape the
data that I was interested in... this proved challenging at times.
Quick mashups were easily created and shared using tools like Google
maps, ArcGIS.com, Geocommons, and Bing Maps although I have to admit I
was quite impressed with the tools and capabilities provided by
openlayers, something I plan to look at much closer in the future.
Openlayers is an open developer environment and toolset available to
developers. Data was tricky, however, it is out there but you may have
to be patient... it also helps to have some good contacts! I really was
disappointed with what was available with our own local government
agencies (they really could take a lesson from the City of Nanaimo and Surrey, B.C) although at the Provincial level there was some good
finds during the day although finding and accessing what you need can be
pretty tricky - does it really need to be so tough to get at public
data?
THOUGHTS ABOUT THE DAY
Overall, our local hackday was an awesome event and I'll definitely be
back again, hopefully every month. I'm now trying to focus on an idea
and will put in some time to get better prepared for the next event.
For the community, I'd suggest that anyone who's remotely interested in
learning about developing apps and services to give it a go. Data
publishers and stake holders, I'd encourage them to attend and
encourage or help people to look at your data. For local governments
that are publishing data or working harder at becoming a platform for
citizens this could be a great pace to make a 5 or 10 minute pitch
about what your doing. Business people, developers, and others will find
these to be great networking events and could even be a place where
you can find some talent to help your business.
Tip - A Google Places how to:
How to... Get your
Google Places reviews as a feed Your rating & review data is your
own. We want to make sure you always have access to your data, in its
entirety, on demand, and in a convenient format. This allows you to
keep your data for your own personal storage or share your content
with other sites. To get your reviews as an Atom feed, follow these
steps:
Sign in to Google Places. Click your photo in the upper left corner. This opens your profile page.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and select See reviews as a feed link.
Greater Victoria Coalition to End
Homelessness, the project team created a map of community services that
are accessible by walk-in - http://ourservices.ca/
Geoenabling BC’s Official Places in
Twitter: The project team wants to create a Twitter #hashtag for every
official place in BC. Could be used eventually by http://www.pep.bc.ca/index.html
Map of Development and Liquor License Applications in Victoria
Modelled after Mapit UK, People can
input a postal code or a point such as latitude and longitude and the
app will map surrounding administrative polygons, such as municipal
boundaries. The project team is working on a Mapit for Canada
Geocoding BC School Locations and Test Results
Nanaimo Business Registration hack
Google Fusion Tables were used to visualize health trends over the last 10 years
Visualization of MSP (health) Payments by Practitioners
So what kinds of things were going on at our event and at other hack events?
One group of non-developers started a list of available icons for a food project. The list is on google docs and open so others can contribute
Mapbox maps all the legislators influencing the house ag committee and their contact info
Vancouver hackers tackled different areas. Bikes, Trash, Libraries, Transit, Food…
Waterloo region waste data into Recollect and Spreadsheet Gutter, JSON CSV service - http://sheets.recollect.net/
Search #odhd for more
SOME RESOURCES OF INTEREST:
On Twitter @Data_BC @opendataBC @herblainchbury @daeaves
Hackday - Tips, Tricks, OpenData sources, and Developer Resources for Mobile Application Developers - Hackday events are becoming quite common, many local government
agencies embracing the format and opening the doors, and their data
vaults, to local developers, hackers, and those simply looking to mashup
some data. Read on for Tips, Open Data sources, Developer Tools, Mobile
Dev resources and more!
The Really Big List of Mapping, Geo location Mobile developer resources, APIs and Tools - The Mobile Ecosystem... no question that mobile is huge and
the opportunity for developers, in particular, geo developers! There's
loads of developer resources on the web so to help the developer,
here's a listing of just some of the fine dev resources, blogs,
toolsets and more to consider when developing or porting your app to a
smartphone or Tablet.
Mobile Technology Feature - Top 10 Business Apps for Android - Android has become one of the most popular mobile operating systems
in the world due to advanced software, competitive manufacturers, and an
app market that is filled with exciting and useful applications. Read
on for this fine Top 10 List compiled by tech writer, Blake Sanders
ArcGIS.com Mashup Tutorial with Flickr and Foursquare data-
Here's a simple "how to" tutorial on working with the free ArcGIS.com
to easily import KML or RSS data from Flickr and foursquare into ArcGIS
to create your own custom map mashup.
Most Users of Free Photo Apps Say Adding Cool Effects is Most Useful - Adding cool effects
to photos was rated as the most useful thing by more than halfof
consumers surveyed using free online photography services, according to
CatchFree a free
online service that helps people find the best free mobile and web applications
to perform useful tasks.
Flickr GPS Photo Tag Tip - Here's a tip for Flickr users who want to share their GPS information
with their photos. note, in order to do this you'll need to be
capturing photos using a GPS-enabled or GPS-aware camera (see you're
smartphone hardware settings to ensure that GPS or location sharing is
turned "ON)".
Social Location Directory
Do you have a location-aware application, social location service or other location-sensitive service that you'd like to share with us? Please browse this growing directory of Social location Services and feel free to leave a link to your favorite service! See the Directory HERE
Suggested Reading
The Underground Guide To The iPhone:
The iPhone is – if I may say so – one of the greatest mobile
revolutions of the past decade. More and more, mobile phones seem to
materialize out of our wildest dreams. Because of the tight integration
of third-party applications, you can do nearly everything with your
device — be it gaming, working, fooling around, and of course phoning.
Good Mobile Messaging: Executives and professional field forces spend an increasing amount of time on the road tending to business.
Mobile Apps - Native or Web?:
You probably have a plan to build a mobile app, but you've struggled
with the basic question - Should I build it using open web standards
such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, or should I build it as a native app
for the devices I want to target?
Location summit 2012 - Back for its third year, the Location Business Summit will bring
together senior level executives from across the whole breadth of the
location ecosystem to discuss strategies, form partnerships, compare
trends and forge new business ventures. May 22-23, 2012, Amsterdam
WhereCamp Berlin 2012 - For those passionate about geographical specialties, WhereCamp Berlin
is gathering its attendees on the 22nd and 23rd of June. Everyone is
free to present and share topics, news and trends
