This Saturday, May 21st, is “CityCampMadison”
http://citycamp.barcampmadison.org/
The idea behind a CityCamp is to bring together people who are interested in “Civic Entrepreneurship” – creating solutions for the public good, usually (but not strictly required) technologically-based. Sometimes these solutions will be viable business ideas, and other times there is no profit motivation.
The attendees will be a mix of software developers, community activists, and government officials who are looking to share information and experiences. For example, we’ll have people there who will talk about their experience in building an application that makes it possible to use text messages to find out, using the GPS data from city buses, what buses will next stop at a stop and how many minutes away they may be. We’ll also have people there who just have ideas for things that they’d like to create: hopefully, the event will bring the right people together so that the software developer who will build it can meet the city officials that collect and manage the data that would be necessary to create the application.
This is related to the posts I did several months ago about Gov 2.0 in Madison, and specifically, Part III, where I talk about a few ideas for potential apps. For a shorter example, one thing that I’d be interested in working on is a system to help neighborhoods track their energy usage, as a neighborhood. MG&E has this information, and while they have to be careful how exactly they share it, there’s value to finding a way to do something with the data. We’re hopeful (but have yet to have it confirmed) that MG&E will be sending people with the right expertise (think nascent “Smart Grid” engineers) to the Camp, and by putting the data custodians and civic software developers we can build the relationships that will make these apps possible.
While CityCampMadison is a CityCamp taking place in Madison, it is not necessarily a CityCamp specifically focused on Madison. We expect that the bulk of attendees will be Madison residents, and concerned about Madison data and services, CityCampMadison is interested in problems and solutions that affect surrounding communities in the Dane County area, around Wisconsin, and the rest of the Nation.
It’s not a conference – it’s an “unconference.” That is, the agenda is mostly set the day of the event by the people who show up. I generally dislike the unconference idea, but I am suspending disbelief for this go-round and trusting that, from the list of people who are attending, it will work out.
Civic entrepreneurship overlaps with both economic development and community development. On economic development, the idea is that there is value embedded in city data and software systems that could be unleashed, and as a community development it is an effort to make the lives of Madisonians and other Dane County residents better, as well as to help empower people effect change on their own. If you’re free Saturday, you should stop by!
