Attention community leaders, government officials, developers, coders, and all interested citizens! The National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC) with the support of the Knight Foundation has launched its second annual Civic Data Challenge and is looking for participants to submit ideas and build projects that use civic data to meet community needs.
The Civic Data Challenge turns the raw data of ‘civic health’ into useful applications and visualizations that have direct impact on public decision-making. Through the Challenge, participants will bring new minds and skill sets to the field of civic health, with the purpose of making data-driven community insights more valuable and accessible. In order to achieve an exceptional level of real-world usefulness, designers, data scientists, researchers, and application developers will collaborate with local leaders and respond to the needs of specific communities or social issues.
This year, the Challenge has been divided into three separate stages: Ideation, Creation, and Implementation. The challenge begins with the Ideation phase (April 11 – May 19) in which participants will identify community needs and brainstorm and share ideas for how to address these needs using civic data. Ideas will then be developed in the Creation phase (May 24 – July 28), where participants will collaborate with a community partner to build and submit an actual entry for the contest that is informed by civic health data. Finally, participants will pilot their products in the community during the Implementation phase (August/September – November 15).
Civic Data Challenge winners will be eligible for prizes to be announced soon. Prizes in the past have included cash, conference passes, high-profile blog features, and access to data expertise and consulting services.
Read more on Rules and Criteria.