Are you active, observing the change that is happening because of it, but often feel that it is not enough and that the world provides you with new inspiration and ideas to use? If so, we would like to invite you to a series of hackathons as part of the Active Citizens Fund – Regional Programme. Two days of work using the service design method, ending with the presentation of ready-made solutions, discussions with other participants, thinking together about the future, with support from experts.
Active Citizens Hackathons
We turn programmers into activists
Hackathon is an event whose name comes from a combination of English words ‘hacking’ and ‘marathon’. It is a simple meeting where a problem is posed for programmers and representatives of related professions to solve. Instead of programmers, we invite you – the activists – to take part in the Active Citizens hackathons.
Knowledge and ideas and expert support
During the hackathons, you will use the knowledge and experience you have accumulated in your organisation, but also from the knowledge of the experts we will invite to each event. They will be people who are familiar with the topic on which the meeting will be devoted; there will also be people familiar with the methodology of service design. They will be the ones to guide the process and support you at every stage: from the work of clarifying the design problem to the presentation of solutions. The knowledge and experience of others attending the event will also be an invaluable resource for you.
Deadline: 20 hours – so much and so much only
There will be limited time to work during the event. You will only have 20 hours, but also the comfort of focusing one hundred per cent of your attention on finding solutions. Both of these features of a hackathon are good fuel for creativity. When was the last time you had so much time to generate ideas and find solutions, without being preoccupied with current and urgent matters? Well, that’s right. We guess that, like us, you may not even remember when it was.
I’ve learned over decades of building that a deadline is a potent tool for problem-solving. This is counterintuitive, because complaining about deadlines is a near-universal pastime. When I worked with the amazing sculptor Ira Keeler on the space shuttle for Clint Eastwood’s Space Cowboys, Keeler was always proclaiming, “With a couple more weeks, this could be a nice model.” We’re conditioned to believe that the deadline is working against us. But I’m not so sure.
Adam Savage, “Under The Gun”.
First hackathon for climate and the environment
The first hackathon: “20 hours for climate and the environment” will take place on 19-20 June in Warsaw and will be devoted to topics related to environmental protection and combating climate change. As part of it, we will be looking for solutions to problems that your local community faces on a daily basis.
It could be the fight against illegal rubbish dumping, massive lawn mowing or other examples of exploitation of nature’s resources, low environmental awareness and the resulting use of fossil fuel cookers, for example.
How to apply?
On the first day of recruitment we will provide a short online form. In it, we will ask you to describe the problem for which you want to seek a solution within 20 hours and why you want to tackle it. We will invite approximately 10 teams of three people to participate. Recruitment will run from 15 to 25 May. We will select the most interesting and accurately described challenges, and we will inform the selected teams of the results of the recruitment by 29 May. You will find all the information related to the recruitment on 15 May on our Programme website.
What will happen?
A week before the hackathon, we will invite you to a meeting during which we will tell you how to prepare for the event, from the content and logistical side. The event will start before noon on 19 June and end in the afternoon of 20 June and will consist of several parts (including defining needs – defining audiences – defining value propositions – generating ideas – communication), which will be conducted according to the service design methodology. Each part will be preceded by a short introduction and instructions for participants. During and between sessions, you will have an opportunity to lead discussions between the teams and consult the way and results of your work with experts. You will present the solutions developed during the hackathon during the concluding session (pitching).
Voting and selection criteria
When selecting the best ideas, we will take into account, among other things: the relevance of the solution to the problem formulated at the input or the possibility (probability) of tackling the challenge you identified, the creativity and/or innovation of the solution, the benefits for the target group and the local environment, the possibility of implementing the solution within the organisation’s activities. The best ideas will be selected by the votes of the people participating and the expert people advising the teams during the event. And the teams that have developed the best solutions will receive prizes.
How to prepare?
Before the hackathon, we will invite you to special webinars. During the first one, which will already take place on 12 May (Friday), we will look for answers to the question: How to create a good eco-project? Using the “Ekoeksperymentarium” initiative as an example, we will go through the journey from mapping needs to generating a project idea. More information and link to registration >
The next webinar will take place on 30 May, more information coming soon!
