Category Archives: Technology

Pittsburgh National Day of Civic Hacking

Hacking a Better Pittsburgh – The National Day of Civic Hacking is Saturday

I am WAY late writing a blog post about the National Day of Civic Hacking, which is tomorrow, Saturday, May 31.  But I want to make sure you know about all of the great stuff that is happening in Pittsburgh around civic hacking.

Pittsburgh Event for the National Day of Civic Hacking

national-day-civic-hackingOpenPittsburgh Open House

Agenda for the Pittsburgh National Day of Civic Hacking Event:

  • 10 am: Coffee, Donuts and Introductions
  • 10:20 am Welcome and agenda overview (Bob Gradeck, Open Pittsburgh, UCSUR)
  • 10:30 am Why is the Library involved? (Toby Greenwalt, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh)
  • 10:45 am Neighborhood welcome, (Jerome Jackson, Operation Better Block)
  • 11: 00 am Project work – U.S. Open Data Census, Property Survey Training / data collection, and more!
  • (Lunches available 11:45am – 12:45 pm)
  • 1:30 Mayor Bill Peduto – Pittsburgh Data Forum Q&A
  • 2:30-3 (or when the Mayor is finished) Wrap-up

Loving Pittsburgh & Civic Hacking

What is civic hacking and why I think it is the future of Pittsburgh.  Civic hacking is a bunch of citiuzens who want to make their communities better by bringing technology and data together.  In some ways this blog was started as a way to hack the image of Pittsburgh.

I attended the National Day of Civic Hacking here in Pittsburgh last summer (you can read a recap of the 2013 Pittsburgh National Day of Civic Hacking event here) and I’ve been attending the now monthly meetups for the OpenPGH group.  The civic hackers in Pittsburgh are coming up with some incredible ideas and solutions for things happening in the city of Pittsburgh (and the country).

So much has happened in the past year and there has been a ton of momentum around open data in Pittsburgh.  A few highlights include:

open-pgh-logoLinks Civic Hacking and Open Data in Pittsburgh

OpenPGH – Code for America – Pittsburgh Brigade

I have been meaning to write a post about the last Code for America Pittsburgh Brigade Meetup which was held at the Studio for Creative Inquiry in February.  But is has been a busy month – I promise I will write more about my experience attending the StartingBloc fellowship in Los Angeles at the beginning of march.  I have lots of ideas to share.

At the February meetup the group decided to call the Code for America Pittsburgh chapter (other cities use the term brigade – so you will often see Pittsburgh bridgade) OpenPGH.

The February OpenPGH MeetUp is one of the best events I’ve attended this year.  It was great to see so many folks from many different areas of Pittsburgh come together to talk about how we can use data to make Pittsburgh a better place to live.  Connor Sites-Bowen was one of the presenters and shared some fascinating data and maps about hunger in Western, PA.  I feel like IheartPGH has been hacking together a story of Pittsburgh and it was exciting to brain storm with other people on how to use websites and apps to hack a better city.  I left the February MeetUp and said to a friend – what sort of job will pay me to be a full time civic hacker. [If anyone has any ideas on who might hire me as a civic hacker – please let me know. :)]

English: Code for America Logo

What is Code for America?

From the Code for America about page:

Code for America is a 501(c)3 non-profit that envisions a government by the people, for the people, that works in the 21st century.

Our programs change how we participate in government by:

  • Connecting citizens and governments to design better services,
  • Encouraging low-risk settings for innovation; and,
  • Supporting a competitive civic tech marketplace.

Bringing Code for America to Pittsburgh

There are several ways that Pittsburgh has been working towards more open data and civic hacking in the past year.

  • Last summer, Pittsburgh along with many other cities participated in the national day of civic hacking.
  • Mayor Bill Peduto has hired Laura Meixell, a Code for America fellow to work in his office.  You can read more about Laura and the projects she’s started working on here.
  • Pittsburgh has passed an open data policy.  Check out this blog post from the Sunlight Foundation for details on how Pittsburgh’s open data policy is different from other cities.

OpenPGH March MeetUp

open-pgh-logoWednesday, March 26th is the next meetup for OpenPGH.  The OpenPGH group meets every month at a different location.

Facebook event for the OpenPGH March MeetUp

Agenda for March MeetUp:

  1. Welcome and introductions 5 minutes
  2. Host’s welcome / presentation (Kostas Pelechrinis, Pitt Information Sciences) 10-15 minutes
  3. Quick updates (City legislation, state advocacy) 5 minutes
  4. Allegheny County GIS (Matt Mercurio, GIS manager) 15-20 minutes
  5. County election data – (Brady Hunsaker) 10-15 minutes
  6. Visual survey toolkit demo using LocalData (GTECH) 10-15 minutes
  7. Participant survey results 5 minutes
  8. Project ideas / open discussion / “planning party” ideas

OpenPGH and Open Data Links & Resources

Website Links:

Follow on Twitter

 

8 Things to Store Around Town for Pittsburgh Events

If you’re visiting Pittsburgh for the 1st or 500th time to attend a big event, you might travel with supplies and equipment. Luckily, you can use Spacefinity.com – an online marketplace to connect with friendly neighborhood residents to store your stuff around town. Here’s a list of some of the big annual events and the stuff you can put in storage:

  1. Art – Over 10,000 visual and performing artists have presented work at the Three Rivers Arts Festival since the event started in 1960. With all of the creating, planning, and organizing, who has time to worry about tables, chairs, and finding a place to put everything? Discover a nearby garage to store your art supplies before the festival.
  2. Bikes – BikePGH organizes an annual event called BikeFest which leads up to Pedal Pittsburgh, Western PA’s Largest Bicycle Ride with around 3,000 participants. Also, the Great Allegheny Passage, a 150-mile bike trail that connects Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Md., (then joining C&O Canal Towpath to Washington D.C.), was completed earlier this summer. Find a space to store your bike and pick it up when you’re in town for a ride.
  3. Boats – Every year, over 500,000 spectators visit the Three Rivers Regatta – a boating and water sports festival held at the Point over the 4th of July. Find a space to store your boat before, after, or during the festival in a warehouse, garage, or open lot.
  4. Cars – The Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix attracts more than 250,000 people to Schenley Park each year for the nation’s largest vintage sports car racing event. All proceeds from the event go to the Autism Society of Pittsburgh and Allegheny Valley School. Store your classic car in a nearby garage and get ready to race on the city streets for a good cause.
  5. Costumes – The world’s largest furry convention, Anthrocon, draws a crowd of over 5,000 people to Downtown Pittsburgh every year. Join the costume-clad community as your favorite anthropomorphic animal character or check out the Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival and journey back to the age of knights and maidens. Before you travel back to being a present day human, find a place to store your costumes.
  6. Golf Clubs – Did you know that the Oakmont Country Club has hosted more combined USGA and PGA championships than any other course in the U.S., including eight United States Opens, five U.S. Amateurs, three PGA Championships, and two U.S. Women’s Opens? Visit Pittsburgh for the upcoming 2016 U.S. Open Championship in Oakmont and keep your golf clubs in nearby storage for when you’re ready to play a round.
  7. Tailgating Equipment – Tailgating is a time-honored tradition before big a Steelers, Pirates, or Penguins game, but you’ll need to bring tailgating gear: grills, coolers, food, drinks, chairs, tables… and if you’re driving or flying in from out of town, it’s inconvenient to bring those items with you. Instead, store them in a garage near a grocery store and pick everything up on the way to the game.
  8. Giant Rubber Ducky – The Rubber Duck Project will launch the Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts with a 40-foot-tall rubber duck in the Allegheny River from September 27 – October 20, 2013. According to this Post-Gazette article, “because of its size, the duck is constructed from scratch in the city that it’s visiting.” So if you’re a giant rubber duck artist who needs a warehouse, Spacefinity lists some spaces available for such an occassion.

The Spacefinity team launched the online marketplace for space in August 2013. Currently, we have 65 Spacelords listing garages, warehouses, basements, spare rooms, outside lots, and even an airplane hangar in Pittsburgh. Find space or list space today at Spacefinity.com! Questions? Contact Jackie Vesci at jackie@spacefinity.com.

Hack A Ford This Weekend – Calling All Developers and Hackers

FordopenxcTechShop Pittsburgh will be hosting a Ford OpenXC workshop this weekend.  Ford has developed the OpenXC platform to allow developers and hackers to build an app that harnesses data from your car.

OpenXC is a combination of open source hardware and software that lets you extend your vehicle with custom applications and pluggable modules. It uses standard, well-known tools to open up a wealth of data from the vehicle to developers.

The Ford Team will be in Pittsburgh this Friday and Saturday (September 13 and 14, 2013) for a weekend workshop.  The cost is $35  $15 and includes dinner, lunch, snacks and the OpenXC kit.

bug-labs-ford

You can get all of the details for the event here on the TechShop Pittsburgh blog and you can register for the event here.  Space is limited so don’t wait to sign up.

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TechShop Open House – Try the Plasma Cutter, Weld a Custom Branding Iron, And More!

TechShop Pittsburgh, located in Bakery Square, is hosting an all day summer social Saturday, June 22. The communal space offers a ton of different professional equipment and workshops for members to start creating. The interns took a field trip there today, and I have to say we were impressed. There are so many machines and cool projects going on, the place is definitely a must-see. From 3D printers to sewing machines, this place has it all. TechShop is only located in a few cities in the country, and Pittsburgh is lucky enough to be one of them.

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The TechShop Summer Kickoff, held from 10a.m. to 5p.m. will feature a lot of DIY workshops where you can create your own craft to take home.Some of the Make-It, Take-It workshops include: vacuum formed chocolate molds, custom steak branding irons, silkscreened totes and bandanas, laser etched beer mugs, and more. The workshops are low cost and open to everyone, plus you take home the project that day (thus the “Make-It, Take-It:). These classes are limited numbers, so sign up here before you go.

There will also be food, music, demos, and exhibitions throughout the day.

The event is free, but you do have to RSVP. For more info, check out their Facebook Event.

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