Sembrando Sentido to host virtual ‘hackathon’ to create civic engagement app
Nonprofit organization Sembrando Sentido will host a virtual hackatón on Nov. 13-15 to accelerate the creation of a web application for citizen participation.
“Our civic duty is not limited to voting every four years,” said Issel Masses, executive director of Sembrando Sentido, host of the “Virtual Hackathon for Civic Engagement” event.
“We see a growing interest among citizens to get involved, support and lead social impact efforts. We want to support these efforts and what better way than by collaborating with those who want to program for the people,” she said.
Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations promote their initiatives through social media despite the limited financial resources they have to increase their reach, she said.
This scenario not only affects organizations that cannot promote their initiatives at a large scale, but also hinders citizens ability to learn about and support organizations that work on the social causes that they care about, she added.
As a result, Sembrando Sentido seeks to develop a web application for nonprofit organizations to promote content and opportunities for participation in line with the interest of the citizens, to boost participation on issues of social importance.
The Virtual Hackathon aims to serve as an accelerator for the development of the web application. Participants may compete individually or in teams of up to three people, developing hacks that can help optimize the application.
The Hackathon will also offer programming workshops and civic tech talks by organizations like Code4PR. The winning group will receive a $1,000 prize.
