Q&A: Hack Omaha organizer shares why hackers should attend third event

Calling all Nebraska hackers—the third iteration of Hack Omaha, a three-day public service-themed hackathon, is just around the corner. Organizers hosted the inaugural Hack Omaha last April and have continued to hone the event over the last year and a half …

Hack Omaha returns a third time Nov. 22 through 24 and will be hosted in Aviture’s Omaha offices. 

Calling all Nebraska hackers—the third iteration of Hack Omaha, a three-day public service-themed hackathon, is just around the corner. 

Organizers hosted the inaugural Hack Omaha last April and have continued to hone the event over the last year and a half. Winners of past hackathons include a gamified restaurant cleanliness application and a search engine for city council agendas. The free event will run from 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 22, through 10 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 24, at Aviture‘s Omaha offices. 

Silicon Prairie News took some time to talk with Matt Wynn, one of Hack Omaha’s organizers, about this year’s event and why it’s an important part of Omaha’s startup community: 

Silicon Prairie News: Tell us a bit about Hack Omaha and why someone should attend.
Matt Wynn: Hack Omaha is all about taking advantage of government information to make it work better or be more useful to Johnny Public. What that means and how to get there is up to our attendees. The project ideas are all over the map, and will get honed down a little more at the event itself. We’ll do things like combine Yelp! and restaurant inspection records, play with city or county budgets and make a geocoding solution for use in the metro. The best part, in my oh-so-humble opinion, is that all of this is for a community betterment cause. In that spirit, all the projects have to be open-sourced, which means projects started over the weekend could go on to big things. We’re also really happy to have HP Cloud sponsoring this time around, and they’re being super generous with showing people around what they have to offer—even giving away some accounts.

SPN: Who is the ideal audience for Hack Omaha?
MW: Coders and designers who want to help our institutions work better, or just like working on open-source projects. It’s been kind of cool to see the attendees turn this into their own thing. At the first Hack Omaha, we gave out cash prizes. That created this bizarre competitive environment, which was completely antithetical to this kind of community-driven, civic betterment we’re-all-heading-the-same-direction tone the event has taken on. So based on feedback, we axed cash prizes. We still have judges (and have a pretty impressive stable this time around), but the competitive aspect has definitely been scaled back.

SPN: Are there any different aspects of Hack Omaha this time around?
MW: Every time we do this, we switch it up a bit. The biggest change this time around has been the idea pitching and vetting process. In previous incarnations, ideas were cooked up on the fly, then teams coalesced around them. That can still happen, but we teamed up with MindMixer with the goal of stoking conversation in advance. Since September, people have been pitching ideas for projects they want to tackle, then throwing their votes to ideas they like. A handful floated to the top, so we peeled them off so they could get some extra attention. Other big changes this time have to do with our location. Aviture has agreed to host and they are great to work with. Their space is incredible and is going to allow us to let our hair down a bit more than in the past.

SPN: What types of hacks do you hope to see this year?
MW: Every time I have some idea of what will happen, and every time I am wrong, wrong, wrong—in a good way. The folks who come out to Hack Omaha are absurdly talented and manage to make some amazing products in a really protracted time. Some of the projects are pretty straightforward though, so I guess I’m hoping to see some craziness when it comes to the open-ended ideas. Basically, I’m just ready to be floored by what people can put together. Again.

SPN: What’s one thing people might not know about Hack Omaha?
MW: Last time around, Senator Heath Mello came to judge the projects. He was so blown away by what the teams had been able to do that, just a few days ago, the legislature had a hearing on open data policies and practices in Nebraska. We’re also happy to unveil a dataset that a local government agency is weighing taking public. Open government is happening all around the country, and I can’t help but feel like it’s coming here, quickly. Some agencies—the Douglas County Clerk’s office comes to mind—are already pushing public information in nice data formats. Hopefully Hack Omaha plays a role in highlighting the best parts of government continuing down the path to transparency.

To register for the free event, visit eventbrite.com

 

Credits: Event photo by Danny Schreiber. Matt Wynn photo from The Hall.  

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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