Civic hackathons sometimes get flak for failing to produce polished, government-ready applications. But for Jack Madans, Code for America‘s Government Partnerships Manager, that is missing the point.
Hackathons are not just for building apps, he says; they are also essential to building and sustaining a healthy data community. Developers can meet designers, entrepreneurs can identify business opportunities, and local government officials can get a glimpse of what is possible. Even if they do not always end up with a killer app, he says, these hackathons still matter because of the lasting connections they help establish between people who might not otherwise have met.
Watch the video for his full take.
