What is Reinvent 311? (Hint: It's an NYC Hackathon)

Question

Win prizes.

Check out Stack Exchange Headquarters and meet Joel.

See here for the official hackathon site, and read below for more.

Answer 1

Reinvent 311 is a hackathon supported by Stack Exchange, Code for America, and New York City.

The goal:

Help create tools or applications that will enable New Yorkers to easily access 311 information on a mobile device.

While Stack Exchange is not “Made in NY” (we’ve been built with code conceived across the globe), our headquarters is located in New York. We love New York. And we want to give back to the city by promoting an initiative that aligns with our mission to make the Internet a better place to find authoritative answers.

We hope you help by participating in the hackathon... even if you're not a New Yorker or living in NYC.

Prizes are on the line. So is an opportunity to visit Stack Exchange HQ on demo day and present your work to a panel of judges that includes Joel Spolsky.

A few key dates:

• Tuesday, December 10 - Open information session and Q&A with city employees who manage the 311 Content API and NYC Developer Portal
• Monday, January 6 - Submission period ends
• Friday, January 10 - Semi-finalists will be notified if they have been selected to present
• Wednesday, January 15 - Reinvent 311 Demo Day at Stack Exchange HQ

Looking for inspiration? Read the open information session recap, check out a list of the most visited 311 Online Services and Categories (.xls), and see this DuckDuckGo hack that's waiting for a developer.

To participate, sign up here.

Hope to see you at the office!

Some fine print: Up to 15 semi-finalists (individuals or teams) will be invited to present. Up to 5 finalists may be awarded at the demo event. Prizes are TBA. All participants who are invited to demo day must cover their own travel expenses and provide their own room and board. And while all hackathon participants are eligible to visit Stack HQ on demo day, only US residents 18 and older are eligible to win prizes. This is a city organized event, and well, lawyers.