Hackathon

THE CHALLENGE

Digit­al tech­no­logy and the grow­ing digit­al cul­ture has changed the way people access inform­a­tion. Peter­bor­ough cit­izens, along with res­id­ents in towns and cit­ies through­out Europe, often feel pass­ive in the com­munity and don’t know how to get involved.

An inter­act­ive screen in the city centre to share inform­a­tion about Peter­bor­ough was an obvi­ous solu­tion but, with a pleth­ora of data avail­able, what did our cit­izens want from the screen?

THE SOLUTION

The ‘chal­lenge’ was pos­ted online to our com­munity through the Brain­wave Innov­a­tion portal. A team of digit­al experts from Peter­bor­ough-based comparethemarket.com offered to develop a col­lab­or­at­ive ‘Hack­a­thon’ to design the con­tent for the screen.

A wide range of Peter­bor­ough cit­izens were con­sul­ted and the most pop­ular fea­tures have been developed includ­ing: Cit­izen Vote, Treas­ure Hunts, What’s On Cal­en­dar, Feed­back and Selfies. The next phase will con­sist of a Juke Box play­ing music cre­ated by loc­al people.

THE RESULTS

A group of digit­al experts formed ‘Open City’, a com­munity of tech­no­logy savvy experts in Peter­bor­ough who volun­teered their time and expert­ise to the devel­op­ment of the inter­act­ive screen.
The first Hack­a­thon, held in Peter­bor­ough Cathedral’s pre­cincts, saw over 20 people give up 25 hours each, equat­ing to over £25k in volun­teer time, in the devel­op­ment of the new inter­act­ive screen.