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2018 Open Data Challenge focuses on access to recreation in First State

Delaware’s 2nd annual Open Data Challenge is this weekend.

 

Citizen coders and civic technologists from across the First State are set to take on the challenge with a theme of “Improving Access to Recreation for All Delawareans.”

The director of the Department of State’s Government Information Center Dana Rohrbough says the aim is to use publicly available data to develop solutions to statewide problems.

“So the 2018 Open Data Challenge is about getting folks together from broad spectrums and having community problem-solving happen together. So, it’s about bringing together state agencies, community activists and advocates,” Roherbough said.

Rohrbough says a series of events and workshops give participants a chance to review and analyze information on Delaware’s Open Data Portal, then design new apps, websites or programs that put that data to good use.

 

“Some of the themes that we’re going to be working on this year is on access and access issues. So for example, access to transportation, access to our natural areas in Delaware like our state parks and our beaches and our other, forests and things like that,” said Rohrbough.

Teams with the best ideas will be eligible for grant funding to continue their work.

The first major event of the ODC18 is an "ideation session" Sunday at the UD Horn Program in Entrepreneurship Venture Development Center in Newark.

 

The Challenge concludes in May.

Kelli Steele has over 30 years of experience covering news in Delaware, Baltimore, Winchester, Virginia, Phoenix, Arizona and San Diego, California.