Here in the United States our National Day of Civic Hacking on September 21st is fast approaching, so in this post I'm going to tell you a little bit about civic hacking and why you should try it out.

Civic Hacking 101

Civic hacking is just hacktivism aimed at solving government and community related problems. Civic hackers can be anybody, from devs to designers to data scientists to concerned citizens of no particular background. Civic hackers have done some pretty cool stuff.

Why You Should Be a Civic Hacker

I've been participating in my local civic hacking meetup for some months now and it's a lot of fun. If you might be interested in volunteering some of your time, I can tell you about my experience so far:

• Attracts smart people in your local dev community
• Gets you involved in open source projects with clear goals
• Practice skills you don't normally use
• Opportunities to lead projects
• Sometimes there's pizza

How YOU Can Be a Civic Hacker

Now that you're completely convinced that civic hacking is a good use of your volunteer hours, here's what you can do:

• Attend a NDCH event and pitch in (if you're in the US)
• Join a local civic hacking organization, or if your area has none you can try to organize your own
• Contribute to open source projects led by civic hackers
• If your company is hiring, I've certainly seen businesses donate workspace for meetups and then send someone to give a recruiting pitch

See you there!