Region – Sen. Jamie Eldridge (D-Acton) participated in a Champions of Change event held at the White House, Tuesday, July 23. The event honored individuals for making open data more accessible to the public. Each participant submitted a challenge at the National Day of Civic Hacking, a weekend-long event held June 1-2 that brought together software developers of all skillsets to find solutions using publicly released data to improve their community, state and country.
Sen. Eldridge, the only state lawmaker in the country to submit a challenge for the National Day of Civic Hacking, proposed the Help4OK project to build on local efforts for crisis management response based off a website for Oklahoma tornado victims. The easy-to-use website will be a reusable resource to those in need of food, shelter and medical supplies during natural disasters and other statewide emergencies.
“There has always been a tremendous outpouring of support from residents in my district to help those in need during natural disasters and emergencies like Hurricane Irene and Sandy,” Eldridge said. “I am honored to attend Champions of Change to foster acts of civic engagement and enrich the collaboration between technology leaders and community activists to improve the efficiency of data sharing and transparency in government.”
The Help4OK challenge proposal is available at http://www.senatoreldridge.com/help.
