We have 35 smart and talented people working through 6 different challenges. We started at 9 am on a Saturday morning (and nearly everyone was on time!) with three presentations. The first by Laurent Elder, of the International Development Research Center. This was followed by presentations of information directly useful for each of the projects: Michael Roberts (of Acclar/Groupsia ) gave an introduction to the IATI (international aid transparency initiative) standard, and Yohanna Loucheur, an aid data specialist from the federal government, gave an overview of Canadian international aid programs and aid data.
The 35 people participating is a mixture of roughly 3/4 tech-focused individuals, and the other 1/4 are subject matter specialists, in this case, their focus is mostly international development, but we have at least one information studies/library studies, an entrepreneur, and many more. A very diverse group. What is also interesting, is that within the tech-focused group, there are at least 12 who also have international development experience or expertise.
If you are interested in this event:
Follow us on twitter here: #CdnDevHack
On Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/100360414@N05/9581545259/
We have also been covered by iPolitics.ca -> http://www.ipolitics.ca/2013/08/22/first-ever-foreign-aid-hackathon-to-be-held-in-ottawa-this-weekend/
and PostMedia and the Ottawa Citizen have also dropped by and have interviewed us about the event.
