Calling all Phoenix hackers interested in open government, government transparency, and the reuse of government data: let's get together for the Great American Hackathon.

This Saturday (12/12/2009), Gangplank HQ will be hosting the Phoenix edition of the Great American Hackathon.

You can learn more about the national effort here: http://www.sunlightlabs.com/hackathon09/

New to the open government scene? Don't worry, you'll be able to meet like minded hackers and have time to talk and collaborate on interesting open government projects, so participating is easy.

1. Show up with your laptop this Saturday at 10 AM

2. Brainstorm ideas with fellow hackers.

   Need an idea?

• Make a public data set accessible in a developer friendly format. http://github.com/sunlightlabs/fiftystates

• Present difficult statistics with simple visualizations http://www.sunlightlabs.com/blog/2009/bills-110th-congressional-session/ http://www.sunlightlabs.com/blog/2009/recoverygov-contracts-your-phone/

  For a list of public APIs and datasets, check these out:

• http://services.sunlightlabs.com/api/
• http://www.opensecrets.org/action/apis.php
• http://www.followthemoney.org/services/
• http://www.capitolwords.org/api/

• http://sunlightlabs.com/projects/CIVX/

  For a list of projects you can contribute to:

• http://www.sunlightlabs.com/projects/all/

• Android Developers http://sunlightlabs.com/blog/2009/congress-theres-an-android-app-for-that/

• Ruby Developers http://github.com/sunlightlabs/ruby-sunlightapi

• Python Developers http://github.com/sunlightlabs/python-sunlightapi/

1. Hack and contribute your work back to the public by making it available on GitHub.com or code.google.com

Event details:

Where: The Gangplank co-working space, http://gangplankhq.com/when-and-where/ Address: 325 East Elliot Rd Suite 34, Chandler, AZ 85225 When: 10 AM to 5 PM. Stop by anytime. Please RSVP: http://sunlightlabs.com/events/49/

The event is open to all. I look forward to seeing you there.