Hack Baltimore to look for sustainable tech solutions

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Hack Baltimore, the city’s first free civic tech festival, will take place May 8-10 at the UMBC Columbus Center, 701 E. Pratt St., in downtown Baltimore.

The event is a city-wide innovation project that will bring together Baltimore’s diverse communities, including teams of technologists, civic leaders, and city residents, to design and develop sustainable technology solutions for the challenges affecting Baltimore.

The goals of Hack Baltimore are to build sustainable civic-tech solutions for the pressing issues facing major urban cities such as Baltimore, break down the silos by increasing the collaboration among innovators, engaged citizens, civic organizations & city government and elevate the positive stories of social change being created by the city’s civic tech community.

Hack Baltimore was created by digital services firm Fearless through the nonprofit Technology Growth Initiative Inc. The event is being planned by a committee of local partners chaired by Fearless CEO Delali Dzirasa.

Committee partners include Dionne Joyner-Weems, CEO of the Audacity Group; Mike Fried, chief information officer, Baltimore City Health Department; Yair Flickr, President of SmartLogic; Shelonda Stokes, CEO of greiBO Media; Gretchen LeGrand, co-founder and executive director, Code in the Schools; Koffi Harrison, president of UpLight; Bashirat Are, director of BACF Inc.; and John Priest, head of recruiting for Fearless.

Participation is free and open to anyone. Residents are encouraged to create teams of five-10 people reflecting diverse talents, to work together to create sustainable technology solutions.