Council Data Hack Day

What happens when every council agenda, committee paper, and meeting minute becomes searchable?

Our partners at Poteris have developed a powerful new scraper that collects data from council websites across the UK, creating an unprecedented dataset of council minutes, agendas, reports, and other public information.

Now it's time to build with it!

Join Campaign Lab for a hack day exploring what becomes possible when this information is easily accessible. We'll bring together developers, designers, campaigners, researchers, and civic technologists to prototype tools that can help improve local democracy and political campaigning.

Potential ideas include:

• Tools that make local government more transparent 📜
• Better ways to monitor council decisions and policy changes 📊
• Campaigning and research tools built on council activity 📈
• AI-powered search and summarization 🔍
• Dashboards, alerts, and data visualizations 📅
• New civic technology that helps residents, journalists, and campaigners engage with local government 💬

Whether you're interested in coding, product design, data science, UX, politics, or simply have a good idea, there'll be opportunities to contribute!

We'll begin with a short introduction to the dataset and its capabilities before breaking into teams to explore ideas and build prototypes together.

Who should attend?

• Software developers 💻
• Data scientists 📊
• Designers 🎨
• Campaigners and organizers 📣
• Civic technologists 🌐
• Local government enthusiasts 🏛️
• Anyone excited by the potential of open public data 🌍

Come and help turn a remarkable new dataset into tools that strengthen civic participation and democratic accountability!