Making Use of Open Data to Improve the Food System

http://www.foodtechconnect.com/2010/12/07/hacking-social-good-open-data-food-system/

In an article for Food + Tech Connect, a website for “good food innovation,” Johanna Bjork writes about a hackathon event called Food + Tech Hackathon in December 2010. As she points out, the event was part of the International Open Data Hackathon. The event brought together “developers, statisticians, urban farmers, public officials and researchers from across the city” to present ideas about how to use open data to address problems in our food system. According to Bjork, the participants were grouped based on interests, resulting in “thirteen groups working on everything from CSA Finder/Generator and a searchable NYC Garden Map to group buying of meat and a Foodie Toolbar for the Chrome browser.”
These food-centric hackathons, as some people call them, are a good way to develop innovative solutions to help people connect more with their food. Most of us who live in cities do not know where our food comes from or how it is grown. Given the movement for more transparency and accountability in government, the government has been releasing a lot of data. Citizens need help in making sense of this data. Food-centric hackathons facilitate the development of ideas to help citizens do that.