Hacking Stigma this Weekend

On Saturday, May 19th, Open Labs is hosting an alternative hackathon to confront the stigma of brain disorders (mental illness). The purpose is to take the big, creative ideas on how to make it okay to live openly with a brain condition and form experiment teams and plans to see if the ideas work. The event is built upon the success (and lessons) of last year’s Open Summit:

Like most hackathons, we bring together creative and intelligent people to focus intensely on solving a problem, but there are a few differences (hence alternative hackathon).

• It has a wider audience. In addition to the normal tech participants there will be behavioral health experts, mental health advocacy groups, government administrators, and neurodivergent individuals. As we explore solutions we will have the resources and expertise in the room to give advice and answer questions. The solutions are both tech solutions and social change solutions.
• It is an open environment. It’s really challenging to fully understand a problem people don’t talk about. This is an environment where people are open about their experiences. It’s an opportunity for rare insight into the struggles and strengths that come with a brain condition.
• Its outputs are experiments, small projects to create a more open world. Our problem is not well defined, and relative to its scale there aren’t a lot of solutions. The best answer to “Is this a good idea?” is try it and find out. With learning as the goal, every experiment moves us closer to an open world.

The event and our ability to create an open world will only be as strong as the people who choose to participate. I really hope you’ll join us. RSVP here.