CodeAcross SF Brings together techies, nonprofits, and Bay Area residents to make San Francisco better
On March 5 we organized the third annual CodeAcross in San Francisco. The event, which was hosted at Microsoft Reactor, was part of a nationwide effort around the world to bring together people who want to collaborate to make their cities better. And collaborate we did! Nearly 100 people joined us to work on projects that benefit the community and San Francisco.
This year’s focus was on Open Data. Our goal was to bring together Bay Area residents and cater to different backgrounds, not only technologists. The participants could choose between three different tracks, and there was plenty to do for everybody. It was really inspiring to see so much passion for making a difference in one place!
Here is a brief overview of the participating projects.
One of the biggest groups at CodeAcross was the Data Science Working Group, a group that was recently formed at Code for SF. They worked on three projects: data visualization of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions (SF Environment Benchmark project), mapping 311 data, and an interactive map of San Francisco parks. Sanat Moningi, who leads the SF Environment Benchmark project, shared some interesting findings that they discovered by using the City’s datasets. For example, did you know that residential buildings score well on energy efficiency but not hotels? Or that any facility that handles food is (somewhat expected) energy inefficient? Moningi is really excited about this because he’s seen other projects in New York and Philadelphia that used visualizations to convince the property managers to make better choices. “Nobody is willing to make changes but when they see what the building is doing and how they compare to others, they are more likely to do it,” said Moningi. There are some exciting potential uses for this project and the team will be meeting with the City to present their findings. Ultimately the Data Science Working Group is hoping to work together with building managers to see how they can help them become more energy efficient. Check out the interview with the team below.