Convening a scope-a-thon

Who should lead a scope-a-thon?

City governments, nonprofits, libraries, tech enthusiasts, or local entrepreneurs can all host scope-a-thons as a means to address local issues with open data and technology. City governments, for example, might host a scope-a-thon where city departments share the challenges their technical challenges, and tech-savvy residents help solve those challenges. Alternatively, a library might host a scope-a-thon where local nonprofits to share their programmatic challenges, and city staff, technologists, or social science experts help solve those challenges.

Anyone can host a scope-a-thon to help problem solve around local civic issues and to help build the connective tissue of your community's open data and technology environment.

Who is a scope-a-thon for?

There are generally two types of scope-a-thon attendees: organizational participants (who volunteer to share their challenges) and problem-solving participants (who volunteer to share their expertise).

Scope-a-thons exist to scope manageable, reasonable data or technology solutions for non-technical practitioners working toward social good. As a tool for driving social change, scope-a-thons can give voices to people working in communities where data and technology may not be the ultimate answer to the most pressing social issues. However, data and technology are often underused tools in organizations like city governments or community development nonprofits. Scope-a-thons should serve to assess the opportunities for the tactical use of data and to scope solutions at participants' n capacity level to address their most pressing needs. If done well, a scope-a-thon should serve to illuminate the issues that people in underserved communities face by exposing the true needs and opportunities for data-driven solutions in their day-to-day lives.