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Project ideas and related resources for awesome civic hacking projects!

Tree Planting Map (from: Grow Food Northampton)

[Note -- related ideas are also in this document.]

The need to replant our region's aging/dying tree stock (the number/volume of trees taken down far exceeds those replanted) especially in light of future severe weather and searing heat, and the challenge to match trees to locations where they can/should be planted. Not just on public property but on private property too. It would be great to have an online way for ordinary citizens to register a location where they would like to receive a tree planting, either on their own property or on city or state-owned property.

See: Open Tree Map Project - http://www.azavea.com/products/opentreemap/

Local Ingredient Registry / Delivery (from: Grow Food Northampton)

A large survey of Northampton restaurants revealed that most of them would like to use more locally grown ingredients. However, a major roadblock is needing to get information in a timely way that indicates what ingredients will be available each week from which farms. Also, having a reliable way to have produce delivered from a variety of farms would astronomically increase the ease of working local ingredients into the menus.

Gleaning Database (from: Grow Food Northampton)

A Gleaning Database that allows people access to fresh, local food that would otherwise go to waste, like a Freecycle for Food. [Note: this seems like this could be related to the “Local Ingredient Registry” idea above, too!]

Unlocking Prison Phone Data project (from: Prison Policy Initiative)

[Note -- related ideas are also in this document.]

Background. A single telephone call home from prison can cost more you would pay for a months’ unlimited long distance. Why? Because the state Departments of Correction and the local jails give monopoly contracts to prison telephone companies in exchange for kicking back the lion’s share of the income. The families of the 1.4 million people in state or federal prison, and the families of the 12 million people who cycle through local jails each year are the ones who pay the price. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is finally considering providing relief to families by banning the kickbacks and regulating the industry, but the industry and the prison systems are fighting back, hard.