The Opportunity Project is a process for engaging government, communities, and technologists to create digital tools that address our greatest challenges as a nation. In the 4 years the program has been running, over 80 tools have been created tackling the challenges of disaster recovery, the opioids crisis, providing resources to homeless youth, finding affordable housing, and more. Companies like Microsoft, Esri, IBM, LinkedIn, and Mapbox have participated in the process and created tools like interactive games, mobile apps, mapping tools, data visualization websites, and many others to help communities around the country.
In this talk, Radhika Bhatt, the Director of Civic Engagement with The Opportunity Project will share insights into the process for collaboration, the challenges that have been explored, the tools that have been built thus far, and what’s next for the initiative. Many startups and universities have engaged with TOP to improve existing tools or build new ones to help solve local and national problems, and there is more opportunity to get involved. This year, TOP is focusing on creating solutions to workforce related challenges, and ensuring a complete count for the 2020 Census. Additionally, TOP will be launching a prize competition this year where teams that have built products through the process can compete for a monetary prize to continue building and deploying their product(s) to communities. This talk is particularly relevant for those interested in civic tech and using technology for good, and for anyone interested in getting involved in The Opportunity Project.
