I saw Noel Hidalgo speak at Data Days Cleveland last Thursday and, wow, it was pretty awesome.
Mr. Hidalgo is the Executive Director of BetaNYC, a civic organization that, among other things, presses to make New York’s data easily accessible and to keep it locally owned and managed.
He shared his thoughts on data sovereignty and how our lack of ownership of our own data is causing harm to us as individuals, communities, and society as a whole. It was a riveting talk, with some compelling arguments. I’ll admit that he made many references to books, people, and events that I’ve never even heard of. I was frantically searching the internet for answers as he spoke.
In particular, though, he asked for a show of hands at one point for people who consider themselves “Civic Hackers.” Maybe five hands went up in a room of 200 or so data geeks and nonprofit nerds. I suspect that many in the room were as clueless as I was. By the time I found the definition, I had missed the opportunity to raise my hand, but I’m pretty sure Noel uncovered for me the title I’ve been looking for ever since I went independent.
A civic hacker, according to Code for America, is a person who uses their skills, whether technical or otherwise, to fix community problems with low-cost, scrappy, simple solutions. From their website, “In essence, [civic] hacking means that you don’t need to wait for more resources to make a change in your community—the skills you have on hand are already enough.”
While it’s true that in the past civic hacking involved using tech to solve such problems, you no longer need to be building scripts in Excel or writing code to be considered a civic hacker. Whether your expertise is in project management, law, community development, environmental science, or anything in between, if you’re putting your skills to work to make things better for you and your fellow community members, you are officially a civic hacker.
And it turns out there are all sorts of opportunities to hack our communities if we’re looking for them. For the tech-minded, there are hackathons, volunteer opportunities, meetups, and informal gatherings, but there are also opportunities for the rest of us. For example, my community has a Strong Towns Local Community that meets monthly at an independent tea shop. If your community doesn’t have one, you could start a local community (it’s super easy!) Your town might also have a community development (or improvement) corporation (CIC). CICs are formed to promote industrial, economic, commercial, and civic development. Look for one that focuses on civic development with an asset-based emphasis.
Over the course of my career, I’m proud to say that I’ve organized nonprofit hackathons, community-building events, and more. Because I innately understood the value of true connection, I often found myself advocating for and supporting efforts in my workplaces to build relationships, especially across diverse groups of people. At one company, I suggested and then helped organize a bi-weekly “sprint celebration.” One celebration featured a holiday gift-wrapping party complete with cookies, hot cocoa, carolers, and a festive movie. At another, I took my team out for their chosen fun event once a month. We had our picture taken with Santa, enjoyed happy hour together, and painted team t-shirts at a local craft store. During the pandemic, my teams had “water cooler” time, explored virtual escape rooms, had remote happy hours, and played online board games.
But it wasn’t until I inherited the family farm and moved back to my hometown that I doubled-down on my dream to contribute positively to my real community (not just my work community). This is when things started heating up. In the last couple of years I’ve helped organize a “community conversation” speaker series, including facilitating follow-up community discussions and managing community engagement, facilitated deliberative democracy as part of my state’s first ever civic assembly, and led multiple cross-functional groups in industry, nonprofit, and the public sector as they endeavored to solve real problems in their communities in small, but meaningful ways.
I think I might have finally found my calling. All these years, I was really doing this same work, but was a square peg being squeezed into the round hole that is corporate America. In turn, my work was being diminished and failed to reach it’s full potential. In the last couple of years it feels a bit like I’ve been unleashed. Like I can finally do what I was always intended to do. Sometimes a life event forces you to reconsider your path. You never know what might happen if you’re willing to try something entirely different, and my experiment is still unfolding, but for now, the work I’m doing just feels right.
For over two years now I’ve struggled with what to call myself. I’ve tried on business advisor, enterprise coach, consultant, facilitator, and trainer. They all felt uncomfortable, like a too-tight blazer or a too-big pair of shoes. None of them really described the many hats I’ve been wearing. They left me struggling at networking luncheons to express my value to my community and at business events to describe my passion for my neighbors. Lately I’ve been experimenting with Community Changemaker, which has felt like a slightly better fit. But maybe all along, I’ve really been a Civic Hacker. Who’d have guessed?
