National Priorities Project Creates A Better Budget Map

Jason Leveille wrote about his experience at Hack for Western Mass over on the National Priorities Project blog. Over the weekend, he and some teammates brainstormed about the best way for NPP to ditch Flash-based maps and provide better ways of displaying the local impact of federal spending. Jason also notes the he was a first-time civic hacker and is already looking forward to the next time around.

county choropleth

And what does he have to say about the other projects at Hack for Western Mass?

There were some outstanding projects at the event. Turnout was great (~100 hackers), so each project seemed to be adequately “staffed”. A strong indicator of success were the presentations on Sunday. The quality of the work produced was impressive. I’ve continued to see activity on GitHub since Sunday afternoon. It’s clear that the folks involved with each project care about its success, and that they’re willing to see it through to completion.

Thanks, Jason, and keep on hacking.

Jason and Chris

Jason and Chris mull over the correct pronunciation of choropleth. Photo by Steven Brewer.

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