Torture and the "National Day of Civic Hacking"

For “Civic Hacking Day,” We’re Opening Our Torture Database to Developers

05/28/2013 - This Saturday and Sunday, June 1 and 2, mark the first annual National Day of Civic Hacking. The ACLU is participating by enabling developers to access our Torture Database and in turn make this information even more accessible to the public. Starting now, anyone can access the extensive data amassed by the ACLU relating to the Bush administration’s rendition, detention, and interrogation policies and practices.

But before we explain further, what exactly is Civic Hacking Day?

Here’s how the White House, which has promoted the event, has described it:

Civic Hacking Day is an opportunity for software developers, technologists, and entrepreneurs to unleash their can-do American spirit by collaboratively harnessing publicly-released data and code to create innovative solutions for problems that affect Americans. . . . This is an opportunity for citizens in every town and city across the Nation to roll up their sleeves, get involved, and work together to improve our society by cultivating an ecosystem for innovation and change.

Essentially, Civic Hacking Day is an opportunity for programmers and others to capitalize on the release of public data to make our government and our communities more transparent, more efficient, and more accountable to the public. read more>>>