Beyond Emotion, Tackling Political Turmoil Head-on with Debug Politics
It’s no secret that 2016 has been a year of political upheaval in the United States and abroad. From Brexit to the surprise election of Donald Trump, reactions have been intense, with many taking to social media to vent. But for one group of millennials and tech enthusiasts in San Francisco, taking to social media to share their frustrations wasn’t enough.
Elevate CEO and Forbes 30 Under 30 alum, Jesse Pickard, launched Debug Politics with a group of friends to spur fellow members of the community to tangible action.
“Debug Politics aims to convert frustration into real action. We can do better than angry tweets and Facebook posts,” said Pickard. “In the tech community, we spend a lot of time fixing things that are broken. It’s clear to me that there’s currently nothing more broken than the state of our politics, so it’s time to roll up our sleeves and get to work.”
What started as a small group has grown into an organization with over 50 volunteers using hackathons to engage local communities and create solutions to widespread political issues. The first two hackathons took place in San Francisco, attracting over 600 participants, sponsorship support from big name tech organizations like 500 Startups and GitHub, and prominent speakers like California Senator, Scott Wiener.
Pickard notes that Debug Politics values participants with diverse backgrounds and skill sets; hackathon teams are made up of software engineering, marketers, designers and individuals from the community with varying points of view.
Two notable projects from the first hackathon include apps like Spectrum and Newshound. Spectrum alerts users when they are on a site known to be unreliable and then provides sources from sites with alternate political views.
Newshound takes the form of a browser extension that provides fact-checkers and journalists with heat seeking technology to identify fake news and provide well-sourced responses directly in-line with users’ social media feeds or web browsing.
Debug Politics will soon launch its first hackathons outside of San Francisco with events in Los Angeles and New York City. Moving beyond the events themselves, Pickard indicates the group plans to better support hackathon teams with resources like access to funding and high quality mentorship as they grow their projects into real companies.
Pickard’s message to others feeling distressed by the political landscape is to make use of their talent and take action. “As developers, designers, marketers and technologists, we have the power to build wonderful, impactful products out of thin air, things that can affect millions of people. We need to use this superpower for more than just making money at our startups or big tech job.”
