More and more, it seems that most decisions are made by people who are the least affected by those decisions. Everyone knows that MUNI, like most public transportation systems, has room for improvement, and the 673,196 daily riders have all had a moment or two to reflect on ways to improve it. Have you ever thought to yourself or muttered to a fellow rider, "It would be so cool if MUNI had an app that...?"
 
Well, here is your chance to shine and be part of the solution in a very cool and organic way.  Engine Advocacy is partnering with Hattery Labs, SF Mayor's Office, the SFMTA, Google, Mozilla, Waze, Keen.io and General Assembly to host reroute/sf, an event gathering teams of innovative San Franciscans to build new tools and services that will improve transportation in San Francisco.
 
Over the weekend of October 19-21, they are inviting teams of one to four developers/designers/business/creative people to The Hattery in SoMa to work together, brainstorm, and conceive of open source technological innovations that address particular transportation challenges facing San Franciscans. They have worked with the SFMTA to suggest three core challenges for our transportation system, but participants are welcome to explore a separate challenge that interests them.
 
Individuals and teams register for the event by sharing the specific transportation problem that interests them (as you can imagine, some are more specific than others). They have the option for us to introduce them to potential team members with shared interests and complementary skills, or to join a team on the Friday of the event.
 
Teams can merge or break-up as the process unfolds. The aim is to have it be a fairly organic process. Organizers from Hattery Labs will periodically check in with each team to see what resources they can provide to help them (reps from the City and the sponsors will also be hanging out to provide their input), but the aim is to facilitate an organic process of innovation.
 
Ten thousand dollars in prize money is up for grabs, and the winners will work with local tech leaders and City leaders to bring their open source project to life and to the people.
 
This is such a great example of the emerging system of organic processes in our community, where real people are invited to the table to create meaningful change.
 
You can check it all out by clicking here. This one is worth tweeting. Spread the word.