I have just returned from a great night at Code4Pizza were I had the pleasure of meeting some really switched on people wanting to do stuff just to help people. That’s a pretty good reason in my book. We need more of it in this country. I guess its what people did before David Cameron invented the “big society“.
I have been broadly aware of the group for a number of months but shied away from attending for fear of being found out as a non-coder. I needn’t have worried. I was warmly welcomed for just wanting to show my support and chip in ideas.
We saw a great demo of an Android application which was put together by a unassuming guy who is an accountant (and no not THAT accountant) with no software development skills prior to getting involved in the group.
Update (11/08/10): The unassuming accountant in question is called Mark Breen aka @markvader. He might let you play with his app if you ask him nicely and have an Android phone.
Mark’s application draws together a dataset released by Translink which displays timetable information for bus routes. Anyone who has used Translink’s website knows that it generally sucks. As a regular bus user he had, and thought he could do better. The application rocks. If he can do it why can’t you?
Projects in the pipeline include multiple Translink related ones, OpenLiveNet for Mencap and something for the RNLI. Heck if you have a good idea for improving public/voluntary sector service and can get access to the data it might be your app they work on someday.
I urge you to go along to the next meeting and get involved. Find out more here.
Regards,
David Crozier