GOP activists have a chance this weekend to hone the skills that have made their Democratic rivals an electoral and consulting success story.
Tech-savvy activists are set to converge at the offices of 1776 a Washington, D.C. business incubator on Saturday to compete for cash prizes in a hackathon.
The RevoltDC Hackathon is technically non-partisan, but was organized by GOP activists Andrew Hemingway and Lara Aulestia. It’s designed to help activists “develop usage applications” for political organizing.
“The event is set up [so] that teams of three will be given seven hours to develop an innovative app that finds solutions to bridge the gap between politics and digital,” Hemingway said in an email.
There will be one $2,500 prize for the top winning team and four $1,000 cash prizes for the team who can develop an app related to the usability of social media, grassroots organization, fundraising and use of big data, according to organizers. Other small and door prizes will be given out throughout the day.
Judges include Katie Harbath of Facebook; Daniel Scarvalone, director of data and modeling at Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee; Abram Olmstead, manager of digital strategic communications at U.S. Chamber of Commerce; and Rachna Choudhry, chief marketing officer of PopVox.
1776 is located near the White House at 1133 15th St. NW, 12th Floor Washington, D.C.