EVENT: Young Rewired State NYC
Young Rewired State (YRS)is a British organization that started in 2009 as a project to help young coders. Although it started off a little slow (their first event in the Google offices in London drew a resounding 3 people!), they’ve since gone on to create a number of very successful events in England and now elsewhere.
They produce the annual Festival of Code, a summer week of coding all over the UK that ends with a final bash in Birmingham, where the weeks worth of coding and learning is celebrated, and prizes are awarded.
YRS teams up mentors with students to teach them about coding, and about using open government data as a source for that code. Students build apps, databases, visual interfaces, games, and other coded software, and most importantly, learn that being a computer coder is fun and NOT the stereotypical isolating activity.
YRS NYC will take place June 29-30 at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens
They’ve started a new project YRS Everywhere, in which they produce a weekend of YRS in places that are NOT the UK. This year they are producing them in Berlin, Aarhus, Johannesburg, San Francisco, Hackney, and New York. The first NY one will be June 29-30 at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria Queens. Participation is free, but limited by space. (and you must apply)
The event will begin on Saturday morning, where the participants will form groups and chose what types of open data they would like to work with. They will then build their projects/hacks throughout the rest of the day. The event will continue early the following morning, where the hacks/apps/games/programs will be completed, submitted and presented in the Show and Tell. The panel of judges will deliberate, and prizes will be awarded! All activities will conclude Sunday evening.
There are still some student places available for young people aged 18 or under who know how to program. Skills can range from being able to edit HTML to being a poly-codal genius – all are welcome. They’ll host you for a weekend, you will be mentored by developers and designers in-house, as well as remotely by YRS peers and the world-wide mentor network and you will get to build cool things with open government data.
Some YRS participants mull over a thorny problem.
They are also looking for talented mentors. If you have coding or educational experience and are over the age of 18, you could be a mentor to some burgeoning coders.
Please use the links below to register your interest as a young programmer or as a mentor. Spaces are going fast (the event is June 29-30) If you are interested, act now! And if you miss it, it looks like they already have plans for YRS-NY 2014, which will be June 28-29, 2014. Save the Date!
REGISTER AS MENTOR |||||||| REGISTER AS A PARTICIPANT
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adam Gertsacov is the co-founder and co-organizer of Digital Family Summit. He wears many hats, including those of a professional clown, an author and publisher, an artist/educator, a non-profit administrator, a P.T. Barnum impersonator, a flea circus impresario, and the esteemed hat of the Clown Laureate of Greenbelt, Maryland.
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