My @npratc piece on the popularity of free civic hackathons in Brazil, where civil society, press, and govt workers learn to scrape public data with Python to monitor groups from water utility companies to the police. 1/3
These events are part of larger culture of civic hacking occurring in Brazil. 8 Brazilians created a robot using Twitter to flag possibly illegal spending by lawmakers, & crowdfunded Hacker Bus travels countryside w wkshps explaining Congress & courts. https://serenatadeamor.org/ 2/3
Many of Brazil's civic hackers say teacher Fernando Masanori's mantra about learning to program applies to political participation more broadly at a time of deep dissatisfaction with public leaders. 3/3
And related links: