This weekend, June 4-5, Random Hacks of Kindness will bring together hackers, developers, coders and designers to build at Drexel University, as we told you last month. RSVP here.

This Friday night, at Indy Hall, we want you all to come grab a (free) beer and talk about what we can accomplish — whether you have any development background or not. Free reservation here.

The international weekend hackathon is targeted for practical open source solutions to disaster risk management and climate change adaptation challenges and here in Philadelphia we’re using the recently unveiled resource OpenDataPhilly.org as inspiration. [Full Disclosure: Technically Philly is co-organizing Random Hacks with Drexel PhD student Michael Brennan.]

To get your juices flowing, we looked back at another, bigger event Technically Philly held in February with Code for America and Young Involved Philadelphia to bring out new perspectives on data, trolled through other suggestions we’ve started getting and spoke to the good folks at Azavea, who are behind the development of OpenDataPhilly.org. During the Friday reception, we’ll have some prompts to get down to the real process of making some of this happen.

To use the Random Hacks phrase, here are some Problem Definitions and directions we’ve heard bubble up:

• How could various disasters affect Philadelphia? OpenDataPhilly.org features flood hazard lines and 10-foot and two-foot contour lines that could show flood impact, and there are maps of active nuclear reactors in the region. Relatedly, there are regional evacuation routes and an interactive map of the same.
• Is there a more complete tool for disaster management and resource coordination in the City of Philadelphia? We’re looking at the city’s Managing Director’s Office of Emergency Management and wondering if something could tie it all together.
• How is Philadelphia reacting to climate change concerns? Find aerial photography from 2004 and perhaps compare to 2008. Compare to the city’s Walk Score or its Walkshed and use CommonSpace with bicycle commuter routes and an overall Bike Network.
• How do we build toward the ‘Carfax for Philly properties’ that was a hot topic at the February data event? At the BarCamp NewsInnovation, the ‘OPA Data Liberator’ made property owner searches more flexible and there is a city resource tracking real estate taxes — sorta — so perhaps work could be done to continue to liberate and connect this related data across competing city departments.
• How can city, volunteer and other social service employees be more aware of available resources for marginalized Philadelphians? Code for America fellow Mjumbe Poe started scraping homeless facility information andthere’s an annual ‘Philadelphia Street Sheet’ here [PDF] (and other lessons), so perhaps there is an application or scrape of complete resources. Something like this could be shared in other cities.

In the comments below, let us know what else you want to see accomplished, and be sure to come out Friday to push the conversation forward.

Another in the Entrance Exam series, as part of the Why I Love Philly campaign from Young Involved Philadelphia and Indy Hall. Tell the world why you love where you live by tweeting #whyilovephilly.

Aaron Ogle says he’s committed to the idea that technology can change the world for the better.

While working at civic-friendly GIS firm Azavea, Ogle built Walkshed, which just might be the ultimate software tool for
Philly pedestrians. He decided to up the ante in 2011 and join the inaugural class of Code for America fellows.

As a part of the Code for America team, Ogle will spend this year dedicated to the cause of creating applications around Philadelphia’s open data. The goal of this effort is to make government more transparent and government services more accessible.

Having spent his childhood in small town Ohio, Ogle appreciates Philadelphia both for its urban escapes along the Wissahickon and for its thriving arts and tech scenes. While understanding that there are very real challenges in Philadelphia that need to be addressed, Ogle sees the potential for greatness.

Below, Ogle talks about what brought him to Philadelphia and what will keep him here.

Aaron Ogle speaking during a Technically Philly interview with other Code for America fellows in February 2011. Photo by Nicholas Vadala.

Where did you grow up? Where do you live now?

I grew up in rural Ohio, a very small town, and I currently live in the Spring Garden neighborhood at 19th and Wallace [though as part of the CFA program, he is currently in San Francisco].

What brought you here? What was your route?

Before I was living in Philadelphia, I was living in Seattle and working at a telecommunications firm. My wife [Andrea] and I just had a baby. Her parents live in Wilmington, Delaware.

About a year went by, and we decided we really wanted to be closer to our family. We wanted them to be able to come over and visit. I was really close to my grandparents when I was growing up. It’s one of those really special things.

I didn’t want to live in Wilmington. Philadelphia had a pretty bad reputation in my mind, but I started doing some research. The Google Maps API was still fairly recent at the time, so I was starting to play with that. I was playing with that all in my free time, and I thought: ‘I wish I could do this for my day job, that would be awesome.’

I was feeling particularly dissatisfied with my job one day, and came across this post for Avencia [now Azavea]. I was like, ‘Wow, this sounds perfect.’

It’s in Philadelphia. That’s when we pretty much decided this is where we want to be. So I filled out my application, sent it in, and the rest is history. Now, it’s three and a half years later and here I am.

Was there a specific event or moment when you decided you wanted to be within the city limits?

Like I said, I grew up in a very small town. I spent a semester abroad living in London, that’s when I realized that I really like big cities.

Since then it’s been this really strange dichotomy. I really like being in the middle of nowhere and I really like being in the middle of everything, but everything else in the middle is just kind of atrocious. And so, I was really getting into this idea of walkability. We lived in the city there, we walked everywhere there. We had a car but barely drove it.

So, we decided we wanted to be in the city. There’s downsides of living in Philadelphia, the wage tax being one of them. But I work in the city so I’d be paying that anyway.

When your children [son Asher is four years old, daughter Andrea is one] get a little bit older, are there any concerns about the school system?

Absolutely. It’s a difficult thing, but you can definitely do it. Kids can have an amazing education in the city — both by paying a gajillion dollars for school and also doing it for free. The thing that we are learning is you have to know the system.

It’s really hard to figure that out. You have to talk to people: What are the good public schools? What are the charters? What about private schools? Which are the good private schools for the money? Which neighborhoods do you have to live in? There’s just a lot to find out. That can be really daunting.

When someone visits from out of town, what are some of the places that you
show them?

Fairmount Park. Up to the west, the Wissahickon Creek area.

I remember the first time I walked up there, that I could not believe I was still in Philadelphia. Kind of like I said – loving to be in the middle of nowhere and loving to be in the middle of everything. That area, you just can’t believe you’re still in the city. It’s so gorgeous, the trees are so big, it’s quiet, the creek’s running, and it smells like the
woods. I just love it up there.

That and the Reading Terminal Market, where you’re in the middle of everything. Every time my mom comes up, she asks if we can go to that market again. It’s just amazing.

When you see friends from Seattle or Ohio, how do you describe Philadelphia to them?

From my perspective, Philadelphia has two faces.

There’s the really amazing part of Philadelphia – this really thriving city, great nightlife, great shopping, incredible art
scene, incredible tech scene. All of these things go on, but you also have a lot violence, a lot of poverty. All of these things go on.

One of the things that I realized when I moved here from Seattle is that in Seattle the issues you think about are way different than the issues you think about in Philadelphia.

You come to Philadelphia, and it’s much easier to see the problems around you. In Seattle, it feels like they’re more concerned about environmental issues and things like that because they don’t have a huge violence problem, it’s a very affluent city. It’s just a different set of problems.

Here, you’re face-to-face with it more. Honestly, I felt like that was a good thing. In Seattle, I felt like I was too far removed from a lot of those real problems. Here it’s harder to hide from it. People need to be aware of how the world is. You have to see and understand the problems if you’re going to address them.

In a tweet (or a sentence), why do you love Philly?

I love Philly because you can get anywhere without a car. It’s an awesome walking city.

Also: There are problems, and they’re out in the open. But once you spend time here and get to know it, it really grows on you. I think it’s wonderful.

BusMinder, a bid from Azavea for a contest from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

The story of a government looking for technology to do what it does better is becoming increasingly average.

And Callowhill-based GIS software firm Azavea, which recently changed its name from Avencia, has made it something of a habit of getting involved whether those discussions are happening in Philadelphia or not.

More than a month after chasing New York City’s BigApps contest, an Azavea developer has his eyes set on winning a challenge from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

The MassDOT Developers Real Time Challenge — whose landing page seemed to be down all weekend — calls on developers to create applications that utilize the MBTA Real-Time XML Trial Feed — which includes data for specific bus routes — and make it more accessible through the internet, mobile devices, land-line phones, text messages, software applications and any other widely accessible software platform, according to a release from the company.

So, Azavea developer David Zwarg has created BusMinder, which lets users create bus reminder alerts — or ’busminders’ one might say — to receive SMS or e-mail alerts for the estimated arrival times of bus stops. Read more from Zwarg on developing the tool here. Zwargs’s simple application is not dissimilar from Walkshed, the neighborhood walkability score tool from his colleague Aaron Ogle, which was submitted to the BigApps contest.

Both tools, the release says, “promote a more sustainable economy and environment, ultimately making our communities healthier, and more socially and economically responsible.”

Now if only they had a contest to enter in Philadelphia.

The biggest example to date of contest-driven technology submissions for making government better hasn’t gone Philadelphia’s way.

Callowhill-based GIS software firm Avencia was Philadelphia’s lone representative in software application contest NYC BigApps,� hosted by that city’ s government and aimed to foster more transparency and accountability. It didn’t turn out as they hoped.

Avencia’s Walkshed NYC, which, like its Philadelphia counterpart, allowed users to rate the ‘walkability’ of given neighborhoods by a host of qualities, able to be edited by the user, wasn’t one of a dozen winners or honorable mentions, chosen by public vote and a panel.

Many other cities, Philadelphia included, have discussed internally the possibility of such competitions, though they’ve been hard to come by.

A Brooklyn-based developer won first prize, which includes a $20,000 gift and lunch with the city’s mayor, with his WayFinder NYC, which finds the nearest train stations and gives directions to it.

Can real implementation and change be expected? Is this a novelty or something the city of Philadelphia should seriously consider?

Still recovering from that Super Bowl party you went to last night?

Well, get some coffee and shake off that headache. Our event calendar is packed with worthy events and it would be best if you paid attention.

Start your week off right, and head to Callowhill to see the the map-happy geniuses at Avencia talk about their Walkshed project and the company’s entry into the NYC BigApps contest. On Thursday, Hive76 hosts the Philly robotics meetup and cap your week off by taking PhillyCHI up on its offer of design-focused quizzo.

And, if you’re still feeling some withdraw from football, click through for your event highlights. This time with 60 percent more sports references.

All events listed on the event calendar are free to attend. Be sure to check our complete calendar for more.

Monday, February 8th: As covered on this very site, Avencia’s Walkshed project covers the “walkability” of our city’s blocks. Creator Aaron Ogle has invited Refresh Philly attendees to Avencia’s office to talk about the project as well as its entry in the NYC BigApps content. Don’t know if you’ve heard, but the last time Philadelphia competed in NYC, it didn’t work out. Why can’t us? 6:30 p.m. Callowhill. DETAILS. [view more events]

Thursday, February 11th: Postponed from last month, the Philadelphia robotics meetup promises “filter based Inertial Measurement Unit code for our Quadrotor controller board.” Yeah, we don’t know either. We’re not going to lie to you though, we were hesitant to recommend the meetup. The last thing Philly needs is the looming threat of robotic-like humans. Plus, we already have Andy Reid’s press conferences. 7:30 p.m. Callowhill. DETAILS. [view more events]

Thrusday, February 11th: If robots aren’t your thing but CSS is, PhillyCHI is hosting design Quizzo at National Mechanics. The group promises questions about “technology, design, architecture, and other related topics.” What that really means, of course, is that you don’t have to bring along your jock friend just for the sports questions. 8:00 p.m. Old City. RSVP. [view more events]

If you have an event that you think we should be listing, email us or fill out our submission form for best results. We promise that no submission falls in to the contact form netherworld.