Did we mention CodeAcross was awesome?

More than three dozen artists, writers, designers, web developers and community members came together at the end of February for CodeAcross, hosted by the new Long Beach Code for America Brigade as part of an international weekend of civic engagement events. For highlights from around the world — including Long Beach! — check out the CodeAcross Storify.

(Photos by Molly McLeod)

This was the first major event by the Brigade, a group of people interested in improving Long Beach for their communities and using technology for civic good. For more information and to get involved, join the Brigade group. (Online mailing list sign-up coming soon.)

Friday night’s kickoff party at the Green House and ASHA Restaurant boasted live music and delicious food, drew in passersby, forged new connections, and shone with enthusiasm from community members interested in helping improve their city with technology. Attendees got the brainstorming started early by writing what they love about Long Beach, how they’d like to see it improve, and more. See pictures of the process in action.

Next came the daylong brainstorm- and make-a-thon at WE Labs on Saturday. We split into two groups. Alexa Fleur led one group in a guided brainstorm of ways they’d like to make Long Beach even better, generating and evaluating a host of project ideas in areas ranging from bike and transit maps to public safety to sharing community information and resources.

The other group, as part of the US City Open Data Census and International Open Data Day, inventoried the state of open data in Long Beach. This inventory is incredibly valuable because it shows us what’s available to work with and where there are opportunities for additional important data to open up. Having information about the available datasets and their formats and accessibility collected in one place is also valuable for anyone looking to work with Long Beach-related data in the future.

It was inspiring to see the connections made and the energy in the room — a diverse group of community members came together for the event. Many said it was their first time at a make-a-thon or a hackathon. At the end of the day, attendees decided to organize another event in just a few weeks to keep the momentum going.

Thanks again to Long Beach Tech, WE Labs, the Green House and ASHA Restaurant, ESRI, Microsoft, the Sunlight Foundation, the Open Knowledge Foundation and everyone else who helped make CodeAcross a success!

Keep it going — meet other civic tech folks in Long Beach