Why Hacking Is Good for Democracy By Gavin Newsom – Lieutenant Governor of the State of California

Hacking shows what useful tools people can build when the government (a) opens up its data and (b) gets the hell out of the way.

In cities throughout the country, hackathons are redefining the meaning of civic engagement.

You know, citizens know where the bus is, but if you go ask an employee who works for Muni, they have a clipboard and a schedule; they don’t use open data, they use walkie-talkies. So if there’s a problem, they don’t know,’" said Hirshberg. And it was true — in one of the most technologically advanced cities in the United States, we still had people standing on street corners with clipboards, marking when the Muni trains went by.

Full Story: http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/01/hacking-democracy/