Chat Hackers - Hack Day

​Community organising increasingly happens in chat apps like WhatsApp. But while these platforms are excellent for communication, they lack many of the tools campaigners, volunteers and community organisers need.

​This hands-on Hack Day will bring together technologists from the Campaign Lab community to build lightweight, reusable tools for organisers using Matrix.

​We’ll explore how Matrix can provide an open and flexible layer for creating features that plug into existing organising workflows helping communities coordinate activity without forcing members to adopt complicated new systems.

​You don’t need to be a Matrix expert to participate. We welcome developers, designers, product thinkers and technically curious campaigners who want to experiment, learn and build something useful. Organisers with practical challenges they would like the community to tackle are also very welcome.

​The day will begin with an introduction to the Chat Hackers vision, the Matrix ecosystem and some potential challenges. Participants will then form teams, develop prototypes and share what they have built at the end of the day.

​Chat Hackers is led by John Evans, creator of SpaceTube and an expert in decentralised chat systems and Matrix, in collaboration with Campaign Lab.

​Who should attend?

• ​Developers and civic technologists

• ​Designers and product thinkers

• ​Campaigners with technical experience

• ​Community organisers bringing real-world problems

• ​Anyone interested in Matrix, chat technology or digital organising

​Come with an idea, join an existing team or simply bring your skills. The aim is to leave the day with working prototypes that could become genuinely useful tools for organisers.