Hackathon of the Many: With Digitization to More Justice
10 October, 2022
Over three days, social skills and technical know-how were the focus of the hackathon organized by CTS and the Chamber of Labor. The goal: digital justice.
From September 23 to 25, 2022, the “Hackathon of the Many” took place at TUtheSky at the TU Wien Campus Getreidemarkt. This was organized by the Chamber of Labor (AK) and the Center for Technology and Society (CTS). The latter is a cooperation platform in which the UAS Technikum Wien, the TU Wien, the FH Campus Wien and the University of Vienna work together on technical or socially relevant issues.
Why Hackathon of the Many? The Hackathon is about the interests of the many: all currently working people and those about to enter the workforce. It’s about progressive, activist, solidarity-based technology development from below. Nothing other than digital justice.
Astrid Schöggl (AK) explains: “As the chamber of commerce, we represent the interests of all employees in Austria. Although digitization brings opportunities, it also has downsides. The approach for the hackathon was therefore to bring experts from the world of work together with students and to find new approaches together in order to really create advantages for us, the many, through digitization.”
“For this interdisciplinary approach, CTS is the ideal partner. As a cooperation of four universities and universities of applied sciences, we were able to bring in this expertise and the coordination of motivated students, thus providing the foundation for diverse hackathon groups. After all, the results clearly show that great things can be created from a combination of different perspectives, coupled with technical know-how,” adds Anna Franzkowiak from CTS.
The Hackathon Challenges
Real challenges were to be solved, which were brought in by works councils, associations, initiatives and activists. The following tasks were worked on:
- Networking citizens’ initiatives for environmentally friendly mobility.
- A street newspaper in a pandemic and digital age?
- Digital storytelling for climate justice
- Self-organization of people with experiences of poverty and exclusion
- Organizing un(der)documented parcel delivery workers
- Works council: organizing in the home office
Together with students of technical studies, solutions, prototypes and mock-ups were developed in just one weekend. The jury of experts
- Sabrina Burtscher, activist and student Media and Human Centred Computing, TU Wien
- Jörg Flecker, Professor of Sociology, focus on work, digitalization, youth, University of Vienna
- Sylvia Geyer, Rector of the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien
- Alexandra Negoescu, Scientific Program Manager, TU Wien Innovation Incubation Center
- Sabine Nuss, author, e.g. “Marx and the robots”, “No expropriation is not a solution either”.
awarded projects in the three categories:
- The most functional application
Augustin – Taking back the streets | A street newspaper in pandemic and digital age? - The most innovative idea
Anpacken | Organizing Un(der)documented Parcel Delivery Workers - The most socially valuable solution
radar – Out of poverty | Self-organization of people with experiences of poverty and exclusion
In addition, honorary prizes were awarded:
- Best Presentation: BRuzzer | Works Council: Organizing in the Home Office
- Best Mock-Up: BI-BIP | Networking Citizens’ Initiatives on Environmentally Friendly Mobility
- Best Call to Action: Toolbox from Hopelessness | Digital Storytelling for Climate Justice
“I am pleased to see how great the innovation potential was at the hackathon. Our motto ‘Technology for People’ becomes tangible here and vividly shows how the combination of technical expertise, experience and social responsibility can contribute to the positive development of our everyday lives,” says Sabine Seidler.
Renate Anderl adds: “Only if we all actively participate in shaping our future can we seize the opportunity to make it fair for everyone. The hackathon was a wonderful opportunity to bring people together who don’t necessarily cross paths in everyday life. I’m pleased that fairness was the undisputed common ground for collaboration in the project groups.”
In any case, the ideas presented have the right to be implemented. This is also in the interest of the organizers, which is why all participating groups have the opportunity to submit their solution to the AK Digifonds and thus receive start-up financing of up to 200,000 EUR.