Special Code for Philly Hack Night with Guest Wendell Potter
Details
Code for Philly is a proud organizational member of Indy Hall. Special thanks to Indy Hall for having us this week!
Interested in working at Indy Hall coworking space for the day before our event? Discounted day passes can be found at www.indyhall.org/cfp .
The front door of the Colonial Penn building is unlocked until 7pm, so try to arrive before then if you can. If you're not able to arrive until after 7pm feel free to call Charlie at (609)330-3352 to open the door.
About:
Tonight is a normal hack night for civic tech project teams to get together, but the first hour of this event will also include a conversation with guest speaker, and Philadelphian, Journalist Wendell Potter.
All are welcome to attend this part of the evening!
The conversation will focus on “Spotlighting Spin”, and will cover hype, spin, obfuscation, and the covert players who make transparency so difficult. Topics of focus will include tracking hidden players and dark money in the healthcare industry. Can civic tech help us all see what’s really going on?
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Wendell's Bio:
Wendell Potter is an American consumer advocate, New York Times bestselling author, consultant, and former health insurance industry executive. His 2010 book Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans detailed much of the industry's deceitful tactics, putting them in historical context by drawing parallels to the tobacco industry and the history of manipulative public relations.
In 2016, Potter published Nation on the Take: How Big Money Corrupts Our Democracy And What We Can Do About It with co-author Nick Penniman. The book argues that the corrupting influence of big money on U.S. democracy has reached a state of emergency. It details the history of moneyed influences on the U.S. government and makes the case that the situation has grown much worse in recent years, pervading virtually every aspect of American life. The authors also offer solutions citizens can take to repair the damage and make U.S. democracy more responsive to the needs of its people.
In 2018, Potter founded Tarbell.org, a nonprofit investigative and solutions journalism website, dedicated to revealing the truth behind the scenes of power in America.
More info:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/potter_testimony.html
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Schedule:
6pm - Doors open, grab a spot around the conversation or find a place for your project team to gather
6:15pm - Conversation Begins and will last roughly 45 minutes, but is encouraged to continue!
8:30pm - Commit and quit
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):
• Who is this event for?
Hack nights are usually events for teams and experienced professionals to work on their civic tech projects, but tonight is a special event which anyone is welcome to attend.
• Do I need to be a coder?
No! We need civic hackers of all varieties. Healthy civic tech projects have developers, designers, community partners, project managers/owners (and more!) and need lots of help. If you’re looking to build upon your professional or student experiences we welcome you to contribute in any way you can.
• What do I need to know before showing up?
If you're working on a project be sure to remember your computer! Code for Philly doesn't provide any devices, so if you need your computer to work remember to bring it with you.
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As with all our events, we require attendees to follow our Code of Conduct (https://codeforphilly.org/pages/code_of_conduct/).
To get started with our community, create a profile (https://codeforphilly.org/register), join us on Slack (https://codeforphilly.org/chat), and subscribe to our meetup page. We look forward to meeting you!