KEEP READING IF...

• You're concerned about the November elections and want to do more than just vote
• You're an emerging technologist, social scientist, designer, strategist, politician, researcher or advocate
• You want experience coming up with creative, tech-driven solutions to complex social challenges
• You're interested in a chance to win a paid fellowship with Human Rights First's Innovation Lab

THE CHALLENGE: GAMIFYING ELECTION PROTECTION

Whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, a Trump supporter, Biden supporter, or part of the exhausted majority - Americans’ confidence in our democratic institutions continues to wane, and for good reason. Unregulated campaign spending, voter suppression and partisan gerrymandering are corrupting our free and fair elections. Congress is too polarized to effectively legislate. Our information ecosystem is flooded with mis-and-disinformation, while algorithms inoculate us from diverse perspectives. Meanwhile, big tech continues to ‘move fast and break things’ at a pace that regulators can’t keep up with and at a scale that is damaging democracies around the world.

This systemic dysfunction has sowed seeds of fear, uncertainty, distrust, and division that some experts argue put us at risk of increased political violence. It’s threatening our democracy as we know it, while also tearing our families and communities apart. All told, this leaves many feeling defeated, disillusioned and disempowered – rightly so. 

During this election season, when the feelings of anxiety and powerlessness are at a fever pitch, we are seeking solutions that give the public an opportunity to play a more active and empowered role in protecting our elections. In doing so, we hope to unite our users around a common goal – one that transcends the differences that divide us. 

This challenge is broad. To narrow the sandbox, we will ask hackathon participants to explore solutions that accomplish these larger objectives specifically by leveraging gamification. Gamification is the application of game-design elements and principles (such as badges, leaderboards, points, levels, and role-playing) in non-game contexts for the purpose of enhancing engagement and motivating behavior. Gamification has the power to rally diverse people around a common objective, to inspire action, and to inject fun and hope in unexpected places. For these reasons, we believe it is a particularly potent strategy for engaging, uniting, and re-inspiring an otherwise divided and disillusioned American public in the fight for our democracy. 

GET STARTED!

While the 2-day prototyping will take place on June 15-16, we encourage teams to begin developing and refining their ideas in advance. This allows for those hack days to be focused strictly on design and technical execution. That said, a more comprehensive brief will be made available to all registered participants. This will include more details and resources on the problem space and a list of potential thought-starter ideas. We will also offer office hours so that teams can receive live support and feedback from subject matter experts and Human Rights First staff.

OTHER IMPORTANT NOTES

• Registration for remote participation will remain open until June 15.
• In person registration ends June 7, 2024 at 12pm EDT (will take place at Howard University)
• We encourage your to work in teams! The more inter-disciplinary, the better. This is a complex challenge that requires different skillsets - both technical and non-technical.
• We strongly recommend that teams dedicate time in advance to define their solution given the complexity of the problem

Sponsorship opportunities available now! Click here.

• Technicality
  Complexity, coding standards, and technical robustness of the software solution.
• Design & User Experience
  Aesthetic appeal, intuitiveness, and overall user engagement of the application.
• Creativity
  Originality and inventiveness of the approach.
• Feasibility
  Practicality and scalability of the application for real-world implementation.
• Potential Impact
  Capacity to significantly enhance user confidence in elections through effective gamification.