"This page is a digitally archived AccessInfo Announcement"
Event Will Further Innovation in Accessible Technologies and Citizen Participation in Open Government
On Monday, November 8, 2010, the Federal Communications Commission will sponsor an "Open Developer Day" event at FCC Headquarters in Washington, DC, (445 12th St., SW) to promote collaboration between web developers in the public and private sectors in furtherance of FCC goals to foster citizen participation in open government and further innovation in accessible technologies.
This will be a public, single-day event that prioritizes accessibility goals, though other web solutions are also of interest. The event will feature guest engineers from the Yahoo! Developer Network and Yahoo!' s Accessibility team and will have a component addressing the requirements and opportunities in the new "Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act."
FCC's Chief Data Officer Greg Elin described Open Developer Day as a digital barnraising where software developers learn new tools and volunteer their skills to prototype and build new web applications together. "Developer days have become a tradition in the web community for programmers to share knowledge, learn tools, and build things. We are excited to bring this tradition to the FCC," Elin said.
The event follows the September launch of the agency's developer community at fcc.gov/developer and first set of public APis (Application Programming Interfaces) to provide better computer-to-computer access to various FCC data sets. Attendees at the event will be introduced to FCC's data sets and new APIs and can work on any idea of their choosing.
Engineers from the Yahoo! Accessibility team and Yahoo! Developer Network will be providing technical instruction for some of their technologies that support working with web-based information and their ongoing work in accessibility.
A priority area is the development of a web application that will serve as a clearing-house of information on accessible information and communication technologies (ICT). The FCC is mandated to create this clearinghouse by a new law called the "Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act," which President Obama signed on October 8, 2010. The clearinghouse is intended to make it as easy as possible for people with disabilities, families, and support professionals to find information about accessible technologies.
The FCC will also be interested in other innovative ways that public APis may be used to add value to the fee.gov and broadband.gov web sites. The choice of intellectual property licensing is being left to each developer for code contributions made.
Any developer may participate, without charge. Each participant is expected to bring his or her own laptop computer, and to comply with security guidelines.
Please arrive for check-in between 8:30 and 9 AM. The event will conclude at about 5:30 PM.
In order to plan for the number of participants, we are asking interested persons to RSVP by email to Mikelle Morra at mikelle.morra@fcc.gov.
If a disability-related accommodation is needed, send an email to fcc504@fcc.gov, or call the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau at 202-418-0530 (voice) or 202-418-0432 (TTY).
DISCLAIMER: FCC involvement in this event does not indicate an endorsement by the Commission of any product, service or enterprise, including those of Yahoo! Inc.