Learn about sprints and how we tackle national challenges.
Sprints are 12-week product development cycles that bring together tech teams and collaborators to build public-facing digital products using open data.
2021 Sprints
2021
TOP’s 2021 sprints focused on a world post-COVID including society, economy, and environment. Technologists, community and advocacy organizations, and government leaders developed digital products to tackle seven challenges related to preventing economic and climate crisis for the most vulnerable communities, shaping the future of business, and redefining infrastructure.
Analyzing Housing and Migration Trends Post-COVID-19
Challenge:
Use data to help stakeholders understand post-pandemic housing and migration trends, and create tools that help to visualize and process this information for data driven predictions and recommendations.
Agency
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Target Audience
- HUD clients and landlords
- real estate developers
- banks and funding organizations
- public housing analysts
- local Public Housing Authorities (PHAs)
- non-government advocacy organizations
- city and regional planners
- tribal governments
Helping Small Businesses Thrive in a Digital Economy
Challenge:
Develop digital tools that help small business leaders and their workforces to enhance their online presence and ability to process data and information relevant to their businesses in real time, thereby allowing them to be competitive in the digital ecosystem.
Agency
City of Coral Gables
Target Audience
Small business owners, their employees, and economic development professionals, as well as visitors and residents.
Improving Minority Businesses’ Access to Capital
Challenge:
Develop digital products to help improve minority businesses’ access to capital
Agency
Minority Business Development Agency
Target Audience
- Engaged Minority Business Owners and Minority Entrepreneurs seeking access to capital
- Advocacy organizations supporting these individuals
- Lending, financing and investment institutions
Increasing Content Accessibility for Multilingual Communities
Challenge:
Develop (ideally open source) tools to help serve the increasingly multilingual community in NYC and in cities nationwide, enabling them to access government resources for an equitable recovery to the impacts of COVID-19.
Agency
New York City
Target Audience
Local governments and NGOs who need to communicate with diverse language speakers in the United States. The majority of target users will be people who manage digital and print content within public-facing institutions. The ultimate beneficiaries of this initiative are non-English Proficient people.
Preventing Crisis for Low-Income Renters & Small Landlords
Challenge:
Develop digital tools to prevent financial hardship and housing insecurity by raising awareness of and connecting at-risk households to housing assistance.
Agency
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Target Audience
- Small landlords, at-risk renters, and nonprofits or legal organizations serving vulnerable renters and/or those at risk for homelessness
- Trade associations or other entities seeking to help small landlords retain their properties, financial services providers, and state, local, and tribal governments.