Ever since we started National Hack The Government Day, we’ve had plenty of interest from those who are not able to be at the event in London on the day. I’m very sympathetic to this, and see no reason why those who want to join in from afar can do so.

Obviously, though, I’m not about to start trying to claim world domination of this idea. I have neither the ego, nor the brainpower. So I’d love to get your thoughts and help with this.

There is already a confirmed brighton outpost for the day, and I’ve heard of possible outposts in Manchester, Ireland and a few fruitless (thus far) attempts to have something in North America. Nobody’s quite established what being an “outpost” requires, so I’ll have a stab at it now. Hackers, in close proximity, hacking on Government data. That’s about it really. As long as everyone there is making something (and I mean actually making something: coding, designing, knitting), we’re happy to help out any way we can.

Being able to present your hack at the end of the day is quite important to me. There will be prizes, but we will also be bringing in 50 Government officials to (hopefully) show off how important API hacking can be (they can look, not touch). So if you’re not attending, then I’ll do my best to ensure you don’t miss out on this. Whether we faff around with VOIP or I’ll just present something for you, we’ll sort it out.

I have already set up an IRC room (#rewiredstate on freenode), which of course anyone is permitted to join in on, so that should help those joining in from afar.

Any other ideas? Want to host an outpost in your area? Please do let us know, and we will support your efforts in any way we can.