National Black Programming Consortium and Silicon Harlem Hold Inaugural Hackathon

National Black Programming Consortium and Silicon Harlem Hold Inaugural Hackathon


The Silicon Harlem 2nd Annual Tech Conference announced the winners of Hack360, a hackathon event held by the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC) in partnership with Silicon Harlem.

[Related: [TechConneXt Summit] Hackathon Recap]

The hackathon tested the skills of developers over a two-day period. The participants are all developing TV and Web series. The goal of the hackathon was for them to create a companion app to the series they are developing.

The jury awarded a $3,000 prize to Sultan Sharrief and Oren Goldenberg, producers of the TV series Cred; a reality show about 12 Detroit high school students trying to land a dream internship in the film industry. Sharrief and Goldenberg created the Street Cred Movie Mogul app, which lets users build a film company with the goal of becoming a movie mogul.

An Audience prize of $1000 was awarded to Damon Colquhoun, producer of Pixie Dust–a Web series about a girl who uses her magical powers to help her mentally ill mother. His app, Pixie Dust: Home to Mom, challenges users to try and safely wade through a world of unsavory characters who threaten Pixie’s mental health. The app was designed to create awareness about triggers that can threaten mental well-being.

Prizes of $500 were awarded to the makers of POPS, a Web documentary that seeks to dispel myths about black fathers. The companion app, POPS+LIFE, is a scavenger hunt app that lets children and their fathers work to explore and solve various missions.

The producers of Black Broadway on U–an interactive Web project about the U Street corridor in Washington D.C., also received $500 for their companion app Duke’s DC: Just Jumpin’ and Jivin;’ another scavenger hunt and quiz app that takes users on a walking tour of dance halls, theatres, and nightclubs that were frequented by the likes of Duke Ellington.

NBPC is a Harlem-based media arts organization and Silicon Harlem is a social venture focused on transforming Harlem into a technology and innovation hub.

 


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