Six CivicPlus Teams Compete in Website Hackathon to Benefit Little Apple
Competition will create new government website for City of Manhattan, Kansas

MANHATTAN, KS – (November 8, 2011) Four months after government website designers from CivicPlus went to the Big Apple to compete in the Reinvent NYC.gov Hackathon sponsored by New York City, the company is borrowing the idea to benefit its own hometown, “the Little Apple,” Manhattan, Kansas.

Six teams from CivicPlus, the leading developer of local government websites in the U.S., will be competing in a Hackathon to create a new website for the City of Manhattan over the course of a weekend. “We’ve known for a long time that our site needed a redesign, but there was never the budget to do it,” said Marie Christian, information and program coordinator for the City of Manhattan. “We’re really excited to finally be getting a site with a new look that’s going to be more user-friendly and current in its functionality and technology. We are so grateful to CivicPlus for this valuable gift to the City!”

City residents and business owners are encouraged to get involved in the website redesign by submitting ideas on what they would like to see in the City’s new website. Ideas may be posted on the Little Apple Hackathon Facebook page or submitted through an online form CivicPlus created on the City’s website: www.ci.manhattan.ks.us. Individuals also are encouraged to submit digital photos, which may be incorporated into the site’s redesign. Photos may easily be uploaded through the online photo submission page found on the website.

The Hackathon starts at 9:00 a.m. Saturday, November 19 when each team will receive a packet of information that includes ideas and photos submitted by Manhattan residents for the City’s new website. Teams must finish by 3:00 p.m. Sunday, November 20. Team presentations of working prototypes will start at 4:00 p.m. at the new Hilton Garden Inn Hotel and Conference Center. The public is invited to attend. A panel of judges will evaluate the prototypes and distribute prizes. Judges from a range of departments within the City of Manhattan will determine the best overall design, while a team of judges from CivicPlus will determine the best functionality.

“This is the age of citizen engagement and corporate social responsibility,“ said Ward Morgan, founder and president of CivicPlus. “The Hackathon is a fun, energetic venue for the many talented individuals in CivicPlus to work together to produce amazing results for the City of Manhattan. We are proud to be a part of this community and look forward to having our hometown website reflect some of our best work.”

CivicPlus has designed nearly 1,000 local government websites serving 32.6 million citizens throughout North America. The company has earned the Center for Digital Government’s Best Fit Integrator Award for delivering extraordinary digital solutions to public IT projects. Its innovative CivicPlus Government Content Management System™ offers more than 60 customizable, integrated eGovernment applications, including Citizen Request Tracker™, MuniMobile™, Facebook and economic development tools. CivicPlus was founded in 2001, and was selected by Inc. Magazine as “One of the Fastest-Growing Privately Held Companies in the U.S.” in 2011. Over the past two years, CivicPlus clients have won more than 200 website awards.

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