Code4Country, a two-day jointly sponsored US-Russian programming contest, or “codeathon,” took place on 24 -25 September, pitting national programmer teams against each other in a battle to produce innovative tools that enable greater transparency and more open government.
The codeathon was held simultaneously at locations in both Washington DC and Moscow between volunteers from several universities and high-tech companies, including Google and its Russian competitor Yandex, the American University in Washington, DC, and the Skolkovo Foundation
The winning US team – from the American University – offered a search tool to help citizens find legislation relevant to their interests and learning tools to understand it. The Russian winners, from various organizations including Yandex, developed a prototype for an anonymous, fraud-proof and verifiable e-polling system, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Behind the winning projects were seven Russian and eight American teams selected by a panel of judges made up of representatives from the tech and open data communities.
