Hacking our way to a better normal

On 19th September, weeks of work culminated in the Build Back Better hackathon. This online event brought together nearly 500 people from across the UK and beyond. The purpose: to explore ideas about how we can make the new normal better than the old one.

Teams were tasked with coming up with solutions to a series of challenges organised around nine themes, ranging from responsible production and consumption to education and health.

The brilliant ideas that emerged are the driving force of a hackathon, but in the course of the weeks of organising and the final, intense weekend, something else emerged that was at least as valuable. Together we had created a shared, public space which welcomed everyone. With its focus on developing a common understanding of the society we want to see emerge over the coming years, it was a space built on constructive ideas and solutions.

It was created by a group of volunteers, brought together by a shared interest in the power of collaborative working, the potential of innovative ideas to change the world, and the people who can contribute to them.

Making connections with new people can be tricky at the best of times. Now that so much of it must be done without ever actually meeting each other, there is an added layer of complexity. The risk of growing isolation, and with it fear, are entirely plausible outcomes after months of distancing, enormous disruption to our lives, and the spectre of the virus hanging over us.

Creating new public spaces that bring people together around constructive reasons for dialogue is one way that we can begin to forge new ways of being. A hackathon may not be everyone’s preferred format for this, but it certainly is a great example.

The old normal wasn’t good enough, but we are only going to truly build back better together through a collaborative process that allows the best ideas to emerge, wherever they start from, and bring everyone with them. 

The scale of the work that needs to be done means it must be a collective endeavour, and one that involves people from across our communities. We don’t need to wait for government or other leaders of the old normal to invite us - we may be waiting a long time.

We can take the initiative and that way, the new normal will be the sustainable, inclusive future that all of us, and our beautiful planet, urgently need.