One of the coolest things about Baltimore right now is the sense that things are better than they were but not as good as they will be. The city has its flaws, to be sure, but progress is happening piece-by-piece on the grassroots level and it’s an amazing thing to behold.

Much of the reason for this is the presence of a vibrant, emerging scene of technologists and innovators. Every week, it seems, brings another opportunity for collaboration. This week is no different.

Tomorrow and Sunday – November 12th and 13th – are Education Hack Days down at Digital Harbor High School. What that means is…

(from the Education Hack Day site) roughly 80 software developers and designers will be taking ideas that have been crowdsourced from local teachers and administrators and building applications that help solve some education-related problems at Baltimore’s first Education Hack Day. Imagine an app that automatically calls a parent when a student is marked as absent to let them know their child isn’t in school. Something like this could be built in a weekend and could help curb truancy.

In other words, it’s a gathering of some of Baltimore’s best and brightest designed to both solve problems and grow new businesses from the ground up. Which, yes, is awesome.

If you’re interested in learning more, here’s an article about Education Hack Day and its founders. If you’re interested in attending you can register here.