Czech Republic is still shaking off 45 years of communism. Time when politicians dictated people what to think and how to behave. And every disobedience was punished. Therefore after the revolution people were still afraid to speak up their mind even decades after revolution. And such practice was challenged and changed. When Ministry of Transportation made a contract to build an e-commerce platform (for selling highway vignettes) worth 16 000 000 EUR without an open bid, the anticorruption group Znamkamarada organized a hackathon the whole country was watching and politicians had to react to.

Politicians in the Czech Republic got used to think that they can get away with almost everything. The last drop on the list of corruption scandals was an overpriced e-shop for a highway vignettes. The contract for Asseco group to build an e-commerce platform (for selling highway vignettes) was worth 16 000 000 EUR without an open bid. This extremely overpriced contract got attention to anticorruption group called Znamkamarada who made an open call and organized anticorruption hackathon. They invited programmers from whole country to build the e-commerce platform in 48h and for free, in order to show how ridiculous the overpriced contract is.

The creative idea was to fight the corrupted system very straightforward and very public and visible way. We could not stand up to the government as individuals, but as a legitimate representatives of public. We organized Anticorruption Hackathon and made an open call to IT specialists from whole country. They could join and create the platform for free during 48 hours. 194 coders came to make this happen. Whole country was watching and government had to react.

Tomas Vondracek (representing Znamkamarada group) made a call to action via LinkedIn post as a reaction to overpriced contract. He made an open call for volunteers from IT and announced to build together a solution to show that 16 000 000 EUR is ridiculously overpriced.

LinkedIn is a perfect place to attract relevant people.

His post got attention to thousands of people from the IT field, and moreover attracted the media and attention of Prime Minister who called for a meeting. Politicians in the Czech Republic never talked to ordinary people before, talking into consideration their opinions.

Znamkamarada who made an open call and organized anticorruption hackathon. They invited programmers from whole country to build the e-commerce platform in 48h and for free, in order to show how ridiculous the overpriced contract is. 194 volunteers across the country grouped together and worked around the clock. The Prime minister asked for a meeting and the political opposition wanted to be present too. Therefore they attracted all mass media who wanted to cover the hackathon story. For couple of days the hackathon was a hot news topic on prime time.

Prime minister called for meeting.

The overpriced contract was cancelled.

Minister of Transportation was fired.

New law for It contracts was created.

Similar activities from another groups challenging other issues followed.

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