Session 003

Build night

Build night22·10·26Provisional

Thursday, 22 October 2026

A citizen help desk, built by the whole room in a single night.

BARRACA and SOTI bring around fifty builders from both houses together for an evening of open laptops, pizza and beer, to build something useful for anyone who has ever had to deal with paperwork.

The brief is a single citizen help platform. Each team builds one of its tools, and together they take on the usual friction with public administration: benefits nobody finds, letters nobody understands, fake websites and procedures you don't know where to start.

No prize and no jury. The night goes well if the platform works at the end of it.

This session is still being put together: the line-up and the details can still change.

Apply on LumaGuest list only. You're in if you're building.

What we expect

Build, don't network

Laptops open until something runs.

Cooperative, no prize

One shared goal: every team builds one tool, and every tool ends up on the same platform.

Teams of 3 to 5

Better if you bring a team; if not, we'll help you form one before the day. Up to two teams per track. Teams close on Sunday 18 October, and on Monday 19 each one gets its track.

Tools that do things

For the citizen, rather than just answering. Every answer links to the official source it comes from, and nothing uses real personal data: it's simulated.

A demo that runs

At the end of the night every team shows its tool in two or three minutes. Everything stays open, under the MIT licence, for anyone who wants to use it, public administration included.

Line-up

01
Derechos
Benefits finder
Tells you which public benefits you're entitled to, national, regional and local, and where to apply for them. Today they're spread across administrations and nobody tells you which ones you qualify for.
02
Claridad
Document translator
Hand it the PDF or the official letter of the day and it puts it into plain language, with a checklist of what you have to do and by when. It keeps nothing.
03
Sello
Website and message checker
Checks whether a website, a text message or a notice is really official and, if it isn't, points you to the real one. Anti-phishing against the scams that impersonate the DGT or the tax office.
04
Brújula
Paperwork assistant
Tell it your problem in your own words and it tells you which procedure it is, the steps and the direct link to the official portal. The need is human, "I've been let go", "I'm registering my address", and the portal speaks in org charts.
05
¿Cómo voto?
Guide to the 2026 general election
Everything you need to vote on 29 November, from official sources: postal voting, the deadlines, the parties' official manifestos and what the D'Hondt method, a spoiled ballot and abstention mean. Plus a checker that holds hoaxes about how voting works up against the official source.
06
Libre
Bring your own
One more tool for the platform, with a well-defined problem and solution. A single team, first come, first served.
Open

Hour by hour

17:00–17:30
Check-in: badge, wifi and your laptop ready.
17:30–18:15
Welcome, the rules and the tracks.
18:15–18:30
Team swaps: only to fill the gaps left by no-shows.
18:30–22:00
Build. A halfway check around 20:15, and some dinner around 20:30.
22:00–22:40
Every team plugs its tool into the platform and shows it in two or three minutes.
22:40–23:00
Close.