Durham on Caktus Group

Commuter Benefits and Encouraging Sustainable Commuting

Mon, 18 Sep 2017 13:30:00 +0000

Growth for Durham has meant a lot of great things for Caktus, from an expanding pool of tech talent to an increased interest in civic-minded tech solutions to shape the evolving community. This growth has also brought logistical challenges. Most recently, this meant providing adequate commuter support to our employees in a city whose transportation infrastructure is still nascent.

Calling all Cat Herders: New Meetup for Digital Project Managers

Mon, 24 Apr 2017 13:30:00 +0000

When I first became a digital project manager (DPM), I struggled to find relevant resources. A ton of information was available on traditional project management, but not much specifically on digital project management. Eventually, I connected with another DPM in my organization and we quickly became friends and confidants. She opened my eyes to the Digital PM Summit, a new conference targeted at DPMs, which was ultimately the inspiration for my new Meetup group.

Code for Durham: National Day of Civic Hacking Recap

Fri, 10 Jun 2016 12:00:00 +0000

Code for Durham recently participated in Code for America’s National Day of Civic Hacking. Hosted in the Caktus Group Tech Space, the event was attended by more than 50 local participants.

Code for Durham and a National Day of Civic Hacking

Thu, 02 Jun 2016 12:00:00 +0000

This Saturday, June 4th, Caktus Group will be hosting Code for Durham as they join Code for America’s National Day of Civic Hacking. The day is a chance for everyone from developers, to government employees, to residents who care about their city to come together and use their talents to help the community. Attendees will collaborate on civic tech projects to be used by citizens and government employees. These projects seek to provide data on or improve government processes, addressing issues like health care, affordable housing, criminal record access, police data, and more.

What We're Clicking - March Link Roundup

Tue, 05 Apr 2016 12:00:00 +0000

We’re starting a new, monthly series on the Caktus blog highlighting the articles and posts shared by Cakti that drew the most attention on Twitter. These roundups will include everything from Django how-tos to explorations of the tech industry, to innovations for social good.

Caktus Participates in Tree of Bikes at American Tobacco Campus

Thu, 17 Dec 2015 19:40:38 +0000

This year, our neighbors at American Tobacco Campus (ATC) hosted Durham’s first ever Tree of Bikes event to help collect and distribute new bikes to children in need in the local community. The tree is a 25-foot tall sculpture made entirely of new children’s bicycles donated by individuals and local businesses in the Triangle. The bikes are then distributed to children living in the Cornwallis Road affordable housing community managed by the Durham Housing Authority.

Caktus CTO Colin Copeland Helps Launch Open Data Policing Website

Thu, 17 Dec 2015 13:50:11 +0000

Today, at Caktus headquarters, CTO and co-founder of Caktus Colin Copeland will stand at a press conference along with activists, police representatives, and elected officials to announce the launch of OpenDataPolicingNC.com. The first site of its kind, OpenDataPolicingNC.com draws on public records to publish up-to-date stop, search, and use-of-force data—broken down by race and ethnicity—for every police department and officer in the state of North Carolina. The volunteer effort, led by The Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) and technical leadership by Colin, includes approximately 20 million anonymized data points from 15 years of NC traffic stop data.

Identifying Racial Bias in Policing with a Data-driven App

Fri, 16 Oct 2015 21:16:16 +0000

Recently, Caktus co-founder Colin Copeland spoke about the creation of a web app that analyzes North Carolina traffic stop data to identify racial bias during the Code for America 2015 Summit. The website allows both police departments and community members to visualize a dataset of more than 18 million stops statewide. Colin spoke with Ian Mance, the originator of the app idea and staff attorney with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. Together with fellow community members, Andy Shapiro and Dylan Young, they used Django, an open source web framework, to make policing data more accessible.

Colin Copeland to Speak on Police Data and Racial Bias at Code for America Summit

Tue, 29 Sep 2015 17:33:09 +0000

This Thursday, Colin Copeland, CTO and Caktus Group Co-founder, will be co-presenting “Case Study from North Carolina: Identifying Racial Bias in Policing Practices” during the prestigious 2015 Code for America Summit in Oakland, CA. This invite-only event joins technologists, activists, and officials ranging from mayors to White House officials to discuss technology’s role in civic participation.

Composting at Caktus

Wed, 19 Aug 2015 12:00:00 +0000

At Caktus we have an employee suggestion policy that has been the birthplace of tons of great ideas, from tech community yoga to a pair programming station.

LAN Party at Caktus

Wed, 01 Jul 2015 13:00:00 +0000

This past weekend, our wonderful Technology Support Specialist Scott Morningstar hosted a Local Area Network (LAN) party at Caktus HQ. Held twice a year since 2008, the event allows geeks, gamers, and retro technology lovers to relive the nostalgia of multiplayer gaming in the early days of dial-up internet. In other words, everyone brings their own computer, and uses the LAN to play online games in the company of others. These parties are a lot of fun and add a more personal social element to the online gaming community.

Epic Allies Featured at mHealth at Duke 2015 Conference

Fri, 19 Jun 2015 12:00:00 +0000

At this year’s mHealth at Duke 2015 Conference, Dr. Lisa Hightow-Weidman discussed her current mHealth projects for HIV prevention. Chief among these projects is her work with Caktus Group on Epic Allies, a mobile gaming app that utilizes social media and mini-games to increase adherence to prescribed medication amongst HIV-positive men who have sex with men (MSM).

Tech Community Yoga Now Offered at Caktus

Fri, 05 Jun 2015 18:22:40 +0000

The Caktus office is now home to a weekly yoga class for the tech community of Durham. Via our employee suggestion box, Lead Designer Ross Pike recommended a Caktus yoga class. Through team effort that suggestion will come to fruition next week. Starting Thursday, June 11th, we will be offering a yoga class taught by professional instructor Christina Conley. The class will be open to the public at large and will be held in our community meeting space at our offices in downtown Durham.

Durham Women in Tech (D-WiT) Starts Strong

Thu, 28 May 2015 14:55:27 +0000

This past Tuesday we held our very first gathering for the new Durham Women in Tech (D-WiT) Meetup group. There was a huge turnout and a lot of enthusiasm for the community we’re seeking to support and build. It was particularly wonderful to see our recently opened Astro Code School space full of people.

Announcing the New Durham Women in Tech (DWiT) Meetup

Tue, 19 May 2015 18:18:30 +0000

We’re pleased to officially announce the launch of a new meetup: Durham Women in Tech (DWiT). Through group discussions, lectures, panels, and social gatherings, we hope to provide a safe space for women in small and medium-sized Durham tech firms to share challenges, ideas, and solutions. We especially want to support women on the business side in roles such as operations, marketing, business development, finance, and project management.

AIGA Durham Studio Tour Recap

Wed, 29 Apr 2015 12:00:00 +0000

This was the first year Caktus Group participated in the AIGA studio tour and the turnout was amazing. From 5:30 PM till the 9:00 PM close, we had visitors ranging from students to tenured professionals in the design and web development fields sharing stories and touring the newly renovated Caktus Group office. Members from the Caktus design, development, and management teams were present to field questions, give tours, and show select works from the past year.

Epic Allies Team Members to Speak at Innovate your Cool

Thu, 16 Apr 2015 14:10:43 +0000

The Art of Cool festival is a staple of spring happenings in the Triangle. A three-day festival to present, promote, and preserve jazz and jazz-influenced music, The Art of Cool always promises to be a great time for those interested in music, art, and delicious food from Durham’s many food trucks. But what does music have to do with programming and app development? This year, Caktus Group is helping to sponsor a new portion of the festival called Innovate Your Cool. Innovate Your Cool celebrates the power of cool ideas, advancing innovative thinking by bringing together intelligent people with radically new ideas.

Caktus is Durham Living Wage Certified

Tue, 10 Mar 2015 12:00:00 +0000

Caktus Group recently became a Durham Living Wage Certified Employer! The Durham Living Wage Certification Programis a project of the Durham People’s Alliance. The group asks that local businesses voluntarily certify themselves as living wage employers in order to identify, acknowledge, and celebrate those businesses. A living wage is the amount of income needed for an individual to meet her or his basic needs without public or private assistance. Caktus is proud to be a part of efforts to build a just and sustainable local economy.

Triangle Open Data Day and Code Across

Tue, 17 Feb 2015 14:56:22 +0000

International Open Data Day is this weekend, February 21st and 22nd. As part of the festivities, Code for America is hosting its 4th annual CodeAcross. The event aims to unite developers across the country for a day of civic coding, creating tools that make government services simple, effective, easy to use. Put simply, “the goal of CodeAcross is to activate the Code for America network and inspire residents everywhere to get actively involved in their community.”

Announcing Durham TriPython Project Nights @ Caktus Group

Mon, 19 Jan 2015 15:05:02 +0000

We’re happy to announce that TriPython will be hosting their project nights at our new offices in Durham. This means now there’s a TriPython project night every single week, in every major Triangle city every month, on most weekdays. It’s great to see that the Triangle Python community has gotten so large.

Caleb Smith to Guest Lecture at Iron Yard Academy

Wed, 06 Aug 2014 20:24:48 +0000

Caleb Smith, a developer at Caktus, will be guest lecturing tomorrow to the inaugral class at the Iron Yard in Durham. Iron Yard is a code school that trains its students in modern programming practices and prepares them for immediate hiring upon graduation. Tobias, our CEO, is on the school’s employer advisory board. Caleb will be speaking on his experience as a Python developer. As an exclusive Python shop, we here at Caktus naturally think it’s the best language for new students–28 of the top 30 universities agree.

Caktus + Durham Bulls Game!

Mon, 30 Jun 2014 10:00:00 +0000

Is there a better way to celebrate the first day of summer than a baseball game? To ring in summer, the Caktus team and their families attended a Durham Bulls game. It was a great chance to hang out in our new city before relocating later this fall.

Caktus Just Bought a Building in Downtown Durham!

Wed, 26 Mar 2014 15:00:04 +0000

After sustained growth that has us packed in six suites, we have spent the past year and a half seeking new space. We’ve found it! I’m pleased to announce that Caktus has bought a historic 1910 building with nearly 11,000 square feet of space in Downtown Durham. We’ll be right near five points at 108 Morris St. The new building will be completely renovated from top to bottom to create an open workspace that’ll make it even easier for us to collaborate and share ideas.

Herald Sun: Carrboro Tech Firm Plans Move to Downtown Durham

Tue, 25 Mar 2014 21:05:25 +0000

The Herald Sun covered Caktus’ planned move to a historic building in Downtown Durham.

Triangle Business Journal: Carrboro Tech Company Moving to Downtown Durham

Tue, 25 Mar 2014 21:03:31 +0000

Triangle Business Journal covered Caktus’ purchase of downtown Durham building.